5781 Torat Rochelle Zell

Rosh HaShanah 5781

‫ראש השנה‬ ‫תשפ׳׳א‬

‫תורת‬ ‫רושל זל‬ Student Divrei Torah from the 5780 School Year

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Contents • We All Stood Together, Koby Rosen.................................3 • We Have Learned to Value the Question, Dina Barrish................................4 • Lo Lefached, Do Not Be Afraid, Elitsa Sklar...................................6 • From Caterpillar to Butterfly, Abigail Becker...........................8 • Dignity through Words Joseph Hunt............................ 10 • Miriam’s Leadership, Ma’ayan Noy........................... 12 • The Joy of Tefillah, Ari Rosen.................................. 14 • A Benevolent God? Max Lava.................................. 15 • Chesed in the Musical Mean Girls, Amitai Vales............................. 16 • Israel and Me, Arielle Bledsoe....................... 18 • Giving Voice to Women, in the Bible and Today Naomi Scholder..................... 20 • Finding Truth in Torah, Uma Lynch............................... 21 • How Doubt is a Complement to Faith Lucy Rowe............................... 22 • On Spirituality Talia Schoenberg................... 23 • Discovering Faith During Elul, Sean Dreifuss.......................... 24 • Developing my Faith in God Maytal Meisler........................ 26 • Bird Tracks in the Sand Rabbi Zachary Silver.............30 2

As we approach 5781, we continue to journey through the wilderness.

We yearn to make it to the Promised Land, a location of health and prosperity, of normalcy, where we can worship and live in community as we have in the past.

Amidst these new challenges, our school community has grasped even more the timeless wisdom that our texts offer, the power of convenantal community that binds us together. The divrei Torah in this collection come from the many times that students delivered words of Torah to the school community. Friday morning Tefillah is one of the highlights of our time at school, the opportunity for the entire school community, including students, parent guests, and faculty to join together for a shared purpose, of prayer, sharing Torah, and building a community of purpose. As you will see in this collection, students regularly reflect on their admiration toward upperclassmen, when they themselves were newcomers to the school. As seniors, they in turn see it as their mission to be the exemplars of the school community.

The divrei Torah in this collection span the entire year, with one piece coming from last year. What is perhaps most remarkable about the scope of these reflections is seeing how similar the thoughts were before the Coronavirus as they were after it. While students clearly speak to a different reality in the post-Covid 19 world, the questions that they ask about God, faith, community, about living as Jews and Americans are largely the same across the two very different realities of our school year.

The strength of education is in asking great questions. Only sometimes do we come up with answers. These questions give students the tools to navigate the world even amidst unprecedented uncertainty.

And with these big ideas, these divrei Torah also speak to how we can and should respond during this time. What has also been particularly powerful has been how our students have seen this traumatic period as a mandate to reach beyond themselves. As Rabbi Yitz Greenberg states, “The fundamental, ongoing communication of human value takes place when one person spends a piece of his or her life — some unique and irreplaceable amount of time — in relationship and service to the other” (“Personal Service: A Central Jewish Norm for Our Time”).

This service has both been within the school and outside of it. Through building covenantal community, students elevate others, and in doing so, themselves, as well. This is Torat Rochelle Zell, the Torah of Rochelle.

Our Torah is deeply empathic and vulnerable, making individual and communal connections. Our learning provides language to explore the ineffable. This Torah is more important than ever.

This year, of all years, we encourage you to print out this document and read it during the High Holidays. During this chagim season that will look quite different than others any of us have experienced, these student reflections are sure to provide meaning to your holidays.

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

We All Stood Together Koby Rosen, RZJHS 2020

Koby delivered these words during the graduation ceremony.

We All Stood Together. Past tense. That is what we are facing right now as we metamorphose beyond Rochelle Zell Jewish High School. If we were not a close grade this transition would be easy. We would just turn around and wave and smile and venture down our paths without ever looking back. But that is not us.

I like to consider the class of 2020 a presence.

A storm in the desert. Bold, awesome, impossible, miraculous. We led the school in Tefillah, academics, clubs, athletics, (mathletics), spirit, culture, camaraderie, community. We embody imitatio dei, the virtue of imitating G-d as we spoke in creation. In our four years we transformed the school.

Sophie Himmelfarb, RZJHS 2020

We have reinstalled trust in the student body. We have fostered a tribe where we are proud of one another’s in his book The Lonely Man of Faith about two archeaccomplishments; we are hurt by one another’s pain. typal human beings: Adam 1 and Adam 2. Adam 1 is When we call out for one another, we are always there. the storm. On top of the mountain, making everyone Hinenu, here we are. tremble. Adam 2 is silence. The impossible love when nothing is said. Just heartbeats.

Here we are today. A future we have seen time and again but never thought would arrive. Not for us, not for the Shakespeare wrote in heartbeats; intellectuals classify storm. But we are ready. it as iambic pentameter. Hebrew speaks in heartbeats (halmut halev). Everyone knows that feelings, emotions, When we, the Israelites, B’nai Yisrael, prepared to acthe soul, do not reside in the heart. So what is so special cept the Torah at Sinai, “there was thunder and lightabout a heartbeat? Everyone has one. ning up on the mountain”. We are thunder, our booming charisma reverberating throughout the school. We A heartbeat is special because it is common, it is shared. It are lightning bolts, illuminating inspirations destined to is not what makes us human, but it reminds us we are all touch down and inscribe our names in the Earth. human. We served as speakers to that heartbeat. We were relatable, we made underclassmen laugh, we gave peoThe Israelites accepted the Torah. Then the storm was ple rides, we coached them, we tutored them, we helped gone. The Torah was still there. them, we encouraged them, we sacrificed for them.

We, the class of 2020, my friends, my mishpucha, we are We brought ourselves down, dissipated the lightning more than a storm. and the thunder, to be with them. A heartbeat means you are alive.

This year we learned from Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik See Rosen, page 29 3

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Art by Hannah Houston, RZJHS 2020

We Have Learned to Value the Question Dina Barrish, RZJHS 2020 Dina delivered these words during the graduation ceremony.

subjectivity of truth — examined Unknowns that transcend basic true or false. Most significantly, we have learned how to ask, and we have learned to value the “True or false,” you pose, a most familiar quiz format. question.

But wait. My Rochelle Zell Jewish High School trained mind spirals. Capital T or lowercase t truth? Does false- In her poem, “We All Stood Together,” Merle Feld dehood imply immorality? Is that immorality to be as- scribes cherishing the unanswerable amidst moments of sumed as the nature of man? And Mr. Griffith, Rabbi clarity. She dramatizes revelation at Sinai as if she herBelgrad, and Dr. Schorsch, will this be on the test? self stands at the foot of the mountain, holding a baby as her brother takes notes. But eventually, writes Feld, “As Throughout my four years at RZJHS, along with my time passes, The particulars,’ The hard data,/ The who peers, I have learned to analyze, collaborate, juxtapose, what when where why,/ Slip away from me,/ And all I’m discuss, and articulate. I have applied Ms. Murphy’s psy- left with is/ The feeling.” chology concepts to Hamlet’s psyche. I have studied the influence of Spanish poet Jorge Luis Borge on rabinnic Feld contrasts the inevitability of forgetting detail with scholar Martin Buber. the permanence of emotion, of feeling. To feel is not to memorize or document or rationalize, but to let hapClass of 2020, each one of us understands the notion pen — logic aside. The very essence of our own emotion of infinity through Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsy’s lens arrives, to us, raw, unsolved, and often unjustifiable: an of ein sof, an infinite God, through standing together unknown. “Who what when where why” slips away as atop vast, seemingly infinite sand dunes in Israel, and, the answer to an objective report on the experience. quite literally, through calculus or pre-calculus classes.

But beyond these specifics, we have grappled with the See Barrish, next page 4

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Barrish, continued from previous page But when we repunctuate, restoring these five words to their fundamental grammatical purpose, we create questions. And questions, like feelings, as Feld implies, far outlast situational particulars.

Class of 2020: we have certainly explored our share of lasting questions, from the profound to the mundane to the grievous. What is the significance of the language in Breishit? Why won’t tour guide Josh stop talking? And how can we sustain the power of the RZJHS graduation ceremony over Zoom?

We are in good company with all this questioning, as Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik asserts in The Lonely Man of Faith, “Knowledge in general and self-knowledge in particular are gained from formulating logical, even though unanswerable, questions.” Soloveitchik identifies not concrete resolutions, but unexplainable queries as the vehicle for knowledge, and Feld reminds us that definitive, hard data dissipates with the passage of time.

It is the feeling of wonder —the capacity to inquire — that endures within us. We are not afraid to brave the undiscovered, the unfamiliar, the unknown.

And so, my fellow seniors, we stand today at the brink of ultimate unknowns. We did it.

We have reached the end of our years at RZJHS, and we have emerged stronger from each accomplishment, We All Stood Together, by Merle Feld challenge, and opportunity.

We have left our legacy and My brother and I were at Sinai made this school our familHe kept a journal iar. But beginning now, all is unfamiliar. All is yet undisof what he saw covered. of what he heard

of what it all meant to him

I wish I had such a record of what happened to me there It seems like every time I want to write I can’t I’m always holding a baby one of my own or one for a friend always holding a baby so my hands are never free to write things down And then As time passes The particulars The hard data The who what when where why Slip away from me And all I’m left with is The feeling But feelings are just sounds The vowel barking of a mute My brother is so sure of what he heard After all he’s got a record of it Consonant after consonant after consonant If we remembered it together We could recreate holy time Sparks flying

As we venture into both the collective unknown of the state of the world amidst Coronavirus and the individual unknowns of our futures, we must treasure our ability to question.

Though we may not know who, what, when, where, or why, we will access the comfort with asking — the tendency to wonder—that we honed at RZJHS: the fearless curiosity that never slips away.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, global uncertainty, I have no doubt that each and every one of you, class of 2020, will rise to success and lead by example for everyone you encounter.

