As the Rabbi Said...
AS THE RABBI SAID... Sermon Excerpts Jewish Identity in Prison More Jewish books are read; more discussions, more debates about their faith takes place among the Jews in prison than occur in the...
...Our tradition has followed Isaac's wisdom...
...Death is the teacher that forces us to consider how precious, fragile and yet incredibly abundant life is...
...Is it any wonder that so many Jewish inmates identify so completely with the faith and traditions of their fathers and mothers...
...He lived each moment to the fullest, appreciating life's simple pleasures: He loved to stroll in the quiet of evening fields...
...She said: I remembered what the winter had caused me to forget about the beauty of the human spirit...
...Almost all of them crowd around me when I come by their cells...
...They have lost most of life's choices...
...I was reminded anew that AIDS is less about dying than about choosing how to live...
...Sometimes we need help to shatter the paralysis of anxiety...
...Sustaining something can sometimes be more difficult than starting it...
...Isaac learned the secret of making life meaningful...
...He is simply a bridge between Abraham's and Jacob's generations...
...more discussions, more debates about their faith takes place among the Jews in prison than occur in the free society in which we live...
...Most of the inmates I visited never kept kosher when they were free...
...He revelled in the comforting company of the woman he loved...
...As absurd as kosher pork...
...I'd like to...ask "Who shall die knowing they really lived...
...The Torah is teaching us that meaning lies not solely in achievement but also in appreciating what we've accomplished...
...Most of the inmates I visited never went to synagogue when they were free...
...What is true for us as a people—must become true for us as persons: It's the moments we live and the memories we create that are crucial...
...Abraham established an empire, but if Isaac had not treasured and maintained it, it would never have amounted to anything...
...He delighted in simple gifts from his sons...
...And thai's the point...
...If we are fortunate someone comes along and gives us an emotional jump start by expressing a simple truth...
...Bentzion Kravitz Los Angeles, California Issac Knew the Secret On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, "who shall live, and who shall die, who by fire and who by water...
...you can choose to die every day with your cancer—or to live every day with it...
...Prison has taken freedom away from them...
...they cannot choose their cells...
...Joseph Levine The National Institute of Health Bethesda, Maryland Absurd as Kosher Pork Messianic Jews believe in the deity of Jesus...
...No matter how superficially Hebrew-Christians attempt to express Jewishness, the idea of Hebrew-Christians is a theological paradox...
...An oncologist at NIH offers a therapeutic shove to her cancer patients when they are stuck in the valley of shock and despair, by saying, "You have a choice...
...It is these specific Christian beliefs, which have their roots in ancient paganism, that have caused Jews and Judaism to reject Christianity for the past 2,000 years, even at the pain of death...
...Isaac knew the secret of living with meaning: He cherished time...
...He can exhibit pride in what he is, not in what he has...
...Most of the inmates I visited never spoke two words to a rabbi...
...This may seem strange, for Isaac never does anything that spectacular, as do Abraham and Jacob...
...Many people plant gardens, but how many tend them till they reap a harvest...
...Aaron Kriegel Temple Ner Maarav Encino, California Death as a Teacher Belinda Mason, who has AIDS and serves on the National Commission on AIDS, recently wrote an essay about her struggle to cope entitled Life On A Thin Wire...
...Jews have always understood that conversion to Christianity would mean severing their relationship with God, as described in the Torah...
...Judith Zabarenko Abrams Congregation Ner Shalom Woodbridge, Virginia...
...They cannot even choose the colors of the clothes they put on every morning...
...This belief in the bodily incarnation of God in the Trinity and in the role of Jesus as a mediator between God and man has always been considered idolatry for Jews...
...Most of the choices that he is allowed to make are cerebral...
...They cannot get up when they want to...
...Only a reverence for time could have imbued him with such contentment and peace...
...Almost all of them keep kosher in prison...
...They cannot choose cell mates...
...Judaism has become a religion that sanctifies time: a faith of moments, not monuments...
...Almost all of them plead for religious services on a regular basis...
...All the prisoner is left with is himself...
Vol. 15 • August 1990 • No. 4
