Gettin' Ready

Just a few more days before our Israel trip! Let the obsessive packing begin...I've got the anti-jet lag pills, the neck pillow, the travel blanket, the Dramamine, the iPhone, the iPad, the books, the comfortable walking shoes, the long skirt for Shabbat in Jerusalem, the day pack, the guitar, am I forgetting anything?

Room In the Inn begins November 11

Under the leadership of Cindy Landsman, Andy Saul, and Bob Smith, Congregation Micah will once again participate this year in the Room In The Inn program.

We will be hosting five nights this year:

November 11, 2012

December 9, 2012

January 13, 2013

February 10, 2013

March 10, 2013

We'll be hosting 14 guests on each evening and are again in need of donations of casual, cold weather clothing: coats, hats, gloves, scarves, warm socks, boots, heavy shoes, etc. We are also in need of toiletries and any DVD's that are gathering dust in your bookcases. Please bring all donations to the Micah office.

All members of Congregation Micah are more than welcome to join the festivities! If you want more information, feel free to call or email the Micah office at office@congregationmicah.org.

Room In The Inn, in partnership with more than 160 local congregations, provided shelter for 1,286 individuals from November 2009 to March 2010. For more information about the Room In The Inn organization, visit www.RoomInTheInn.org.

Rabbis Rice: Go Forth with Courage

"Go forth...from your father's house...and you shall be a blessing" (Genesis 12:1-2)

     "Go on, get going!  Get out of here!  Leave your parent's home! Forge your own path! Make sense of the world as you see it!" That is what our Torah is trying to teach us this week. Avraham Avinu, Abraham our Father, is considered a Jewish hero because he rejected the wisdom of his parents' generation. And so it is that Judaism itself does not want us to uncritically adopt our parents' way of relating to God. Not at all. Everywhere in the Jewish world people talk about the need for one generation to continue the work of the previous generation. That is not always how it works. Sometimes we should not continue the work of our parents, but rather we should do our own work.

     This idea is challenging, radical, exciting, and difficult. Experience teaches us this too. At times we realize that our perspective, our commitments, even our values will not be identical to those of our parents, grandparents, and ancestors. And so the story of Abraham gives us permission to choose our own paths. For while our tradition teaches us that every human being inherits much from the world he or she grew up in, each of us must eventually struggle with creating our own religious identities. In figuring out who we are (who we are called to be) in this world, we should start with ourselves. (Maybe not end there, but start there.)

     The message of the Torah this week is simple: go forth! Go with courage and care and good sense. Don't forget the lessons of your parents, your teachers, your rabbis, and our ancestors, and don't stop listening to them or caring about them. But as you sometimes find yourself thinking differently, and making different choices than they made, realize that this, too, is the way that it is supposed to be.  For Abraham went forth, and in the end was indeed a blessing.

Testing 1-2-3!

Hello friends,
I'm getting excited about our upcoming trip to Israel, and I'm testing out our new blog.

Lisa

Micah Uncorked: You Can Still RSVP

RSVP Deadline Extended!
Due: Friday, October 19 by 5 p.m.

Micah Uncorked
7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 20 

Join us for our 2012 wine event at Micah!

The evening will be filled with food, fun, and laughter. From hors d'oeuvres that pair well with various wines - including imported cheeses and olives, to

a mix of red and white wines. A local jazz band will play through the evening; Jazzmanity consists of piano, bass, drums, vocals, and a sax player. It will be a truly classy evening, both indoor and outdoor. 

Upcoming: Alive Hospice hosts Conversations about End-of-Life Care

Rabbis Rice: The Virtue of Humility

"And God said, 'Let us make humanity..." (Gen 1:26)

 

     This week Jews all over the world start reading and studying the Torah from the very beginning. A midrash tell us that when the Holy One was creating the world, an argument broke out between the angels that were helping. The Angel of Mercy began by saying, "Let humanity be created, because humans will dispense great acts of loving-kindness."

     The Angel of Truth disagreed, arguing, "Let us not create humanity, for humans will lie and be deceitful."

     The Angel of Justice declared, "Let humanity be created, for they will establish courts of law."

     And just then the Angel of Peace piped in, "Let humanity not be created, for humans will be full of strife and will no doubt wage war."

     So what did the Holy One do? The midrash says that God took Truth and cast it down to the ground. And when this happened, Peace remained the sole angel still objecting to humanity's creation. The Angels of Mercy and Justice both still favored the decision to make humans, so humanity was created. (Thank God!)

     So why did God choose Truth, rather than Peace - the other objector, to be cast to the ground? Because not even a majority vote can stand up against Truth. Even if both Justice and Mercy had favored creating humanity, arguing that we would practice justice and mercy, Truth would have proceeded to prove that even our acts of justice and mercy could be considered a sham and falsehood. Peace, on the other hand, which argued that humanity would be full of strife, could easily be made to give way to a majority combination of Justice and Mercy. Thus, Truth, rather than Peace, was "cast to the ground."

     With the holy days behind us and our past sins and truths cast out to the ground, we begin our search for Truth again. The biblical and Talmudic commentator, Rashi points out that the most important lesson here is that even God is humble. Although the angels did not actually assist in forming humanity, and although the use of the plural in the Torah is odd, here God teaches us the virtue of humility; namely, that the greater should also consult and consider the opinions of the smaller.

Catching up....

The High Holy Days have come and gone, we played catch up in the office and now we are catching up on our social aspects. We apologize for the distance, but we're back!

Look for new photos posted to Facebook today: http://www.facebook.com/CongregationMicah
And more twitter updates to follow: https://twitter.com/micahnashville

Anything else you want to see from us? Leave us a comment!