Beyond the pressure-filled, grade obsessed, almost humorous “will this be on the test?”, our mastery of questioning, ignited by the light of the RZJHS community, will send us blazing forward.

The sheer force of inquiry equips us to conquer all unknowns. To my classmates, travel buddies, role models, fellow graduates, and friends, good luck, and never stop questioning.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Lo Lefached, Do Not Be Afraid Elitsa Sklar, RZJHS 2020

Elitsa delivered these words during the siyum ceremony.

in turn, transform me.

From our first Tefillah freshman year, to bus rides beWhen I was in Israel for my older fore cross country meets, to Shabbatons and ultimately, brother’s bar mitzvah, my family stayed our senior Israel experience, this song, kol haolam kulo, on a kibbutz in the Golan heights less than a mile away is an RZJHS favorite, and today, as we conclude our Rofrom the border with Syria. After Shabbat dinner, my chelle Zell journey, I would like to delve into the words siblings and I playfully explored the bomb shelters be- and deep meaning of Rabbi Nachman’s poetic verse in fore joining the adults outside to eat cholent on a beau- relation to the upcoming Jewish holiday of Shavuot and tiful, star-filled night. Suddenly, we heard explosions in our current reality. the background, chemical weapon bombings from Assad’s regime in Syria. Panicked, people ran towards the Shavuot celebrates the receiving of the Torah and the rebomb shelter. Tears began strolling down my face, and lationship between the Jewish people and G-d. In Exothe fear of the unknown overcame me. I was trembling dus: 19:17: it says, ”Vayotze Moshe et ha’am likrat haElowith fear. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and him min hamachane; vayityatzvu b’tachtit hahar. Moshe this Israeli man, our neighbor for the next week on the led the people out of the camp toward G-d, and they kibbutz, began quietly singing a familiar song by Rabbi took their places b’tachtit hahar, which in the context is Nachman of Breslov. best translated as at the foot of the mountain. However, midrashicly it is understood as the Israelites were physiThe lyrics go as follows: kol haolam kulo gesher tzar cally under the mountain, tachat hahar. meod v’haikar lo lefached klal. The whole entire world is a very narrow bridge. V’haikar lo lefached klal. And the In a well-known rabbinic midrash commenting on the most essential thing is not to fear at all. word b’tachtit hahar, Rabbi Avdimi bar Chama bar Chasa said that G-d “overturned the mountain above All of the kibbutz members began joining in, adding the Jews like a cast, and said to them: If you accept the their voices one by one to create a communal song. And Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial” a sense of calm enveloped me. The community and to- (Shabbat 88a). Such imagery seems extremely threatengetherness on that night while singing this song made ing and violent, instilling immense fear. The act of reme realize that I was on this metaphoric narrow bridge, ceiving the Torah itself is terrifying; am Israel love G-d a quintessential liminal space. Amidst the fear of the but simultaneously fear G-d. In Sefer Devarim, G-d’s unknown, I felt a strange but welcoming calmness, that voice is described as coming out of “haesh hagedolah even in the most difficult situations, I felt G-d’s protec- hazot: a fearsome fire” and the Israelites fear that if they tive presence surround me; I felt thousands of years of hear another word of G-d they will die. G-d wants Benei Jewish tradition. I felt Jews all around the world advis- Yisrael “l’yirah oti,” to revere me. But they are fearful, so ing me not to fear.

Moshe hears the word of G-d and relays it to Am Yisrael.

When I first came to Rochelle Zell, I observed the then-senior class begin Tefillah by singing these exact words I heard in Israel years before: lo lefached, don’t be scared. Coming in not knowing others, I was intimidated by the workload and the new teachers and a new, unfamiliar environment. After the experience of singing Rabbi Nachman’s song together with all of RZJHS, I knew immediately that the high school I chose would be much more than a mere brick and mortar education; high school would transform into a second home that would, 6

The imagery of G-d holding up Har Sinai over Benei Yisrael’s heads has a dual and seemingly contradictory meaning; it is also interpreted as an act filled with love and joy. The Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael, a halachic midrash on the book of Shemot, connects the quotation from Shemot of being under the mountain to a verse from Shir Hashirim, Song of Songs, a book in the Tanach whose theme is all about love, classically understood as the love between the Jewish people and G-d.

See Sklar, next page

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Sklar, from previous page Through this loving lens, tachtit hahar is imagined as G-d draping the mountain over Benei Yisrael, as a chuppah, a marriage canopy. Shavuot symbolizes the covenantal marriage between Am Yisrael and Hashem.

Shavuot teaches us that there are times in which we fear G-d, but we shall also love G-d and be loved by G-d.

At Har Sinai, we did not let fear stop us from cultivating a relationship with the Unknown. Rather, Benei Yisrael emerged beyond the fear and into a chupah of love, a lifelong relationship with the Transcendent.

not let ourselves become overcome by fear. Lo lefached.

We have been part of a transformative community. This community of scholars and Jewish thinkers emerging from our education that has pushed us to solve challenging calculus problems in addition to searching for personal and universal truths will never leave us. The life lessons we learn from studying James Joyce’s Evelyn and her struggle between the past and unknown future and Rav Soloveitchik’s Adam I and Adam II depicting an ideal modern man will never leave us.

At Har Sinai, we did not let fear stop us from cultivating a relationship with the Unknown.

Rather, Benei Yisrael emerged beyond the fear and into a chupah of love, a lifelong relationship with the Transcendent... Benei Yisrael did not allow themselves to crumble from angst and never receive the Torah; Benei Yisrael leaned on their leaders and peers to assist them, turning to Moshe to listen to the words of G-d and convey it to the people.

The kindness we have learned from our teachers as they bring us into their rooms for a little life coaching session or as they come and support our athletic endeavors will never leave us. And the kindness we have learned from one another when students join together to dance in joyous times during Tefillah and all come together during more difficult times to support those suffering, this will never leave us.

By pushing beyond the fear and leaping into the love of what it means to be b’tachtit hahar, wrapped by the mountain now felt as G-d’s loving wedding canopy, we are able to experience this transformative Jewish community. Benei Yisrael did not allow themselves to crumble from angst and never receive the Torah; Benei Yisrael leaned on their leaders and peers to As much as it is terrifying, truly terrifying, to leave our assist them, turning to Moshe to listen to the words of safe space of Rochelle Zell and venture into the world at G-d and convey it to the people. large, we are ready. We embrace the knowledge that we have learned lessons these past four years about regainThroughout the past four years, we have created a beau- ing strength from considering Yaakov’s wrestling with tiful environment at Rochelle Zell because we have the angel, lessons of not wronging the stranger ki gerleaned on one another, striving beyond the fear, inter- im heyitem be’eretz mitzvrayim, and lessons to respect nalizing the words lo lefached, and leaping into a chu- minority communities as we learned about America’s pa of love. The Torah’s message of love on Shavuot and complex history in AP US History. the song kol haolam kulo embodies the RZJHS experience of late-night conversations and zemirot (songs) We keep walking, putting one foot in front of the othon Shabbatons and sports tournaments, deep conversa- er, even when life seems terrifying. When we are on that tions with the faculty, and knowing that students from narrow bridge and look down into the depths of the unall different grades are greeting us in the halls, checking known, we could fall, even fail. But we could also cross in whenever we’re feeling down. We learn to love, to the bridge, and fly. And in times of fear, be it now or the delve into new experiences, to walk the narrow bridge scary endeavors we will ultimately take on in our upcombecause we shall not fear. We are loved. ing future, we shall remember, to always keep going, to proceed beyond our fear and terror and advance into the As much as we are apart physically today, we are also loving canopy of transformative, Transcendental love of together, bound by our love and appreciation for the one another and love of Hashem.

Rochelle Zell community. We are scared, but we will 7

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

From Caterpillar to Butterfly Abigail Becker, RZJHS 2020

Abby delivered these words during the overwhelming, we always manage to seek out the joy. graduation ceremony.

Over time, I’ve realized what is most memorable to me: Just as the caterpillar thought its world it is how our class always finds a way to come together was ending, it turned into a butterfly. as one even though individually we are all unique. My And as we are all about to spread our wings and fly away mind drifts back to our time in Israel this past January. to new adventures, it’s important to look back at where A few nights into the trip, while we roamed around Kibwe’ve come from, what butz Ketura, I found myself we have accomplished, Our Beit Knesset represents our cocoon, a observing this environment and what beauty we will circular place bringing all of us together; it’s a in detail. bring to the rest of the nurturing and safe environment that has laid world moving forward.

The place: A soccer field the groundwork allowing us to evolve from the (pause) where we all gathcaterpillar into the butterfly. Though the space ered for a friendly but comI remember as a freshcan feel overwhelming, we always manage to petitive soccer game against man the first day I walked through the halls the residents of Ketura. The seek out the joy. of RZJHS wondering feeling: Unity (pause) as we how I would fit in, would all played a role in the game I be successful, and what whether that was playing on kind of person I would become over the next four years the field or cheering from the sidelines. of high school. Little did I know that March 12, 2020 would be my last day walking through the halls as a Fast forward to one of the last nights of our trip. After we senior. This unforeseen ending illuminates that even sang Havdalah on our final Shabbat in Israel, we had a under the worst of times, drum circle. Those who are the best of times at RoAll endings are confusing. This one musically talented helped chelle Zell forever inhabit guide the rest of us, but ulespecially is extremely baffling.

