I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. As expected, the Turkey Bowl was a tremendous success. In addition, our annual Interfaith Thanksgiving service, featuring a keynote by Imam Imad Enchassi of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, was well-attended.

I want to share with you a prayer exercise we conducted at Shabbat worship, the day after Thanksgiving.

We handed out index cards and asked congregants to finish the sentence, “I am thankful for …” The responses were outstanding. Here are some examples:

* health and happiness of family

* our servicemen and servicewomen serving abroad

* my grandparents caught the boat to bring them to this wonderful and free America

* enough to eat, a roof over my head, a loving husband, great children, fabulous friends and an awesome faith community

If we could fill out this card right now, what would we write?

Too many of us forget that every day can be a day of thanksgiving. In fact, both the daily and Shabbat liturgy include “Birkat Ho’da’ah,” or Thanksgiving prayer. The prayer begins with the words, “Modim anachnu lach,” “We gratefully acknowledge that You (are Adonai our God).”

How do we “gratefully acknowledge” that which is good in our lives? To whom do we offer thanks? As we strive to discover meaning and purpose in our lives, we can daily offer a personal prayer of thanksgiving and then go one step further: Say “thank you” to all who are a blessing in our lives.

In coming weeks and months, I plan on creating time during Shabbat worship for congregants to write personal prayers on particular themes: love, shelter, covenant, holiness, peace, Torah, memory.

I look forward to continued worship. I look forward to reading your personal prayers. And in adavance: Thank you!

Who knows how many people have weighed-in on the tragic shooting that took place at Fort Hood, when Dr. Nidal Milak Hasan allegedly murdered 13 people and wounded 29.  I am choosing to address this issue from a Jewish perspective.

From a Jewish point of view, we are allowed to ask questions: Was this a terrorist attack? Is it part of a greater Muslim jihad? Did the radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki motivate Dr. Hasan to take action? In the past, concerning Hasan, what did the military miss?

But from a Jewish point of view,  we are not allowed to ask: Can we trust Muslims to serve in the military? Can we trust our fellow Muslims to be law-abiding citizens in our country?

Rather, we have no choice but to wait and be patient. In time, almost all of our questions will be answered when Hasan goes to trial. Let us resist the urge to jump to conclusions.

As we wait, let us remember how much we do have in common with our Muslim brothers and sisters in this nation. Reacting in this way helps preserve what binds so many disparate races, religions and cultures.

As citizens, we have a responsibility to participate in democracy. What unites us is our commitment to the experiment begun with the Declaration of Independence and the later signing of the Constitution, so many years ago.

It is up to us to strive to create a more perfect union, to welcome outsiders to our shores with open arms and to resist the balkanization and polarization of our nation. But at the same time,  we should never be naive or passive when we see the true face of our enemy.

Right now, it is not clear that Hasan’s dreadful attack is anything other than an isolated incident; this shooting is not necessarily part of a grand Islamic terrorist plot to destroy our nation from within.

As we wait for answers, let us keep the victims of the Fort Hood in our thoughts and prayers. In addition, let us tip our hats to all who defend us … those who have served and those who continue to serve. We know of at least three in our congregation who are currently deployed. May they safely return to their family and friends.

Though Veterans Day was Nov. 11, whenever we see a Veteran at worship services or at a community event, we can say thank you. Whenever we see the relative of someone currently serving, we can say thank you. This is our civic duty and will help preserve and strengthen our demoncracy from within.

Jews cannot win when it comes to money: If we wait for that sale or clip coupons, we’re called cheap and greedy; if we choose to be indulgent, we’re called rich and elitist.

In the 21st century, I was hoping that we had evolved beyond these stereotypes. But then South Carolinian Republican Party officials Edwin Merwin, Jr., and Jim Ulmer came to the defense of their U.S. Senator Jim DeMint.

DeMint had been criticized for opposing congressional earmarks. In response, Merwin and Ulmer wrote in the newspaper, “The Times and Democrat”: “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves.”

First: no such saying attributed to the Jews exists.  Second: Thank you, Republican officials, for reinforcing the stereotype of the penny-pinching Jew.

Merwin and Ulmer — I hope out of sheer ignorance — tapped into anti-Semitism to praise DeMint for rejecting earmarks and watching “our nation’s pennies” in an effort to preserve American wealth.

