Rabbi Karen's Biography
Our beloved Rabbi Karen Landy is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. In addition to being the source of our spiritual strength at Havurat Shalom, our teacher and our Rabbi, she serves as rabbi and staff chaplain for Hebrew Senior Life – NewBridge on the Charles. For the past 10 years she has also been a rabbinic presence for Chaverim Shel Shalom - a social program for Jewish adults with psychiatric challenges. Prior to coming to Hebrew Senior life she worked as the Rabbi at Jewish Family and Children’s Service. She has taught throughout the community including at Hebrew College and Northeastern University.
Our beloved Rabbi Karen Landy is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. In addition to being the source of our spiritual strength at Havurat Shalom, our teacher and our Rabbi, she serves as rabbi and staff chaplain for Hebrew Senior Life – NewBridge on the Charles. For the past 10 years she has also been a rabbinic presence for Chaverim Shel Shalom - a social program for Jewish adults with psychiatric challenges. Prior to coming to Hebrew Senior life she worked as the Rabbi at Jewish Family and Children’s Service. She has taught throughout the community including at Hebrew College and Northeastern University.
Previous Messages
Special Message for Passover
I just finished cleaning my kitchen. For me this marks both a spring cleaning and a more internal process of thinking about Passover. We are taught that Passover is not so much an historical event but an event that happens in our own time. The seder is suppose to make us think about today’s world, today’s events and how we can participate in the freedom of ourselves and others. I would like to challenge all of us to do this. I am attaching questions at the end of this message to help with the conversation as well as a list of new items to include on our seder table. Please let me know how these are for all of you and your family of guests. In the spirit of this holiday, I hope each of us can breathe in the smell of Spring and think about our own role in the history of freedom – both individually and for others. Chag Samach – a joyful holiday for all.
The list of items to include on our seder table: Try one this year and it will add to your conversations or try them all and they will become new traditions.
Orange
Many families and congregations have begun adding an orange to the Seder plate as a way of acknowledging the role of people who feel marginalized within the Jewish community. Professor Susannah Heschel explains that in the 1980’s, feminists at Oberlin College placed a crust of bread on the Seder plate, saying, “There's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate.” Heschel adapted this practice, placing an orange on her family's seder plate and asking each attendee to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with LGBTQ Jews and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. They spit out the orange seeds, which were said to represent homophobia.
Miriam's Cup
This new custom celebrates Miriam’s role in the deliverance from slavery and her help throughout the wandering in the wilderness. Place an empty cup alongside Elijah's cup and ask each attendee at the seder to pour a bit of water into the cup. With this new custom, we recognize that women have always been – and continue to be – integral to the continued survival of the Jewish community. We see the pouring of each person's water as a symbol of everyone's individual responsibility to respond to issues of social injustice. Use the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s Miriam's Cup reading insert in your seder to honor the women in your life and remember Miriam's contributions to the Exodus.
Potato
In 1991, Israel launched Operation Solomon, a covert plan to bring Ethiopian Jews to the Holy Land. When these famished, downtrodden Jews arrived in Israel, many were so hungry and ill that they were unable to digest substantial food. Israeli doctors fed these new immigrants simple boiled potatoes and rice until their systems could take more food. To commemorate this at your seder, eat small red potatoes alongside the karpas (green spring vegetable). Announce to those present that this addition honors a wondrous exodus in our own time, from Ethiopia to Israel.
Fair Trade Chocolate or Cocoa Beans
The fair trade movement promotes economic partnerships based on equality, justice and sustainable environmental practices. We have a role in the process by making consumer choices that promote economic fairness for those who produce our products around the globe. Fair Trade certified chocolate and coca beans are grown under standards that prohibit the use of forced labor. They can be included on the seder plate to remind us that although we escaped from slavery in Egypt, forced labor is still very much an issue today.
Banana
The world was awakened and shattered by the images of a little boy whose body lay lifeless amidst the gentle surf of a Turkish beach during the summer of 2015 - another nameless victim mongst thousands in the Syrian refugee crisis, the greatest refugee crisis since WWII. His name was Aylan Kurdi, 3, and he drowned with hisbrother, Galip, 5, and their mother, Rihan, on their exodus to freedom’s distant shore. Aylan and Galip’s father, Abdullah, survived the harrowing journey, and in teaching the world about his sons, he shared that they loved bananas, a luxury in their native, war-torn Syria. Every day after work, Abdullah brought home a banana for his sons to share, a sweet sign of his enduring love for them. Writes Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom in Vancouver, British Columbia, "We place a banana on our seder table and tell this story to remind us of Aylan, Galip and children everywhere who are caught up in this modern day exodus. May they be guarded and protected along their journey to safety, shielded by the love of their parents, watched over by God full of mercy and compassion."
Pinecone
A congregational Passover insert explains why Temple Israel in Boston, MA, adds a pinecone to their seder plate: "We 'pass over' pinecones every day. Inside each of these pinecones is among the most precious of all nuts - the pine nut. Most of us pass more pine nuts in a single day than one could count in a year. Yet they remain hidden, unseen. Moreover, they’re nearly impossible to extract with our own hands. The pinecone 'imprisons' its seeds, and only hard work on the part of nature compels it to open up." They add a pinecone to the seder plate as a reminder of mass incarceration and the work it will take to repair this injustice, writing, "This Passover, we refuse to pass over our prisons because we know that inside is God’s most precious fruit of all: the human soul."