And that my mind and remain close timately we were all able to might not have sunk in yet... We will tell our drum to the same beat. to my heart.

children about this experience and they will

I cherish the safe space tell theirs. We were the babies born following I smile thinking about how we have at Rochelle Zell. I 9/11 and the high school seniors graduating much love and celebrahave witnessed classmates during the rise of Covid-19. Regardless of a tion we all manifested that open up and be vulnerable Saturday night. The why: worldwide pandemic, nobody will ever fail with the rest of our school because no matter how difto remember the class of 2020: a senior class ferent we all are, what we during Friday tefillah. Anwhose last year was historic and disrupted, share draws us together in a other significant part of RZJHS’s Friday celebration yet they remained a vibrant and resilient way that makes us not want honors guests, teachers, group of individuals who are collectively one to be anywhere else. and students, all people soul. who have helped us form As we moved through the our foundation on our second semester, we all felt journey. Our Beit Knesset things falling into place. represents our cocoon, a circular place bringing all of We came home from an unforgettable senior Israel exus together; it’s a nurturing and safe environment that perience ready to make the most of our final months as has laid the groundwork allowing us to evolve from the a class. caterpillar into the butterfly. Though the space can feel See Becker, next page 8

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Becker, from previous page We were able to experience finishing winter sports, going to New York for our final Model U.N. conference, filming our last Purim shpiel, and setting out to accomplish all that we wanted at RZJHS before leaving as graduates. But in mid-March, we were confronted with an unexpected change. We began e-learning from home, hoping it would be temporary, but we found out that this change would be permanent and in-school learning would be canceled for the remainder of the year. Our governor, JB Pritzker, simply summed up this new reality: “We are leaving our teenage years behind in a way that we would have never expected.”

Our senior year took an abrupt turn. Ironically, as much we all complained about homework and waking up early, we yearn for those mundane experiences these days. We have encountered an unforeseen lesson.

One thing I know now is that when we have learning opportunities in the future, we will not take them for granted. We will learn with passion, always asking questions and voicing conTalia Brody, RZJHS 2021 cerns; all things we were taught to do at Rochelle Zell. I think about how my own classmates will be on the front as one even though individually we are all unique. My line four or more years from now. They will be the lead- mind drifts back to our time in Israel this past January. ers. I know that all of our futures are bright, and to us, who have waited, great things will happen.

A few nights into the trip, while we roamed around Kibbutz Ketura, I found myself observing this environment All endings are confusing. This one especially is ex- in detail. The place: A soccer field where we all gathered tremely baffling. And that might not have sunk in yet. for a friendly but competitive soccer game against the But what I have registered is that nobody will ever for- residents of Ketura. get the year 2020. We will tell our children about this experience and they will tell theirs. We were the babies The feeling: Unity as we all played a role in the game born following 9/11 and the high school seniors gradu- whether that was playing on the field or cheering from ating during the rise of Covid-19. Regardless of a world- the sidelines. Fast forward to one of the last nights of wide pandemic, nobody will ever fail to remember the our trip. After we sang Havdalah on our final Shabbat class of 2020: a senior class whose last year was historic in Israel, we had a drum circle. and disrupted, yet they remained a vibrant and resilient group of individuals who are collectively one soul.

Those who are musically talented helped guide the rest of us, but ultimately we were all able to drum to the So as I leave RZJHS to embark on the next chapter of same beat. I smile thinking about how much love and my life and learning, I am left with the feeling that we, celebration we all manifested that Saturday night. The the Class of 2020, are and will always be unforgettable. why: because no matter how different we all are, what Over time, I’ve realized what is most memorable to me: we share draws us together in a way that makes us not it is how our class always finds a way to come together want to be anywhere else.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Dignity through Words Joseph Hunt, RZJHS 2021 Art by Hannah Houston, RZJHS 2020

Growing up, I was raised in an Orthodox community.

I went to an Orthodox school and an Orthodox synagogue. When I was in school and shuls, I never felt as though I really belonged. I always felt like the people around me were judging me because I didn’t pray like they did, I didn’t act like they did, and I didn’t think like they did. Sometimes, those thoughts became a reality.

People in my grade and community would tease me if I prayed in English, listened to girls singing, or had a different belief then they did.

One shabbat, I was sitting in a small room for the youth services at a synagogue that I have had negative experiences with in the past. I wasn’t in that big of a praying mood so I started spacing out. I felt pretty uncomfortable in there because there were some old classmates of mine from middle school who I have had negative experiences with in the past.

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After the Torah service, the head rabbi of the shul came into the room to talk to us. This rabbi has said some pretty upsetting things before, but I decided to listen in to what he had to say anyways.

He asked us a question, “What would you say if one of your friends said they wanted to get married?”

One person said that they would say “Mazal Tov.” Another said “congratulations.”

Overall people gave pretty positive responses.

Then he expanded on his question.

“What if your friend wanted to get married to someone of the same sex?”

See Hunt, next page

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Hunt, from previous page

The Rabbi said good Shabbos to us and then left. SecAfter I heard this question, I froze. I knew what was onds after he left, the chazzan went back up to the bimah coming and I was tempted to just leave the room right and started the Musaf service like nothing happened. then and there, but I stayed. The room was silent.

I felt so sick. I looked at my brother across the room.

Even though nobody was saying anything, it felt as if the He already started davening. I stood up and left. I went room was filled with sound. home. I have never been in that building since.

I felt the eyes of the classmates who constantly made fun We, as Jews, know what it’s like to be a minority. We of me for being gay when I was still praying that I wasn’t. know what it’s like to be the butt of a joke. We know what it feels like to see on the news that someone paintI felt the eyes of my brother who constantly brought ed hundreds of swastikas on gravestones at a Jewish up the question of if I had a girlfriend, even though he cemetery. We know what it’s like to learn about how a knew that I was questioning. lot of the world hated the Jews, so they would stereotype us in the media, call us offensive slurs, and represent Eventually, one person said that they would say, “G-d us in a way that doesn’t accurately depict who we really still loves you.” are. We’ve seen so much anti-Semitism in this world, especially in today’s time, that it literally makes no sense The Rabbi asked, “Would you say Mazel Tov?” why Jews are doing the exact same thing to LGBT people. Just like Jews are human, LGBT people are human.

At this point, I was so full of anger and frustration that I needed to leave the room so badly, but I didn’t.

This is not a question of politics. People with different beliefs, political views, and religions can still be friends I was so scared of leaving the room. I didn’t know what and have respect for each other. If you are about to use would happen if I did. Somehow, I managed to move a slur against an LGBT person, remember our history. my head up and down slightly in an attempt to say, “Yes, Remember how we were captured, enslaved, and killed I would say Mazel Tov.” I didn’t move my head enough because of our religion. It’s not fair for an LGBT person for the people around me to see, but enough for the rab- to have such a difficult time fitting into civilization bebi, who was standing right in front of me, would see. He cause of the way that they are. stared at me with a glare that made that moment feel like an eternity.

Please. Think before you speak. Because you never know how much you’re hurting someone with the words that I felt the eyes again. you are saying.

He looked up.

Try to understand what people are going through. You never know what stress someone is under. In most casThe next thing he said hurt. It made me feel worthless. es, people tend to hide the fact that they are stressed He said, “If you congratulate your friend who wants to and the reason for it. Trying to figure out who you are get married to someone of the same sex, it is equal to if is a very stressful and complicated experience for some you yourself killed someone.” people. It’s important for them to feel like they are being supported by the people around them.

Absolutely worthless.If congratulating someone for having a same-sex marriage is as if you just killed someone, Doing small things to make an LGBT person feel acwhat would happen to the one who is getting married? cepted, could have a much bigger impact than you I. Felt. Worthless. might think.

!‫שנה טובה ומטוקה‬

Wishing You a Joyous, Healthy, and Sweet New Year!

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Miriam’s Leadership

Model Ma’ayan Noy, RZJHS 2020

Now that Purim is over, the next major holiday to look forward to is Pesach; a celebration of the deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery.

A story of bondage to freedom. The essential mitzvah of Pesach is that b’chol dor vador chayav adam lirot et atzmo keilu hu yatza mimitzrayim — in every generation a person must view themself as if he exited Egypt.

As a Jew who is invested in intersectional feminism, a form of feminism that aims to include all women and recognize that race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, and class all influence how much and in what ways people are oppressed, I can’t help but view this quote from the perspective of marginalized people striving for equality throughout the generations.

The message of remembrance urges us to think about the dichotomy of surviving hardship countless times, and rejoicing in our freedom,

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while still actively overcoming oppression and reaching for the promised land. The commandment reminds us of how far we have come in our struggle towards equality, while also looking ahead at all that is left to accomplish in our modern world.

Last year in Bible, while studying the Genesis narrative, we read Dr. Judy Klitsner’s interpretation of The Garden of Eden, entitled, “The Three Faces of Woman.” She describes woman’s narrative of the struggle to regain equality. In Genesis One, man and woman are created with equal love in the eyes of God, and are equally addressed by God. In Genesis Two, God only addresses man, and woman is regarded as man’s “helper.”

Therefore, woman acts in defiance of her reduced status and eats from the fruit of knowledge in hopes of reclaiming her “Godlike” status.

See Noy, next page

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Noy, from previous page In chapter three of Genesis, woman and man are punished, and woman begins paving her way towards equality and balance by reestablishing her place alongside man.

Klitsner explains that this narrative serves as a model for man and woman “as they strive to rewrite woman’s story of exclusion and hierarchy back into one of equality, mutuality, and godliness” (Subversive Sequels in the Bible). Since the beginning of time, the very first generation, women have been making strides to fight for equality.

In the story of Passover, the Jewish people’s paradigmatic quest for equality, the people of Israel’s response to suffering is discouragement, as we see from Bnei Israel’s complaints about lack of food and water, and even wanting to turn back to their oppressors in Egypt! Yet, they continued on their long, difficult journey to freedom.

However, there’s another narrative that runs parallel to this contemplation, one that again features a female protagonist. At the same time, after the Israelites cross the sea, Miriam leads the women in song, celebrating their journey to freedom. She and the women play musical instruments, which means they must have brought them with them from Egypt. This is significant because Miriam must have known that she would want to celebrate the accomplishments of the people of Israel in the future.

Perhaps this is why we are commanded to think of ourselves as if we left Egypt. Bnei Yisrael continued on their difficult journey, and simultaneously united in song celebrating their freedom.

We are commanded to imagine ourselves with

the same mindset: simultaneously celebrating how far we have come, and yet mindful of the difficult journey ahead.