The two of them need to learn the history of Christian-Jewish relations before they put words to paper. In the Middle Ages, Jews were forced out of craft guilds by their Christian rivals. Since at that time Christians were forbidden by religious practice to charge interest to one another, Jews had little choice but to enter the banking system, mainly as petty lenders. To keep the European economy functioning, money had to be transferred and interest had to be charged; in a way, the Jewish people kept the economy from grinding to a halt.

But we paid a terrible price: the stereotype of being penny-pinching and greedy.

I learned about the this stereotype in Memphis as a boy. Some of my Jewish friends had pennies thrown at them in the halls, as their bigoted classmates called them  “greedy Jews.”

In response to criticism, Merwin and Ulmer attempted to spin their words as praise for the Jewish people’s efforts to better their lives.

Merwin and Ulmer, please don’t compliment us by dredging up our painful past. Your words only reinforce stereotypes, prejudice and bigotry. If we don’t learn our history and learn how to choose our words carefully, then my grandchildren just may get pennies thrown at them — or even worse.

In the aftermath of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, I hope that we have been able to start a new year with a clean slate. There are many ways to tap into Judaism’s wisdom to add meaning to our lives. One way is by responding to the prophetic call for justice and engaging in social action.

In the temple’s foyer, we can find the social action display, listing many ways we can express Jewish teachings. We will find eight options listed on the “Tikkun Olam – repairing the world” cards. Let us know if you want to participate, and we will get back to you ASAP.

Though every project is meaningful and valuable, I want to focus on three of them: Nothing But Nets, the Katrina Mission to New Orleans, and the 363 Group.

Nothing But Nets: For just $10, we can save a life by purchasing a net which will prevent the spread of Malaria. Talk about fulfilling a mitzvah! These nets will be given to victims of the atrocities in the Sudan, in addition to other African refugees.

Katrina relief mission: If you want to participate, we need to hear from you as soon as possible. The deadline is drawing near to make plane and hotel reservations. As life has proceeded normally in Oklahoma City, residents of New Orleans continue to feel the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina. Let’s travel to the Crescent City, roll up our sleeves and get to work, doing what we can to repair the Lower Ninth Ward.

The 363 Group: We can do something closer to home by taking part with Mayflower Congregational Church’s 363 Group. Regularly on Saturdays, we have a chance to help the homeless; the 363 Group offers them a hot meal, socks, underwear, toiletries and good company. However, what we do not do is impose a religious message on them. We all meet at the Homeless Alliance, at the northeast corner of NW 3rd St. and Virginia. To participate, simply give us your e-mail; Mayflower Congregational will let us know what is needed. If you can’t make it to the Homeless Alliance, you can always contribute food and other items.

By definition, Judaism calls us to participate in our local and greater communities. We have no choice but to recognize the injustice in our world and then act to remove it from our midst. Eliminating injustice altogether is beyond our power; however, as a teaching instructs, “it is not incumbent upon us to complete the work, but we are not free to desist from it.”

I hope that everyone has been making the most of the past days to reflect upon the previous year. We are not to remain passive during the days in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rather, we are to seek out those we have hurt in any way and do the best we can to atone.

At the same time, we are to look with optimism and hope to the year that will be. We have been invited to take part in a valuable interfaith gathering on Oct. 14, a mere 16 days after Yom Kippur. This will be an amazing way to start 5770 with style.

Senior Pastor Bob Long of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church has invited Temple B’nai Israel and the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City to share in an interfaith event at his church, located at 222 NW 15th St., in Oklahoma City.

The occasion is intended to build on the energy generated by last year’s lecture series,  “Three Faiths, One God: Islam, Christianity, Judaism.”

The event will begin at 5:30 with dinner, featuring food from our respective traditions. This will be followed by an informal opportunity to visit a number of exhibits, showcasing and explaining Judaism’s, Islam’s and Christianity’s holidays, life cycles and teachings.

The evening will conclude with an interfaith worship service.

There is a thirst in the greater Oklahoma City area to learn about religions other than our own. With this invitation, Temple B’nai Israel has the opportunity to express the beauty of Judaism.

