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At sunset, the holiday of Tu Bish’vat began. It’s called the New Year of the Trees. Originally a Pagan religion (Canaanite) that morphed into the first Abrahamic religion, Judaism pays close attention to the flow of nature. There are usually seasonal celebrations, celebrations for the new moon, etc. Tu Bish’vat is one such celebration.

Around the spring equinox, there are three holidays: Tu Bish’vat, Purim, and Passover. Each is a celebration. Our ancestors were very happy to have made it through the winter alive and well. Tu Bish’vat (the name actually means the 15th of the month of Sh’vat) is the holiday for when the sap starts flowing again in the trees. It’s the first springtime awakening.

Tu Bish’vat is also called the Jewish Arbor Day. People plant trees in Israel and there’s an “Earth Day” type of atmosphere for many. This is my second year celebrating and I’ve celebrated it the same way each year…. I worked all day and came home with a big can of nuts. I eat the nuts and give God thanks for the bounty from the trees. Simple and to the point.

The Kabbalists, though, invented a seder much like the Pesach seder (ritualized Passover meal). The Huffington Post has an article going into a Kabbalistic celebration of the holiday along with a PDF giving specifics. Click here to check it out. Perhaps, in the future, I’ll put more effort into it and get a much more meaningful holy day out of it.

By now, you may have seen the video of the supposed “Rabbi” wrapping a suspected pedophile, Eddie Long, in a Torah scroll and desecrating the Torah, as well as telling many lies. What you may not know, is that not only is this man not a rabbi in the Messianic movement (which is not considered Jewish by actual Jewish movements….it is a Christian movement), he’s not even Jewish! For much of what was wrong with that video and performance, I invite my readers to read this article by a Bible scholar.

This video and this man’s charade are beyond sickening. He desecrates the Torah, the most holy object in a synagogue, makes a mockery of the holocaust, and more – all in the defense of someone who is alleged to have paid off victims of his pedophiliac actions. Even without the things suspected of Long, to do this to a Torah scroll leaves me without words.

As at least one rabbi has stated, the only thing Ralph Messer should do at this point is to step down from the pulpit and walk away. There is no apology that can make up for what he has done. The only restitution that can be had is if he lives the rest of his life outside of the spotlight, not leading anyone, and not pretending to be something he is not.

One Kabbalistic train of thought is that the ancient Egyptians were so degraded, that they stained creation itself. The plagues were sent, not just to lift the Israelites up from where they were, but to set creation itself back on track. If we look at the order of the plagues, you can see that they undid the order of creation:

1. Water to blood – Undermining of confidence. Confidence is a quality of Malkut.

2. Frogs – Bonding is a quality of Yesod. The frog is a cold-blooded amphibian that was known not to care for its young in the way mammals do.

3. Lice – submission is a quality of Hod. Lice reflect an unhealthy submission. You feel worthless and degraded when you are infested with lice.

4. Devouring beasts – ambition is a quality of Netzach. Devouring beasts represent unhealthy ambition…ripping apart and shredding those one encounters for one’s own ends. (more…)

The first time in the Bible that Israel is called a nation is by Pharoah. Out of fear and hatred, he defines the Israelites as a nation. Then, 3,000 years later, the nation of Israel once again comes into being partially because of widespread fear and hatred culminating in the Holocaust. As American Jews, we see the news. We see the reports around the world. We see Israel and know history. Yet, in all of 2010, across the entire United States, there were only 22 incidents of anti-Semitism which included physical attacks, almost half of which happened in New York and New Jersey – none of which happened in my home state.

Given the hard numbers, we could conclude that, in the 21st century, the United States is a haven for Jews. Even though I don’t wear a kippah or anything else that distinguishes me as a Jew on a regular basis, I have absolutely no fear of doing so. The few times I’ve left synagogue wearing a kippah and taken a walk down the street, I was greeted by random passersby with “shalom”.

Yet, 70 years ago, 6 MILLION Jews were killed – 1.5 million of them were children. When Jews tried to escape to the US, they were literally sent back to Germany to die. Forty years ago, Jews in the South had to live in fear of the KKK. It is, at least for me, almost impossible to imagine what it was like being a Jew in those times. It is in such stark contrast to my life today and the only life I’ve known since becoming a Jew.

Today in Torah study, we talked about the concept of homeland. Unlike the early Reform Jews who settled in the US, I am not prepared to say that the United States, not Israel, is our “new homeland”. I am 100% American. I am proud to be so. My physical ancestors came from England and Germany to settle here and create a new life. The soil under my feet is the soil they tread and were buried in. This is my home. I was born here and will die here. But, it is not my homeLAND.

My homeland is Israel. It is a country I’ve never been to. It’s a country I will never live in. But, it’s where my forefathers lived and died. It’s where my people are from. Our patriarchs are buried beneath the soil of Hebron. The site of our temple lies beneath the Dome of the Rock. The Western Wall still stands as a monument to it. My heart and mind breath the United States, but my soul resides in Israel.

I had to update the website. The website software itself needed to be updated as well as several plugins. I was also going through old posts and found a few that were private, but still on the site. Most were from November 2009 – January 2011. They were concerning Thelema.

Of course, I know why I privated them. They were the “old” website and the old me. I was converting to Judaism and wanted the new website to reflect my new path. But, I feel that these documents do help show the transition from where I was to where I am now. So, I have made them all public again. They won’t change the focus of my website, but will show more of how I got to where I am today. They’re a valuable piece of the journey.

So, if you want to see them, look back in the posts and they will be at the beginning of my posts. Some are dispersed throughout though.