In our Modern Jewish Thought class, we have been reading Post-Holocaust Theology. Emil Fackenheim places the Holocaust in the timeline of our communal history; It is another event which places oppression in the timeline of Jewish history. Just as we say we were all slaves in Egypt, we were all prisoners at Auschwitz.

He introduces a 614th commandment, which describes the emergance from the Holocaust as unifying for the Jewish people. The 614th commandment asserts that we cannot grant Hitler a posthumous victory. In other words, we must emerge from the Holocaust itself, and the trauma that it caused for our people, rejoycing in our Judaism.

We must double-down on what is most important to us in Jewish life. And of course, we must never forget that part of our history. The concept of being unified through our struggle is so familiar to us as Jews.

So, when we are commanded to see ourselves as if we exited Egypt, what we really must do is look at our lives now: think about our own struggles and the struggles of those around us. We are commanded to simultaneously rejoice in how far we have come, and remember all that is left to accomplish.

We live in a world which at times can make our situation seem desperate — with antisemitism on the rise, many marginalized groups still struggling to maintain equality, and a global pandemic, we must look at our reality and take it seriously.

At the same time, I am picturing Miriam leading the women in song, celebrating the joys of life, and how far they have come. This is the image I wish to take with me into Pesach.

Art by Isabella Dickman, RZJHS 2021 13

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

The Joy of Tefillah

Ari Rosen, RZJHS 2020 Today would have been our last all school Friday Tefillah. We would have all been sitting in the Beit Knesset, probably a little more rowdy than usual. Our excitement would have filled the room.

Tefillah Friday morning has been one of the most vital parts of building my Jewish identity. Seeing the upperclassmen who I looked up to leading services, built an image for me of what great Jewish leadership looks like.

became easier.

My journey this year with my davening had reached a summit. I felt I had reached a milestone. I felt that I was truly able to lead services.

And then the journey just ended. It was over. Coronavirus shutdown everything, a common theme with almost everything in my life. Everything just ended.

I felt like I was playing centerfield chasing after a fly ball, running back, finally reaching a speed where I feel like Freshman year, Felix Rosen putting me on his shoul- I am just floating through the air,arely even feeling the ders during Hallel. Sammy Hoffman and Yoni Maltz- ground, but then without a warning track, BANG, the man ensured that Friday Tefillah never went on without wall. Only this time you can’t even recover and resume a leader. playing the game.

As a young freshman, I saw these seniors who I looked up to take such pride in Tefillah. It made me take pride in Tefillah.

And since the quarantine, I have found davening extremely difficult. The pride and passion I once felt are completely gone. Still, I try to daven once a day because what This pride I felt was not authentic I realized is, davening is not about pride though. It was merely their pride and passion. It is about pride rubbing off on me. It is like watching a scary mov- something bigger than me. ie. You feel the intensity of the movie, but the emotion is not your own. You are experiencing someone else go Davening is about being a part of a community. At a through a terrifying situation and their emotion is ex- minimum, ten people coming together. During the tended to yourself. You are not truly scared, just as I was Mincha zooms, I was transported back into a communot feeling true pride in Tefillah. nity. And during this time when I feel so far away from everyone, during those fifteen minutes, it’s like we are Finding that pride in davening takes years. And you back in the Beit Knesset. may find it one day and not another.

While I may be lacking the same intention that I once Between Schechter, Ramah, and RZJHS, I have basical- had, the structure of daily Tefillah connects me back to ly been davening every morning for the majority of my the community. life. Thousands of times I sat through Shacharit without finding any meaning. But that is normal.

So, I urge everyone, but specifically the senior class, to continue to practice your davening throughout the rest The beginning of this year, I began to find this pride of your life. Who knows when you will need that access in Tefillah. I began saying the Amidah every morning. to a community? Maybe you are studying abroad and At first, I struggled, but then over time it became easi- have not met anyone. Maybe, you just started graduate er. I began to lead services routinely. Again, I struggled. school. Maybe, you are just feeling lonely. But being able I was unfamiliar with the words and would stumble to daven gives you a no-questions-asked VIP flash pass through saying them out loud. to a community no matter what.

Being able to daven gives you a no-questions-asked VIP flash pass to a community no matter what.

Over time, as I said the words more and more, davening That is why we daven every morning.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

A Benevolent God?

Max Lava, RZJHS 2020

if He really was.

In my four years of attending RZJHS, I’ve often found myself struggling with the idea of having faith in God and goodness. For as many times that we were taught about God being good and benevolent, I found myself wondering

Often, looking through the Torah, I wondered how a God who seems so terribly apathetic at best and out right malicious at worst could be worshipped as a good and benevolent God. If we look out at all the suffering in the world, especially now with the spread of COVID-19, then the questions of whether or not God allows or enables suffering in the world, and if so, what we could have done to deserve this, become increasingly relevant questions to ask in these trying times.

I’m not the first person to be asking these kinds of questions, however. There have been questions and concerns raised about God and His relationship with suffering and goodness. These questions were first raised in the Book of Job, and have persisted ever since. These are the questions about why good people suffer, why evil exists, and what His relationship is to evil. While many have tried to answer these questions, I believe that good people suffer and evil exists for the same reason: we as human beings will it into existence.

In making this argument, I first need to demonstrate that human beings are responsible for evil which exists in the world. In Avodah Zarah 54b, it is written that “the world pursues its natural course, and as for the fools who act wrongly, they will have to render an account.” What the Rabbis mean is that because we have free will, God cannot control what we do. Our actions will yield consequences one day, as this is the nature of the world God created.

This latter point is exemplified in the Book of Job, especially when Job confronts God, and He replies with all of the things in the world which He controls, but most of what is listed are acts of nature, not of morality or human choice. Therefore, we can infer that while God controls the world so as to keep it spinning, what God does not do is control the choices that human beings

Aya Moller, RZJHS 2022

make, such as good and evil.

Second, I must address my claim that humans are responsible for these faults. In Harold Kushner’s book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Kushner introduces the idea that what it means to be human is to have free will. Kushner then uses this same line of thinking in order to explain why evil exists: because human beings have free will, we also have the choice between good and evil.

Building on this, Kushner also cites this as the reason for suffering, claiming, “Why, then, do bad things happen to good people? One reason is that our being human leaves us free to hurt each other, and God can’t stop us without taking away the freedom that makes us human.” This means that God is not responsible for evil being committed in the world by humans, because God gave human beings free will, and with our free will comes our ability to choose between good and evil.

Finally, I must address the question of God, and His relation to suffering and morality.

See Lava, page 32 15

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Chesed in the Musical Mean Girls Amitai Vales, RZJHS 2021

Art by Marc Luban, RZJHS 2020 No one wants to be hit by a bus. Well, that’s exactly what happens in the movie Mean Girls. A girl comes to a new high school and creates a huge mess out of things resulting with a girl getting hit by a bus. My point is not entirely about the bus, but the fact that the way you treat others has a huge impact on people and their future.

rience better by treating people with respect.

Well, in Cady’s desperation, she finds herself hurting the feelings of others, and ultimately hurting someone physically as a girl ends up getting hit by a bus. However, in Cady’s realization of her wrongdoing, she sings a song at the end of the Broadway musical called ‘I See Stars’, which acknowledges what she has learned through her mistakes. Over the course of the song, she helps others understand how they can make their high school expe-

None of what she saw was true because she was constantly being blinded by a false image of how people were supposed to be. Now, she explains that not even the brightest diamond could outshine any of them, conveying the idea that everyone holds a unique element about them that cannot be outshined by anything else. Later, Cady sings that “The darker the night, The brighter you shine.”

See Vales, next page

One of the main metaphors utilized in the song compares people to ‘stars’, highlighting the brightness and uniqueness within every single human being. The song begins as Cady says how everyone is “Cheap, fake, Easy to break” but follows that by stating how “Now I’m In the movie and in the musical Mean Girls, Cady Her- awake, I’ll tell you what I see, Plastic don’t shine, Glitter on attends a new high school and has trouble fitting in. don’t shine, Rhinestones don’t shine the way you do.”

This situation is probably easy for most of us to imagine, Cady starts by acknowledging how she used to see herso it is also probably easy to imagine, that in people’s self and others as imperfect and breakable, but counters desperation to fit in with kids at school, they find them- that by saying how she is now awake, suggesting that she was not seeing clearly before. selves doing things they wouldn’t normally do.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell Vales, from previous page

ery corner. Relating to these definitions, David Brooks writes in his essay “The Moral Bucket List” about how Cady reveals that it is in the worst of times that there is to become a better person and how to act in ways filled an opening for people to use their own unique strengths with understanding and compassion. to better the lives of those around them.

Brooks begins his essay and highlights the idea that Last semester in our Talmud class, we focused on the “Many of us are clearer on how to build an external importance of chesed, acting in the ways of God in or- career than on how to build inner character” (Brooks, der to have a positive impact on yourself and others. “The Moral Bucket List”). Brooks seems concerned with Similar to this song, various texts in Talmud talk about the idea that people are having trouble connecting with chesed and how to execute it in a correct manner. In one their inner selves. essay by Rabbi Shai Held, he states that to have chesed is “To serve as an earthly reflection of God’s own infinite These days, it is easier for people to feel more concompassion” (Shai Held, “Daring to Dream with God”). nected with the hobbies they do rather than the actual people they are and strive to be.

Rabbi Held is attempting to conThis concern connects directly to Chesed involves following after chesed, as David Brooks addressvey the idea that chesed involves God, holding onto the compassion es that in order to have chesed, following after God, holding onto the compassion God gives God gives you, and giving that someone must understand who you, and giving that compassion compassion to a fellow human... they are as a person so that they to a fellow human. Held suggests can go into the world and influOne of the main components of that one of the main compoence others with the understandchesed is following the example nents of chesed is following the ing that they have gained. of God, who, out of an act of pure example of God, who, out of an compassion, created humanity Now, from knowing the definiact of pure compassion, created humanity and the world around tion of chesed, it is clear that it and the world around us. us. Besides these definitions of plays a major role in the song ‘I chesed, a Talmudic text explains See Stars’. As shown before, the how much chesed a person should have within their song has a line saying “Now I’m awake, I’ll tell you what lives by using the term Gemilut Chasadim, meaning to I see, Plastic don’t shine, Glitter don’t shine, Rhinestones do acts of chesed. The Talmud suggests that the Torah’s don’t shine the way you do”. This quote seems directly “beginning is gemilut chasadim and its end is gemilut related to the definition of chesed and how the Talmud chasadim” (Sotah 14a). sees it as well. This quote points out everyone’s unique and special factor.