But I have a concern: How many of us will drive to St. Luke’s United Methodist Church to participate? We did an amazing job on Sept. 8, sharing an Iftar dinner with the Turkish Muslim community to break the Ramadan fast. But that was at our temple.

Pastor Long said approximately 350 of his congregants would participate. Imam Imad Enchassi said he would be able to bring 150. How many will we bring?

I invite you to join us on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 5:30 at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. What a wonderful way to show the greater community the pride and confidence we possess as a congregation, a faith, a religion and a people.

If you have any questions, e-mail me at tbirabbi@coxinet.net or call 848-0965.

The event is free of charge. See you there!

I have a running joke with a local imam (Muslim religious leader): Whenever we serve on an inter-religious community panel discussing a particular topic, we both want to go first. Why? Because after I give my answer about what Judaism teaches, and it’s his turn, he can only say, “ditto.” If he goes first and gives his answer about what Islam teaches, I can only say, “ditto.”

Through my 11 years of being a rabbi, I have learned that much more unites Islam and Judaism than divides us.

On Tuesday evening, September 8, at 7:00 at Temple B’nai Israel’s Blumenthal Wing, we will learn what Muslims and Jews share about fasting.

A representative from the Turkish Muslim Community reached out to me and asked our temple to host an event in commemoration of the month of Ramadan; during this month, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and seek purification, divine guidance and forgiveness.

Sound familiar?

At this event, one of their representatives will teach more about Ramadan. I will teach Judaism’s view of fasting. Afterward, our Muslim brothers and sisters will have a short worship service, and then together, we will share a vegetarian meal. (The event is free of charge.)

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims take stock of their lives and reflect upon how they have failed and what they can do to repair the damage they have inflicted.  During the month of Elul, we are to do the same.

In that way, both of us engage in a “cheshbon ha nefesh,” a spiritual check-up.

I invite you to take part in a precious opportunity of interfaith sharing, bonding … and yes, eating.

Don’t be confused when you walk into the Esther Greenberg Chapel for worship this Friday at 6:30. I say this because you will find a screen to the side of the bema, next to the ark.  You will not have stumbled on a lecture or a movie. Instead, we will be trying an experiment: Can projecting the words from our liturgy and the lyrics to our music to a wide screen add to the sanctity of the worship service?

Some of us may cringe when we think of combining worship with technology: it detracts from the sacred atmosphere; it mimics Christian mega-churches; it’s downright … wrong.

But here’s a counter-argument. Projecting the words of the liturgy and the lyrics on a large screen will allow more people to participate fully. In addition, it will make it easier for everyone to stay together, since announcing page numbers will no longer be necessary. Lastly, if more people are looking up, the chapel will be filled with the wonderful sound of people reading together and “singing out.”

And don’t worry: Yes, we’ll still be able to use a prayerbook and participate in the service “the old fashioned way.”

To anticipate a final question: We have no plans of using a projection system for worship in the Blatt-Levenson Sanctuary. We lack a screen large enough and a projection system bright enough.

I look forward to seeing you at our innovative worship service on Friday, and I weclome your reactions.

I have been doing my best to track reactions to efforts to reform our health care system. Granted, I have not been able to wade through the thousand-page bill making its way through Congress (and I wonder if any of our congresspeople have either). I want to focus on what is happening at town halls and behind the scenes and draw a depressing conclusion:

Our democracy is seriously wounded.

Here are some snapshots from town halls: Rep. Frank Kratovil of Maryland was hung in effigy; protesters carried posters with President Obama wearing a Hitler-moustache; reform efforts have been described as both fascist and Marxist; another protester carried a sign, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots.”

We have found that a significant percentage of these protesters, if not the clear majority, are “plants.” They have been trained by Washington lobbyists or PR firms or hired by insurance and pharmaceutical companies. They have received memos of how to disrupt town halls and prevent any constructive discussion or debate from taking place: “be disruptive early and often”; “try to rattle him, not have an intelligent debate.”

Other protesters are whipped up by right-wing radio hosts who motivate with  false information and fear.

We call this democracy?

A loud but vocal minority is sabotaging what should be one of the greatest constructive debates of our generation: how best to make health insurance affordable to insure the uninsured and how to lower insurance costs for those who are insured. Congresspeople have made sincere and responsible efforts to hear from their constituents — you know, the ones who elected them — in order to answer their questions and consider their points of view; too many of these town halls have been hijacked.

