Torah Sparks: Tu BiShvat – celebrating the birthday of all trees“Then the Eternal One said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.’” (Exodus 14:15-16).God seems to be saying do not pray – just act. With all of the power that God demonstrates in this Torah portion (by splitting the sea), why does God need Moses? The answer seems to be that God requires human initiative. Judaism, as I understand it, is a religion of activism, not quietism. God does not right the wrongs of society but requires that we do it.This coming Monday we “celebrate” Tu-BiShvat, the 15th day of the Month of Shvat. According to our tradition, Tu BiShvat is the birthday of all trees. But why?Scholars believe that originally Tu BiSh’vat was an agricultural festival, marking the emergence of spring. Each year, the Israelites were expected to bring one-tenth of their fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem, where they were offered to God and also helped sustain the priestly class and the poor. Since fruit from one year could not be used to tithe for another, the Rabbis had to determine when a crop year would begin and end. They chose the month of Shvat as the cut-off date, for this is when, in Israel, the sap begins to run and the trees start to awaken from their winter slumber, before beginning to bear fruit.Although the celebration of Tu BiShvat seems to be more practical and down-to-earth, the theme most commonly ascribed to the holiday today is the environment. It is considered a festival of nature, full of wonder, joy, and thankfulness for God’s creation in anticipation of the renewal of the natural world. The holiday has become a tree-planting festival in Israel, in which Israelis and Jews around the world plant trees and/or support an initiative to protect the environment.Doing that, we recall the sacred obligation to care for God’s world, and the responsibility to share the fruits of God’s earth with all, what connects it to the idea of our Torah portion: Being God’s sh’lichim (representatives) that connect earth and heaven, and transform the world.Shabbat Shalom and Tu BiShvat Sameach – Rabbi Adrian M Schell (Source: reformjudaism.org)
Torah Reading for Shabbat Shirah – Parashat BeshalachExodus 13:17 – 17:16 (Reading Ex 14:15-15:11; Plaut p.436; Hertz p.268); Haftarah: Judges 5:1 – 5:31 (Plaut p.464; Hertz p.283)The Torah Study with Rabbi Schell continues on Shabbat, 23 January at 08h45“The Prayers of our Siddur”– class with Rabbi Schell continues on Thursday 4 FebruaryPodcast of Rabbi Schell’s weekly Sermons Tuesdays on Radio Today (10h30) or: http://goo.gl/LsHQrY.
Good news from Israel! The High Court in Jerusalem ruled that women can apply to be director of rabbinical courts.In what has been hailed as a groundbreaking decision, the High Court of Justice in Israel ruled on Thursday that women must be allowed to apply for the position of director of the state rabbinical courts system.The petition was brought to the court by women’s rights groups Na’amat, Mavoi Satum and Wizo. The former director retired in 2014. Following which, Mavoi Satum director Batya Kehana- Dror submitted an application for the position, but was rejected since she did not fulfill the criteria for the job, which required that candidates have qualifications to serve either as a rabbinical court judge or a municipal chief rabbi.The High Court’s ruling states that there is no reason that a woman should not serve as the director of the rabbinical courts system and that the qualifications criteria were unnecessary and impractical. The justices also recommend that the network begins to immediately integrate women into other senior positions in order to accustom itself to the ruling, and it gave the state 30 days to draw up new criteria for the position.Once the criteria have been established, the court will give the state a deadline by which to make a permanent appointment to the position of rabbinical courts director. The position, however, is selected by the president of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Religious Services Minister, currently David Azoulay of Shas. Although it is unlikely that they will select a woman to serve as rabbinical courts director, Kehana-Dror argued that they would now be unable to automatically reject female candidates since the previous qualifications which excluded women have been invalidated.She said that female candidates would now have to be seriously considered, and any decision-making process that appears to discriminate against female candidates based on gender could subsequently be challenged in court.The rabbinical courts have exclusive jurisdiction over Jewish marriage and divorce, and their rulings on such issues, among others, have great influence over Jewish religious life in Israel and abroad.The director of the rabbinical courts network has significant influence within the system and is responsible for the implementation of the regulations pertaining to the rabbinical courts and the correct conduct of the legal procedures of the courts and their various judicial panels.“This is a dramatic decision which will open a gate that until now was tightly shut to women, and represents a significant milestone in the integration of women in the rabbinical courts system,” said Na’amat, Mavoi Satum and Wizo in a joint statement. Kehana-Dror said that it would positively impact the status of women coming before the religious courts as well as improve the status of women in religious institutions. “The decision is a message to the women that they can and must struggle for their rights and not to capitulate to discrimination.”This is an addition in the prevention of discrimination against women in Israeli public life.Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat. Rabbi Julia Margolis ( sources: IRAC. 