This quote suggests that acts of chesed can be found throughout the Torah, from the very beginning to the This part of the song connects to God’s compassion, for very end. Since the Torah can act as a guidebook for our Cady is seeing everyone in their own light and treatlives, one can also interpret this quote to suggest that ing people knowing that they were made in the image chesed should play out throughout the entire length of of God. At a later point in the song we find a lyric ensomeone’s life. From the time someone is born to the couraging everyone to bring themselves “Up in the sky, time they die, every moment should contain an essence Enjoy the view, You star!” This line seems to reflect the of chesed and relationship with God, because that is the way in which someone follows in God’s ways. People only way you can leave a positive impact on yourself should be metaphorically up in the sky so that they can and the people around you. see everyone as a unique being, similar to how God sees each of His individual creations. Following the ideas of Sitting next to someone when they are alone, listen- David Brooks, the song opens as Cady says she used to ing to someone when they need someone to talk to, or be concerned with physical, unimportant things, what even just saying hi to someone to brighten their day the Brooks calls “resume virtues.” slightest bit. Every act of chesed builds up and makes it easier for you to live a life filled with chesed around evSee Vales, page 32 17

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Israel and Me After our senior Israel trip, we were asked to write about our connection to Israel. In spirit of Yom Ha’atzmaut, I would like to share what Israel means to me.

My Israel is home. My connection to Israel goes beyond words. It is more of a feeling, a longing to be in Israel. I love the physical landscape. The ability to wander the desert, bargain in a crowded shuk, and inhale the lush greenery of seemingly endless forests in a few hours of each other leaves me in awe.

How can a country with so little land have so much to offer?

My love does not end with the physicality of the landscape. The ability to feel loved and cared for by strangers on the street is something nonexistent in other places. The ability to feel safer walking alone at night in Bat Yam than I do in Chicago draws me to return to Israel. The ability to see my faith become stronger and more clear with every visit amazes me.

The warmth of Israeli culture embraces me more than the cool nature of Americans.

In my recent preparation meeting for my IDF service, the question of feeling more Israeli than American was raised.

See Bledsoe, next page 18

Arielle Bledsoe, RZJHS 2020

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Bledsoe, from previous page Our Senior Israel Experience helped answer this question for me.

When I landed at Ben Gurion, I felt a pang of sadness in my chest. I knew that I would have to leave again in a mere two weeks. At the same time, my heart raced with excitement. I was home. At the end of our trip, I was sad again because I knew I had to return to a place I do not belong. Being raised in an Israeli house definitely shaped my personality and Israeli identity.

From the dirt on the ground of Kiryat Gat to the high rise buildings of Tel Aviv, the special feeling in my chest remained. Of course, there are many more beautiful places in the world. Places with more history and awe-inspiring developments. So I ask myself: Why do I only experience this feeling when I am in Israel?

There are two parts to answering this question. First, because it is in my blood. I was mainly raised by my mother and safta, both of which were born in Israel. My heritage is important to me, something that I have always been interested in learning more about. In my family, I am the first generation to not have been born in Israel. Most of my maternal family still lives in Israel, and I am very close to them. Following the trip, I explained to my mom that if she and my safta were from Spain, I would have a connection to Spain. A large percentage of my love for Israel is by coincidence. If my father was still married to my mom, I would likely be joining the U.S. Navy like the majority of my paternal family.

Second, I love Israel. The achievements made by Israelis leave me in awe.

How can a country do so much in only seventy-one years? When I studied at the Technion this past summer, I was left speechless by the high number of breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology. When I traveled with Diller Teen Fellows in the summer before junior year, I experienced the unity of people from all different backgrounds and countries in Israel. I also explored new places that I have never seen before.

The year before, in 2017, I competed in the Maccabiah games for karate.

I trained at an Israeli martial arts studio and saw first hand the amazing physical abilities and determination of Israeli athletes. During my first trip to Israel, I met over seventy members of my family who welcomed me with the most open arms I have ever encountered.

The fusion of culture, history, nature, and family is what defines my love and passion for the state of Israel. I know Israel has flaws. But these flaws add to its character. People often ask me why I am joining tzaha�l. My answer is both simple and unexplainable: I belong there.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Giving Voice to Women’s Experiences, in the Bible and the Present Day Naomi Scholder, RZJHS 2021 Growing up attending a Conservative day school and synagogue, I saw women’s inclusion in prayer as normal. My grandparents, on the other hand, belong to an Orthodox synagogue that my family and I would sometimes attend. When we would go for Shabbat or the holidays, I never thought to question why there was a mechitza, why women could not lead services or read Torah.

While as a child I would think about the divide between women and men’s participation in prayer, I have now come to understand that the distinction between men and women in our religion roots back to the beginning of Torah.

The change that has occurred from my grandparents’ generation to mine, both in Judaism and in every day life, shows how persistence can help to overturn the inequality described in Genesis 2 and restore our world to what once existed, when God simultaneously created male and female.

Genesis Chapter 1 tells the story of the creation of the first humans: Adam and Eve. Based on the grammatical strangeness of the Hebrew verse that describes the creation of humanity in Genesis 1, midrashim have imagined the first human created by God was an androgynous being, a creation with both male and female characteristics, that was then split into two distinct people, each with one gender: male and female. Genesis 1:27 reads “vayivra elohim et ha’adam b’tzalmo, b’tzelem elohim bara oto, zachar v’nekevah bara otam. God created humanity in God’s image; in the image of God, God created him.

Male and female he created them.”

This androgynous being is then split into Adam and Adam’s first wife, Lilith. As Torah scholar Judy Klitsner notes in her book Subversive Sequels in the Bible, originally man and woman were created equal in every way. “God directly commands and blesses both male and female of the species, addressing them equally in the plural”. However, in Genesis 2, God seems to start over. In His second creation of humans, man is created again and alone, with woman later emerging from his side. So, where did the first woman, created equal to man, go?

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The midrashim on Lilith come to explain the change from Genesis 1, with humans created equally and simultaneously, to Genesis 2, with man created before woman and subsequently woman created from man to be his helper. Judith Plaskow reworks this midrash as follows. Originally, God created man and his first wife Lilith to be equal, but she grew sick of Adam treating her as his servant, so she decides to leave him and the Garden of Eden.

Adam then complains to God that he has no companion and so God creates another wife for him, Eve. This time Eve is created from Adam’s side so that she will be subservient to him.

Though, at first, Adam and Eve’s relationship is good, Adam’s connection to God soon became greater than the one with his wife.

Moreover, Lilith, Adam’s first wife, continuously tries to re-enter the Garden, leading Adam to worry that she might influence Eve to reject her role as Adam’s helper. So, he tries to strengthen the Garden walls.

However, despite his best efforts, Lilith breaches the Garden walls and Eve, getting a glimpse of a powerful woman who looked similar to her, grows curious to discover who this creature is. Eve decides to climb over the Garden, obtaining “forbidden knowledge” as she converses with Lilith.

Through this midrashic story of Lilith, we can redefine the male-dominated narrative of Genesis 1-3. If we are to re-read the first three chapters with this lens, it provides a new role for women role in the Torah. Lilith reminds us that before Eve, men and women were supposed to be equal. But men were not comfortable with female equality. Moreover, Lilith helps us understand that Eve’s reaching for the tree of knowledge was reaching for knowledge that was deliberately banished from her: the knowledge of female equality.

See Scholder, page 28

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Finding Truth in Torah Uma Lynch, RZJHS 2021 First there was nothing and then there was something. We as humans are limited to this fact and look to the Torah for further understanding. At first glimpse, Genesis 1 and 2 sound like two completely different authors.

While Genesis 1 is a more macroscopic outline of God’s power and His creations, Genesis 2 focuses in on human action and responsibility.

our Earth.

Looking back at the creation story can remind us of our duty as human beings on this earth. One might argue that the Bible would grab our attention more had it started with the focus on humans. But in choosing not to do this, the text emphasizes that humans are only a small part of God’s creation.

Rashi notes this by commenting on how the creation These different perspectives bring up the following story comes before any of the mitzvot. He states: “For questions: What is the purpose of having both creation should the peoples of the world say to Israel, ‘You are narratives and what must we robbers, because you took by derive from them? Instead of force the lands of the seven focusing on how they conflict, God put us on this Earth to take care nations of Canaan’, Israel may we can find what each narrative of the world and its creatures. How- reply to them, ‘All the earth becontributes to our understandever, we as humans have focused on longs to the Holy One, blessed ing of creation. be He; He created it and gave it advancing technologies, economic to whom He pleased.’”

growth, and plastic Starbucks cups.

In Genesis 1, God creates light We have prioritized convenience The first creation narrative sets and darkness, the sea and the sky, creatures, along with all the over caretaking, regardless of how the stage for God’s omnipoother features of the earth. Lasttence. The outline is complete harmful this may be to our Earth. ly, He creates man in the image and now we look at the second of God in which He commands narrative for a more zoomed-in humanity to “rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the perspective of the creation of man and woman. Before sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping the world was created, there was only chaos. God atthings that creep on earth” (Genesis 1:26). Unfortunate- tained order through creation. However, from a literary ly, God’s idea of ruling over the Earth has been greatly perspective, Genesis 2 acts as a sort of interruption to misinterpreted. The world was complete before humans that order. The text briefly mentions the creation prowere created. Our purpose was to be a helper of God cess and speaks of the creation of man from the dust of and take care of his creations. We were not needed to the earth. complete the world, but rather to carry out our part in maintaining the wellbeing of it. As it is written in the As soon as man is created, God plants the Garden of Book of Ezekiel, “selfish rulers who not do not care for Eden for the man to live in. He gives this man the rethe lost, ill, and vulnerable come in for God’s wither- sponsibility of naming the animals and tending to them. ing disapproval.” (Shai Held, “Created in God’s Image”). Still not satisfied, he creates woman to do the same.