This is not democracy; this is thuggery.

Moreover, I fear that just one of these verbal and sometimes physically violent confrontations at town halls will spiral out of control; all it takes is one bullet from one crazy to murder a representative, a senator or a president.

Another depressing finding: Robert Reich reported that President Obama has made a concession to huge pharmaceutical companies. In exchange for their support of his plans for health care “reform,” the legislation will handcuff government from lowering drug prices with its purchasing power.

And you call this democracy?

If only you could see what percentage of my package goes to maintenance medications. In addition, my family lacks dental insurance altogether. I hope and pray that nothing serious happens to me or my family. Despite the fact that we eat healthy food, exercise and take care of our bodies and minds, I still feel like we are walking a tightrope.

In the meantime, protesters, PR firms, lobbying groups and right-wing talk show hosts  implicitly offer death threats to  congresspeople and our president.

The result: our citizens suffer and our democracy is sidelined.

Congregants be on alert: If you come to me with a money-laundering scheme or plans to sell organs on the black market, I have a legal responsibility and moral imperative to contact the authorities. If I learn that a congregant is allegedly suffering from Munchausen Syndrome and is systematically starving her child, I have a legal responsibility and moral imperative to contact the authorities.

If only my respective rabbinic colleagues felt the same way.

I have cringed at reports of rabbis in collusion with a fellow Jew in New Jersey, offering instructions of how to spread the money around to avoid suspicion of money laundering. I was horrified that another Jewish man had planned to use some of the sting money to extort organs from people in desperate need for cash and then sell the organs at exorbitant prices.

And then there is what is going on in Mea Shearim, the Hareidi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhood in Jerusalem. Allegedly, a mother has been starving her three-year-old to death. When the secular authorities stepped in to treat the child, the leaders representing this “Toldot Aharon” Hasidic sect instructed the community to go ballistic. (i.e. riot with moral impunity).

As an update, Toldot Aharon leaders have published a 16-page booklet, “Blood Libel,” condemning an Axis of Evil of Hadassah Hospital, police and welfare services.

Words escape me …

Across the nation, what does the general community think of us?

Closer to home, what do interfaith families and the unaffiliated think of us? I wonder if they think that all rabbis and all Jews are like the ones they read about in the newspaper or see on cable TV?

I hope they don’t conclude: If that’s Judaism, then I want no part of it.

Another issue that bothers me even more: Why do those in the most traditional Jewish communities … the ones judging those like you and me who belong to Reform and Conservative congregations, continue to cross the line, legally, ethically, morally?

This should give us pause. Do my more traditional colleagues only believe that Jewish law, halacha, applies to them, and that they exist above and beyond secular law?

To me, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. I fear that as we continue to cross the moral line, then all who choose to belong to Jewish congregations — Jews, Christians, agnostics; white, black, hispanic — lose respect, credibility and authenticity.

If that is true, then we all lose.

On Thursday evening, July 30, we are going to engage in a counter-intuitive commemoration: the observance of Tisha B’Av.

“Tisha B’What?” you may ask.

Tisha B’Av corresponds to the calendar date, “the ninth of Av.” Traditionally, it is connected with tragic dates, such as the destruction of both Temples, the razing of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the failure of Bar Kochbah’s revolt against the Roman Empire.

We can make a good argument why we should no longer observe this day of mourning. First of all, Israel exists and is a vibrant and bustling nation. Second of all, Reform Judaism never placed emphasis on remembering the two Temples or longing for the re-construction of a third. Why so passionately mourn, generation after generation, events that no longer mark our Jewish identities?

Not so fast.

Mourning still has a purpose. After all, just as other peoples inflicted horrific acts against us in our past, humanity still inflicts horrific acts upon each other today.

In addition, we can still discuss and debate centuries-old questions: How could God allow such violence to be inflicted upon “God’s people”? How can a supposed all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God allow such horror to continue today? How is any of this violence part of the divine plan?

Please join us in the Esther Greenberg Chapel on Thursday, July 30 at 7:00, when we will discuss and debate these questions.

Let’s decide: Has the time come to re-define how we observe Tisha B’Av, or has the time come to abolish it as a vestige of our past?