Imagine living in a world in which violating the laws of morality leads unavoidably to consequences in the world of nature. When we read Parshat Bo, with Pharaoh refusing to let Israel go and with nature responding to his stubbornness with plague after plague, we find exactly this. And we cheer on Moses and our ancestors in their struggle to be free of Egyptian slavery. But, are we still fine with this concept if we compare it to our days?Given the weather of the past weeks (the heat wave, El Niño), it is easy to argue that this might be a punishment for us, too. But, the idea that if one person sins the entire world suffers does not meet our own morality test. What would be fair about one person sinning and the whole world suffering? Why should one person’s disregard of Torah make the rains fail to fall and bringing famine and hunger to the entire country? From the point of view of nature, however, this may not be such an unusual thing. If one person or one corporation pollutes a stream or the air, everyone suffers. When one person smokes a cigarette in an enclosed area, everyone is subject to second hand smoke. But what would it mean if every immoral act we performed directly caused a bad natural phenomena? If we told a lie it would turn our water into blood, the bigger the lie, the longer the blood would flow.The question is whether we would be better people in such a world, where fear of getting caught determine our acts, or not? I need to state the obvious here: The fear of getting caught is not the reason we should be doing good and living moral and ethical lives. Fear of punishment is what we teach children to get them to behave, but it is not a good method to get adults to behave. The only reason for doing the right thing is that it is the right thing to do. The Torah/our Judaism is our conscience. Torah is the mirror we use to look at ourselves to see how we look in the light of what God has asked us to do. We are committed to doing the best we can every day we are alive. We do make mistakes and we do slip into sin, but, thankfully, we can repent; we can resolve to do better and we can have a chance to try and do better in the future.God does not strike us with lightening when we sin. God does not afflict us with suffering or disease. The world is a difficult enough place to live without nature coming after us as punishment for our sins.Still, what we do, for good or evil, does affect the world. We can choose to live in a kind, caring and considerate manner, or we can live lives of infamy and cruelty. The Torah tells us the price of sin, but also tells us to choose the good, to choose the right and to choose life.Shabbat ShalomRabbi Adrian M Schell(Source: Rabbi Konigsburg, Temple Beth El, Birmingham, AL)Torah Reading for Shabbat BoExodus 10:1-13:16 (Reading Ex 10:1-23; Plaut p.406; Hertz p.248);Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13-28 (Plaut p.427; Hertz p.263)The Torah Study with Rabbi Schell continues on Shabbat, 23 January at 08h45“The Prayers of our Siddur”– class with Rabbi Schell resumes on Thursday 21 JanuaryPodcast of Rabbi Schell’s weekly Sermons Tuesdays on Radio Today (10h30) or: 
This is one of the more profound theological questions. To be able to name something or someone is to have a specific relationship to it or them, even a form of control. One can call out not just “Hey, You!” but “Hey, David!” or whatever, and expect some form of response. By using a name one potentially opens a dialogue. It is, therefore, no coincidence that most prayers begin with “Baruch Atah – Something.” “Blessed are You…”and then a Name.The problem is: The Name. What is the name, what can we use to address God, what does it mean?In Exodus 3:14, God has refused to answer Moses directly, saying simply, “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh”, “I am Who I Am”—or even “I Will Be whom I Will Be”. So no name for God, or?We have the Four-Letter Name, the ‘Tetragrammaton’ which is used at many places in the Torah for God’s name. Traditionally, one reads instead of the consonants ‘YHVH’ “Adonai” – but this is only a tradition because we have to say something. The fact is that No-One actually knows. Which makes it theology, not physics.At the outset of this parasha (Ex. 6:3) God simply tells Moses, “I am the same God who appeared under a different name to your ancestors”. That’s a bit of a relief, because we can learn from here that God has not only one name and that there are more ways to encounter God. And it opens up a range of other possibilities when God appears but is described as something or someone else; it leaves the gender issue open; it allowed the rabbis to determine whether different names indicated different qualities—such as justice or mercy. It allows modern theologians to discuss whether ‘God’ and ‘Allah’ are the same, it allows archaeologists to place bits of inscription with ‘Shaddai’, and it allows translators to find alternative words like ‘Lord’ or ‘The Eternal’ or ‘The Creator’, and so on. But being honest, No-One knows, God’s name remains a secret for us.In the end, I suppose that what is important is that we pray, that we say ‘Baruch Atah’, Blessed are you – that we open a dialogue regularly—and that God knows who God is, and will listen, and may respond.– Rabbi Adrian M Schell (Source: Rabbi W Rothschild on Vaera)Torah Reading for Shabbat VaeraExodus 6:2-9:35 (Reading Ex 7:1-29; Plaut p.384; Hertz p.235); M’varchim Chodesh Sh’vat.Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25-29:21 (Plaut p.401; Hertz p.244)The Torah Study with Rabbi Schell continues this Shabbat, 09 January at 08h45“The Prayers of our Siddur”– class with Rabbi Schell resumes on the 21 Janurary at 18h00 to 19h30 (Foyer).Podcast of Rabbi Schell’s weekly Sermons Tuesdays on Radio Today (10h30) or: 
Just few weeks ago I wrote about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise in front of cheering crowds at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America when he said that he will “ensure that all Jews can feel at home in Israel… all Jews” and “ensure that the Kotel is a source of unity for our people, not a point of division.”Since then his stance on women’s rights at the Kotel has gotten lost on translation. In Hebrew last week, according to 