Our earth right now is in a vulnerable state and we must not be selfish. With the environmental crisis, our earth God then states the first commandment:“Of every tree is on a downward spiral. of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for God put us on this Earth to take care of the world and as soon as you eat of it, you shall die” (Genesis 2:16its creatures. However, we as humans have focused on 17). What do the man and woman do? They eat from advancing technologies, economic growth, and plastic the tree anyways. Up until now it seems God is content Starbucks cups. We have prioritized convenience over with His creations; everything has gone as planned. caretaking, regardless of how harmful this may be to See Lynch, page 27 21

The Torah of Rochelle Zell nothing else outside of that. There was only fact. There was no faith.

Olivia Schachtman, RZJHS 2022

How Doubt is a Complement to Faith Lucy Rowe, RZJHS 2020 While growing up and attending a public school, I really didn’t know what to think. Everyone had a different philosophy, everyone believed in a different faith, and I was stuck in this muddy middle ground where I was being pulled in a bunch of different directions. I was told, in Sunday School, that God created the world but I was told in science class that the Big Bang was what really caused the world’s formation. My upbringing was a constant struggle of not only trying to land on an idea, but trying to stick with that idea, and forming a philosophy around it. The problem was, whatever I would come up with would always be proved wrong, I was always left with his feeling that I just wasn’t smart enough to figure it out, that there was an answer, but I wasn’t worthy enough to hear it just yet.

My peers were always confident in their beliefs, most of them anyway, and my parents were firm believers in God and that God existed, but as I grew up, I began to realize how much their explanation of everything just didn’t make sense to me. This epiphany — that I’d been naive practically my entire life — led me to want to know the answer, led me to search for a reason for everything, and so, I turned to science, not God. I based everything on what I knew for certain was true, and there was 22

Come middle school, I really thought that I had everything figured out. I was aware of what I knew and what I didn’t, but come my transfer to Rochelle Zell, that same feeling overcame me again.

The discomfort of being around people who believed in something that I couldn’t see, couldn’t find proof for enveloped me, and I was content with this discomfort until this year in Modern Jewish Thought. We’ve read many articles, but the one that stood out to me the most was Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove’s statement about faith being a journey, not a destination. I began to look at my faith, or rather lack thereof it, in a new way. I realized that this is only the beginning in a very long journey of mind, but it won’t come without its challenges.

Cosgrove also suggests that faith and doubt are intertwined with one another, that in order to have a healthy version of faith, one must be able to reconcile both faith and doubt and put it into one. For someone who has looked at the two as binaries for so long this has been, and will be difficult. My thoughts and beliefs have been challenged in these first few weeks alone, which I’m glad for.

Ann LaMott said that the opposite of faith isn’t doubt; it’s a certainty, and I couldn’t have agreed more. In my experience, the certainty I’ve had, or tried to find within the world, has completely nullified any notion of faith I’ve had.

I’ve always been searching for a reason and forgetting that God, as Cosgrove puts it, is ineffable, an unknowable being that cannot be deciphered the way scientific data can. Even trusted adults in my life, like my mom, don’t really know where their belief stands, and if they even believe in God or not. They are all on their own journey to find their answer, just as I am, but I’m no longer looking for an answer. It is the wrestling with my doubt and attempting to find my faith that will bring me meaning in the end, it is the journey I am on, and no longer looking for a destination.

The Torah of Rochelle Zell

On Spirituality

Talia Schoenberg, RZJHS 2020 I want to tell you two short stories this morning.

Story #1: My first two years of high school, I never took the opportunity to establish my own authentic way of prayer. I rarely even read the words of the siddur. I would observe the traditional service and whisper to friends every so often because I was bored. As someone who grew up praying every morning at school, I wasn’t interested in finding a way of prayer that was unique to me. Moreover, when I did pray, I didn’t pray with meaning. Rather, I said the words only because I knew participating was the right thing to do.

Story #2: My second two years of high school, I opened my mind to the idea of finding meaning within the words of the siddur. I began to pray according to my needs. Essentially, I created my Kyle Fingerhut, RZJHS 2020 own authentic form of prayer. I started to enjoy walking into the Beit Knesset and praying to both comfort and learn more about myself. I realized the signifi- to connecting with the Divine. cance of my prayers.

Something else goes with this. Buber explains how imIn his essay “Jewish Religiosity,” Martin Buber teach- portant it is not to let our spirituality turn back into es us to recognize the difference between religion and “religion.” Let me give you an example from the Bible. religiosity, or what we call: spirituality. Religion is pas- Israel created a sacrificial cult because they were in need sive; it contains strict laws and teachings that are passed of a living, vibrant communion with God. down from generation to generation and one must follow them as they are.

But, the sacrificial cult became too elaborate, governed by rule after rule. Instead of connecting the people to On the other hand, spirituality “means activity– the el- God, their only focus was on the sacrifice itself. The emental entering-into-relation with the absolute.” For prophets knew this. They spoke to it. Amos, Micah, IsaBuber, our spirituality depends on the force of our ac- iah, and Jeremiah criticized Israel’s approach; they said: tions. It is our job not to let any kind of external force you can’t connect with God just by doing an action beguide or weaken our actions. Rather, we should use the cause you think it will please God. freedom we are given to creatively form a relationship with God. Rather, God wants to hear your heart and the meaning behind your actions. For us, this might mean being intiSince it is our duty to establish a connection with God, mate with our prayers and rituals. We shouldn’t say the Buber emphasizes the importance of acting on your words of the siddur just because it is the right thing to own instead of following tradition. Spirituality is all do, or put on tallit and tefillin because it’s a school rule. about DOING; we need to be fully mindful and committed when it comes to creating an authentic approach See Schoenberg, page 26 23

Discovering Faith During Elul Sean Dreifuss, RZJHS 2020

Elul is a liminal month. Occurring around August and September, Elul marks the months in which we transition from summer vacation into the routine academics each year: an emotionally difficult time for many of us.

Judaically, this month marks the mental preparation for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Listening to the shofar blasts each day allows us to move our minds toward fundamental introspection. We ask ourselves: “Who am I? How has my character over the past year reflecting who I am? How do I want to better myself in my relationships with God and fellow humans?”

These essential questions cannot be answered alone during the many hours spent in shul on the High Holidays, which is why the month of Elul proves so integral to preparing us for these days. We want to enter shul with a mental agenda, ready to seek spiritual rejuvenation and 24

self-improvement. Most importantly, we should strive to strengthen our relationships with others and God, a most difficult task.

After hearing the shofar, we recite “l’david hashem uri,” Psalm 27 — often referred to as the Psalm for the Days of Awe. In the penultimate verse of the Psalm, we recite, “Lulei heemanti lirot b’tuv Hashem, b’eretz chayim.” “If I had not believed to look upon the goodness of God in the land of the living.”

The word lulei is not a typical word. However, one way to read this line of lulei heemanti is backwards. Lulei (‫ )לולא‬backwards is aleph, lamed, vav, lamed, or Elul (‫)אלול‬. The second word — heemanti means my faith. Going off this reading, Elul is a time of reflecting on our faith, which has been the theme in our senior Modern Jewish Thought class.

See Dreifuss, next page

Dreifuss, from previous page We began the year studying a piece titled “Faith”by influential Rabbi Louis Jacobs. On the most simple level, everyone knows that our relationship with God is predicated on faith, the concept of “belief in another or God.” However, Jacobs elucidates what faith actually entails, differentiating between faith and belief. He begins his essay by explaining the Biblical notion of faith, emunah, as one of placing trust in God, distinguishing this definition from the medieval understanding of believing or proving God’s existence. Belief alone is not enough; we need to trust.

Jacobs presents the dichotomy between trusting God and God’s Torah and acknowledging God’s existence, noting that the idea of trust is found in the existentialist approach: a high level of trust in human will and intuition and in our ability to act freely yet responsibly.

In contrast to the existentialists who have given up on proof and so offer a blind leap of faith, Jacobs suggests that a person of faith should venture on a scrutinized leap, taking the necessary time to question, doubt, and discover before leaping. Within Jacobs’ understanding of God and faith comes the aspect of intellectual honesty, the truthful-process of grappling with doubt and evidence that might argue against the facts as presented by religion. If we set aside this struggle, we are rejecting intellectual honestly, and rejecting the idea that faith proves absolute.

The scrutinized anticipation is often harder than the actual leap itself. The leap itself is only fleeting.

Once you scrutinize thoroughly, your decision to leap will already be settled.

Before we discussed Jacobs, I thought that the “leap” in the scrutinized leap of faith was greater in both time and significance. Adding the word and experience of scrutinizing before the leap as Jacobs suggests, I realized that the journey prior and after the leap are the essence. The leap itself, is only momentary.

I believe that there is both a leap into faith — the initial leap into tradition and the journey — as well as multiple leaps of faith throughout. We leap into traditions like those of the month of Elul in which we listen to the blast of a ram’s horn, a peculiar scene from an outsider perspective. The leap is our striving for meaning in this tradition, hoping that, in Elul, we can raise ourselves to a higher level of consciousness and at-oneness with ourselves and in our relationships.

Returning to the themes of the month of Elul, which began two weeks ago, we must remember that our relationship with God is covenantal. To put this idea of covenantal relationships in practical terms, think about a wedding.

Marriage is a covenant. The hallmark phrase of any Jewish wedding, besides “when do we eat”, is ani l’dodi v’dodi li, I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. If we take the first letters of this phrase, aleph, lamed, vav, lamed, we again spell Elul.

Elul is a month in which we prepare ourselves to renew our vows with God. I hope that everyone takes at least the 20 seconds of shofar blasts to reflect upon your covenant with God and Judaism, searching for aspects that trouble us or where we seek to improve. Through this reflection, I hope that everyone can find oneness and peace of mind as we move through this liminal month.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Developing My Faith in God Maital Meisler, RZJHS 2020 Faith is a complicated subject. As de- life, I considered myself a person of faith, but I always felt vout Jews, we are all expected to have guilty for holding that title because I did not believe that faith. Yet, how can we “have faith” G-d wrote the Torah or split the Red Sea. when most of us cannot even define it.

Rabbi Louis JaI would always think to myself, cobs asserts that in order to “Am I lying to myself by callI worried that faith would be have faith we must undergo ing myself a person of faith if susceptible to the Jenga effect; I do not believe in core aspects an intellectually honest exploration of tradition, belief, and if I removed one aspect of an of the Jewish narrative?” Howtrust in G-d, while simultaneinternationally accepted concept, ever, I came to the realization ously struggling with the ebb my entire tower of beliefs would that, as Louis Jacobs says, “To and flow of uncertainties. It is invoke faith in order to reject fall down. But the base of faith is highly circumstantial evidence this uncertainty, however, that stronger than this. always catches me. How am I comes perilously close to besupposed to put all of my trust lief in a God who plants false into uncertainty. clues” (“Faith”).

Since I lost my simplistic, childhood ignorance, I have Revelation does not necessarily mean that G-d wrote struggled with my faith in G-d. I was told by my middle every word of the Torah and handed it to Moses on school teachers that I needed to have faith in G-d, faith Har Sinai. Rather, I interpret this narrative about B’nei that G-d will protect my family, Yisrael’s standing at the foot of faith that G-d will heal those in the mountain to be a represenBy changing my perspective on the tation of our ancient commitneed of healing, faith that G-d Red Sea from a historical event to ment to religion and trust in a will lead me to make the right a metaphor, I allowed myself to higher power. The Torah is not decisions in life. But I still had no idea what faith meant. strengthen my faith in G-d. Not a history book. Without aconly is it acceptable to consider counting for new evidence in a I knew faith was supposed to myself a person of faith without belief, I would be standing for be something greater than me, a G-d that has a false view of believing in the historical accuracy of Art by Megan Smith, but I did not feel so compelled the world. the events described in the Torah, I am Class of 2022 by the concept. I began to push encouraging intellectual honesty, further away from my faith as I worried that faith would be middle school continued. I reand therefore escaping a world of susceptible to the Jenga effect; if member my seventh grade TalI removed one aspect of an infalse clues, by doing so. mud teacher explained to our ternationally accepted concept, grade that none of the Torah is my entire tower of beliefs would real. Every event is a metaphor fall down. But the base of faith is for a life lesson, written by ancient Rabbis. When those stronger than this. For example, while I don’t believe G-d words came out of my trusted teachers mouth, I deter- actually split the Red Sea, I reinterpreted the narrative as mined that there is no point in even trying to have faith a representation of G-d’s power. anymore. The basis of Judaism is all a lie.

By changing my perspective on the Red Sea from a hisHowever, as high school began, I started to realign myself torical event to a metaphor, I allowed myself to strengthwith my faith. Unlike middle school, I wanted to have en my faith in G-d. faith; this made my high school struggle with faith vastly different than my previous struggle. At this point in See Meisler, next page 26

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Meisler, from previous page Not only is it acceptable to consider myself a person of faith without believing in the historical accuracy of the events described in the Torah, I am encouraging intellectual honesty, and therefore escaping a world of false clues, by doing so.

ous beliefs and connotations, in order to truly give ourselves a new start, we must ask ourselves why. Why we believe in what we believe in. If you do not know, perhaps it’s worth further exploration before committing yourself. As this year begins, I encourage all of you to scrutinize what you think you believe.

Do not let fear hold you to past presumptions. These new activities for learning and growth do not have to shatter your foundation. Rather, they can be incorporated within your foundation of faith. Such intellectual honesty and desire to continue scrutinizing is exactly what G-d wants of us. Take an internal leap of fait — whatever that faith means to you — in trusting that you Although it’s easier to fall back on the comforts of previ- can reshape your beliefs.

As we are all entering a new school year, and Rosh Hashanah, we must use the power of new beginnings to reshape perspectives on life that may be holding us back.

As Jewish people and general citizens of humanity, we must scrutinize all of our beliefs.

Lynch, from page 21

accept it as religious expression.

When Adam and Eve break His rules, He is outraged.

Although however furious He is, God does not in fact kill them, but bans them from the garden. The fact that Adam and Eve are not killed is very significant. As it is written in Mishnah Sanhedrin, “​Adam was created alone to teach you that anyone who kills another, the text [Torah] speaks about him as if he killed an entire world” (4:5).​

However you choose to interpret the creation stories, you must find a balance between heart and mind. What you know in your heart may not be comprehensible to your mind; a certain truth exists that is challenging to put into words.

The truth of science and truth of Torah should not have to conflict; truth is eternal. The text may not specifically replicate what we know of human evolution or the Big Bang, but that should not be seen as a dilemma.

If Adam were in fact killed on the spot by God, the whole future of humanity would not exist. None of us would be alive. We know very well from studying Torah that God does not act without reason.

Rabbi Arthur Green writes, “No, I do not believe it (the Torah) in any ordinary intellectual sense of that Adam and Eve make a mistake but God gives them the term. I also know with all my being that I find this chance to repent and live on. Heschel writes in his ar- tale both deeply attractive and irresistibly powerful” ticle “Sacred Image of Man” that humans were created (​Seek My Face​). in the likeness of God, thus making us all reflections of God. The Torah is neither a historical nor a scientific document. Creation is a miracle. We don’t truly know why Humans are not the center of the world, but we carry or how creation occurred, but we do know it had to the presence of God within us. God would not kill happen. That acceptance is faith. The creation stories Adam and Eve because they held a certain godliness give expression to that faith. that must be taken account for.

We see the importance of human duties on Earth, the Given the responsibility of taking care of this earth, godliness we were intended for, and the infinite powwe are indeed crucial to creation. Both narratives er of God. We can try to look for details about history serve to clarify our purpose as humans. Even if you within the text, but we will never find that kind of don’t believe in the historicity of the creation story, affirmation. As long as we continue to interpret and there lies a deep truth and meaning within it. You can find meaning in this ancient text, the creation stories try to rationalize it with science or you can simply will lead us in a life of meaning and faith.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell Schoenberg, from page 21 In accordance with the stories I shared in the beginning, I believe it is important that we create a vibrant, purposeful form of spirituality so that we can connect to God. Our actions shouldn’t be meaningless and boring. Our connection to God will come about if we are a) intentional b) creative and c) committed to the process. For Buber, it’s all or nothing. You can’t connect to God through someone else’s rituals at all.

Using someone else’s ritual cannot be authentic, to Buber. It’s either religion or spirituality. It’s either Jewish tradition or one’s own creativity.

For me, however, Buber is too harsh of a critic when it comes to religion. I think individuals can find meaning by creating their own authentic form of religiosity that still includes some traditional forms. I can, with intent and commitment, choose to practice rituals of our tradition. I know this, because my prayer includes both traditional rituals and my own creativity.

this is not the case. Spirituality is an entire way of living, not just what we typically think of as “religion.”

As I stated earlier, individuals should strive to form a relationship with God in a way that is creative and authentic to them. This could be through poetry, exploring nature, etc. It could also be through our actions of making the world a better place. For Buber — and for me — what’s important is that we realize God’s reality in our world and construct a form of spirituality that answers our own needs. When we intentionally use our creativity and our commitment, we can connect to God. I want to say thank RZJHS for helping me find my own authentic form of prayer. RZ taught me to value my prayer and my connection with God. Also, I want to thank my fellow seniors for being such a supportive and energetic group of people.

Observing and participating in Tefillah with all of you has taught me the significance of a community. I want you all to know that I truly appreciate and love One last point: it may seem like spirituality can only each and every single one of you. Thank you all so take the form of prayer. Buber reveals, though, that much for the best four years.

Scholder, from page 20

the appreciation of women not only in a male-dominated religion, but also in life. The Torah and the sidHowever, despite Eve’s efforts to regain her equal status, dur highlight men for, after all, the siddurim we use she falls victim to Adam. While all three perpetrators in Tefillah are written with male-gendered language.

— snake, Man, and Woman — And if wanted, we can add the are punished for their actions, matriarchs as an option in the Torah scholar Judith Klitsner Amidah. The movement from Reading the Torah with a more teaches us that Eve’s punishment Orthodoxy to our Conservative feminist lens allows for the where her “urge shall be for [her] prayer, though not for everyappreciation of women not only in a one, allows for the addition of husband, And he shall rule over [her]” marks the Biblical roots of male-dominated religion, but also the matriarchs and the furtherour male-dominated society. ing of egalitarianism. in life.

Eve, who, according to Klitsner, was trying to regain the equality that once existed between man and woman will now be unable to do so.

However, this inequality between genders is not the Biblical ideal of Genesis 1. It is essential to work to overturn the portrayal of Eve in Genesis 2 for it tarnishes how women are viewed in the Torah.

This acceptance of women’s role in prayer at our school is an attempt to help us return to our original, God-given status, portrayed in Genesis 1. The change that has occurred from my grandparents’ generation to mine, both in Judaism and in every day life, shows how persistence can help to overturn the inequality described in Genesis 2 and restore our world to what once existed, when God simultaneously created male and Reading the Torah with a more feminist lens allows for female.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell Rosen, from page 3

Miraculously, in the final perakim, the final chapters, of the book, G-d reveals G-d’s self to Job. G-d first adAt RZJHS, one of the core principles we are taught is monishes Job for presuming he, a human being, could that the Torah is alive, the Torah has its own heartbeat. comprehend divine justice, to which Job apologizes.

Pivoting, G-d then asserts that it was Job and not his We study Tanakh, Talmud, commentators, and other friends who spoke the Truth. The Truth of our humilvoices in our tradition to establish our foundation with ity, our humanity. the understanding that we now possess the responsibility, the opportunity, to continue their work.

My point is that as we move on in our lives and become more independent we What work? To be Jews! To will face a world that seems live and make the ethical abThe whole point of education is to to operate in an unfathomstractions we have studied chaos. What we have enlighten, to see more...By asking able reality. And that all starts been taught at Rochelle Zell questions and taking the time to is to not just give up on crewith faith. ponder answers we instill in ourselves ating order, to not give up We do not practice “blind the Jewish work. We need that spirit that the work we are doing faith” or “blind obedience”. to be a storm for good in matters. To look out into the massive, the midbar, the desert, the The whole point of education is to enlighten, to see more. gaping, crushing, universe and say wild.

Rabbi Louis Jacobs described that our ideas and the mitzvot and Our engineers will build Judaism as “a questioning good deeds we are accomplishing here bridges, our musicians will faith.” matter, that is what keeps us alive, compose harmonies to By asking questions and takbring us all together, and keeps our heartbeats going. ing the time to ponder anour scholars will enlightswers we instill in ourselves en like our teachers before that spirit that the work we us. And while our thunder are doing matters. booms across the world, wherever we are, we cannot To look out into the masget caught up and become What we have been taught at Rochelle deaf to our heartbeats. We sive, gaping, crushing, universe and say that our ideas Zell is to not just give up on creating will oscillate. and the mitzvot and good order, to not give up the Jewish work. deeds we are accomplishWe will make mistakes and We need to be a storm for good in the ing here matter, that is what maybe we will linger too keeps us alive, keeps our long one way or the other, midbar, the desert, the wild. heartbeats going. but we will correct ourselves and progress.

We are meant to question.

This year we studied the book of Job. Job, an upright So let us look back. To Sinai. Today we are not sure exman from Uz, unfathomably first loses all his wealth actly what happened or where Sinai even is, but what and then all of his children. Confronting his shattered we do take from Sinai, along with the Torah itself, is reality, Job questions why G-d would wrathfully target our collective memory of receiving the Torah, of behim, an innocent, righteous person. ginning our peoplehood, that feeling of realizing our identity.

In an effort to console him, Job’s friends suggest that Job should repent for the sins he clearly committed to Leaving high school is exactly what we need to reincur this apparent divine punishment, but Job refuses member from our time at Rochelle Zell. Our identity: to believe that what he suffered was just. who we are and what we stand for.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell

Bird Tracks in the Sand Rabbi Zachary Silver Rabbi Silver wrote this message to the school community on May 4.

Where were you during the last day before quarantine? Who were the people at your last Shabbat dinner? What were some of the conversations you had while there?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard variations of these questions being asked among friends.

The image that most comes to my mind is from the Friday in March when students and faculty returned to school to pick up the books that we would all need for remote learning. People headed to their lockers and their offices. And then they just ended up staying at school. Some camped out in the senior hallway, others on the third floor near the freshmen lockers. There was a senior who asked her teacher, “Is it ok if I give you a hug?” Nobody wanted to leave.

As we enter the eighth week in quarantine, I am reminded of a poem by Israeli poet laureate Yehuda Amichai:

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‫עקבות רגלי ציפורים בחול אשר על שפת הים‬ ,‫ לזכור דברים‬,‫כמו כתב–יד שמשהו רשם‬ ‫ ומקומות‬,‫מספרים‬, ‫שמות‬ ‫עקבות ציפורים בחול בלילה‬ ‫אבל לא ראיתי‬, ‫נשארות גם ביום‬ ‫את הציפור שהטביעה אותן‬ ‫כך האלהים‬ Bird tracks in the sand by the shore of the sea.

Like handwriting that someone left, to remember Words, names, numbers, and places.

Bird tracks in the sand at night Remain also in the day, but I didn’t see The bird that left them there.

That’s the way it is with God. The eighth week in quarantine is tougher than the first and second. We are the Israelites wandering in the desert and it is not clear when we will reach the Promised Land. Several weeks ago, there was a new creative spirit about creating routines; now, we are in the midst of them, and we have new uncertainty that has compounded over time.

See Silver, next page

The Torah of Rochelle Zell Silver, from previous page And yet I’ve also become more attuned to the bird tracks in the sand, both from before quarantine and also during it.

I found last week’s programming for Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut to be particularly moving. We all are searching to be a part of something larger than ourselves and during last week’s holy days on the Jewish calendar, this meant honoring and celebrating our connection to the Jewish people and also to our country, Medinat Yisrael.

Our alumni, Matthew Silverman (’07), Ceren Maier (’13), Shelly Dekalo (’13), and Isaac Margulies (’18) reflected on the meaning of these sacred days in the Jewish calendar, why they made aliyah, and joined the IDF, and what they find most meaningful about living in Israel. Our alumni spoke with rawness and vulnerability, giving a glimpse into their lives, how they made their decisions that have led them to this point. They gave our current students a very real glimpse into their lives. Our community stretches well beyond the walls of our school and also beyond any particular generation of students.

Rabbi Louis Jacobs, who our seniors read in Modern Jewish Thought, defines faith as trust, and in doing so, differentiates between the central ideas of “belief in” and “belief that.” The latter, “belief that,” is a logical statement, one based carefully on trial and error.

For example, one believes in something or someone, because of something that they have done to them, or for them. And if they don’t succeed with a specific action, they won’t merit the belief.

In, turn, Jacobs explains that “belief in” is a statement of the moral will; it is conditioned because of trust.

As Jacobs states, “The man who believes in his friend (or in himself) does so not much because he has weighed dispassionately all the evidence for trustworthiness but because it seems right to him to place his trust in that which is worthy of his trust as he sees it. Moreover, the very attitude of trust in one’s

friend may itself summon forth a response on the part of the friend and so be responsible for the vindication of trust” (Jacobs, Faith).

Jacobs elaborates that each time the word “emunah” appears in the Bible, it should be translated as “Belief in,” as trust or trustworthiness, of manifesting a relationship, either between people, or between an individual and God. With trust, there is often doubt. “Belief in,” faith, is strong enough to handle this. Indeed, all of us know that the truest test for any meaningful relationship is that it has withstood stress. We are certainly experiencing this now.

As we consider the loss that each of us is experiencing, I find this understanding of faith to be reassuring. Our faith in our school and in each other acknowledges the pain that is very real in our lives. In the midst of our time in the metaphorical desert, we have marked the loss and pain of missing some of our signature in-person events at the end of the year, including the Shabbaton, Prom and Graduation. Students are noting even more the loss of interacting with their peers and teachers, the everyday norms of high school life.

Yet the leadership of our senior class, in particular, has shined a light for us all. Over these two months, they continually seek ways to bring the school community together virtually. They are also searching for ways for their class to stretch their high school experience so that they can celebrate both virtually and in person when it is safe, hopefully during the summer.

Our faith in our school community echoes the faith of the Jewish people, one built on trust, on covenantal relationships, on searching for ultimate meaning.

These are the bird tracks in the sand that I’ve seen over the past two months. And the ones that I’ll continue to be mindful of moving forward.

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The Torah of Rochelle Zell Vales, from page 17

Just like Cady, every single one of us can reach our fullest potential by looking past the outer layer of someCady then continues, saying “Now I’m awake, I’ll tell one, and finding what truly makes that person human. you what I see”. David Brooks talks about the neces- What truly makes that person someone you can sit sity to forget about the external aspects of life and down and have a meaningful conversation with. It think more about our inner character, which, I be- is so easy, and yet we tend to complicate it so much. lieve, will lead us to chesed. This is exactly what Cady Look at the people in front of you, next to you and does, as she forgets about the non important things, behind you, and understand that everyone was created and begins to acknowledge everyone’s unique and in the image of God just like yourself. special abilities. She apologizes to the people she has wronged and hopes that her actions influence others Everyone holds within them a healthy, beating heart to do the same. that was crafted and blessed by the same entity as yours was. Find the chesed in your life, because be Being here in high school, everyone knows what it is lieve it or not, your acts of chesed can save someone like to feel as if they are not being heard. As if they from getting hit by a bus. Well, that’s a little extreme, don’t feel a connection with the people who walk past but at least a metaphorical bus. Your act of chesed can them every single day. However, these discussions of save people from getting into dangerous situations, chesed lay out a clear way for all of us to take one step and ultimately it can literally save someone’s life. Bus or no bus. higher and see the light within every person.

Lava, from page 15 Professor Byron Sherwin expressed three fundamental truths that we would like to believe about God: 1. God is good and benevolent; 2. God is omnipotent, meaning he has unlimited power; 3. Evil is real.

It is impossible for us to believe all three of these truths at the same time and, as such, everyone is forced to choose between two of these.

While it is possible to alter the meaning of one of these truths in order to reconcile all three, only two of them can be completely true.

illustrated in what He said to Job. The evidence for evil being real is that human beings have free will, and the ability to choose between being good, being evil, or anyProfessor Byron Sherwin expressed thing in between. I cannot three fundamental truths that we would call God good or benevolent, because He has given us free like to believe about God: will, and He cannot enforce good and evil, for that would 1. God is good and benevolent be taking away our choice.

2. God is omnipotent (all powerful) God must let human beings make their own choices, for 3. Evil is real. these choices are a product of how human beings are prodIt is impossible for us to believe all three ucts of His image.

of these truths at the same time and, as such, everyone is forced to choose between two of these. While it is possible to alter the meaning of one of these truths in order to reconcile all three, only two of them can be completely true.

I hope that my own thoughts on these questions help you better articulate your own answers to these questions.

I know that these questions are rather complex ones to In understanding what I had answer, and I am in no way written about God, I have saying that my own answers come to the conclusion that are correct. As I hopefully go God is omnipotent and that evil is real. The omnipo- off to college this year, perhaps my thoughts on these tence of God is evidenced by His creation of the world questions will change, but these are the conclusions I around us, and how He acts to keep the world moving, as have come to in my four years of study.

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