I just finished cleaning my kitchen. For me this marks both a spring cleaning and a more internal process of thinking about Passover. We are taught that Passover is not so much an historical event but an event that happens in our own time. The seder is suppose to make us think about today’s world, today’s events and how we can participate in the freedom of ourselves and others. I would like to challenge all of us to do this. I am attaching questions at the end of this message to help with the conversation as well as a list of new items to include on our seder table. Please let me know how these are for all of you and your family of guests. In the spirit of this holiday, I hope each of us can breathe in the smell of Spring and think about our own role in the history of freedom – both individually and for others. Chag Samach – a joyful holiday for all.
The list of items to include on our seder table: Try one this year and it will add to your conversations or try them all and they will become new traditions.
Orange
Many families and congregations have begun adding an orange to the Seder plate as a way of acknowledging the role of people who feel marginalized within the Jewish community. Professor Susannah Heschel explains that in the 1980’s, feminists at Oberlin College placed a crust of bread on the Seder plate, saying, “There's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate.” Heschel adapted this practice, placing an orange on her family's seder plate and asking each attendee to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with LGBTQ Jews and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. They spit out the orange seeds, which were said to represent homophobia.
Miriam's Cup
This new custom celebrates Miriam’s role in the deliverance from slavery and her help throughout the wandering in the wilderness. Place an empty cup alongside Elijah's cup and ask each attendee at the seder to pour a bit of water into the cup. With this new custom, we recognize that women have always been – and continue to be – integral to the continued survival of the Jewish community. We see the pouring of each person's water as a symbol of everyone's individual responsibility to respond to issues of social injustice. Use the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s Miriam's Cup reading insert in your seder to honor the women in your life and remember Miriam's contributions to the Exodus.
Potato
In 1991, Israel launched Operation Solomon, a covert plan to bring Ethiopian Jews to the Holy Land. When these famished, downtrodden Jews arrived in Israel, many were so hungry and ill that they were unable to digest substantial food. Israeli doctors fed these new immigrants simple boiled potatoes and rice until their systems could take more food. To commemorate this at your seder, eat small red potatoes alongside the karpas (green spring vegetable). Announce to those present that this addition honors a wondrous exodus in our own time, from Ethiopia to Israel.
Fair Trade Chocolate or Cocoa Beans
The fair trade movement promotes economic partnerships based on equality, justice and sustainable environmental practices. We have a role in the process by making consumer choices that promote economic fairness for those who produce our products around the globe. Fair Trade certified chocolate and coca beans are grown under standards that prohibit the use of forced labor. They can be included on the seder plate to remind us that although we escaped from slavery in Egypt, forced labor is still very much an issue today.
Banana
The world was awakened and shattered by the images of a little boy whose body lay lifeless amidst the gentle surf of a Turkish beach during the summer of 2015 - another nameless victim mongst thousands in the Syrian refugee crisis, the greatest refugee crisis since WWII. His name was Aylan Kurdi, 3, and he drowned with hisbrother, Galip, 5, and their mother, Rihan, on their exodus to freedom’s distant shore. Aylan and Galip’s father, Abdullah, survived the harrowing journey, and in teaching the world about his sons, he shared that they loved bananas, a luxury in their native, war-torn Syria. Every day after work, Abdullah brought home a banana for his sons to share, a sweet sign of his enduring love for them. Writes Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom in Vancouver, British Columbia, "We place a banana on our seder table and tell this story to remind us of Aylan, Galip and children everywhere who are caught up in this modern day exodus. May they be guarded and protected along their journey to safety, shielded by the love of their parents, watched over by God full of mercy and compassion."
Pinecone
A congregational Passover insert explains why Temple Israel in Boston, MA, adds a pinecone to their seder plate: "We 'pass over' pinecones every day. Inside each of these pinecones is among the most precious of all nuts - the pine nut. Most of us pass more pine nuts in a single day than one could count in a year. Yet they remain hidden, unseen. Moreover, they’re nearly impossible to extract with our own hands. The pinecone 'imprisons' its seeds, and only hard work on the part of nature compels it to open up." They add a pinecone to the seder plate as a reminder of mass incarceration and the work it will take to repair this injustice, writing, "This Passover, we refuse to pass over our prisons because we know that inside is God’s most precious fruit of all: the human soul."
Tu B'shvat |
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Do you have special memories of certain trees? Are there particular trees that you feel drawn towards because of their beauty? From the mention of the tree of knowledge in the bible, to the idea of the Torah as a tree of life, to guidelines on how to protect trees in times of war, Jewish traditions and stories include many references to trees. And happily, there’s even a holiday on the Jewish calendar to celebrate them – Tu B’shvat!
Tu B’shvat is the 15th day of the month of Shvat, and the holiday always falls on the full moon. Although it took place on February 11, it can truly be celebrated every day. As we all know the winters here are usually long and dark, and the cold, hard ground in New England might be covered in snow. This is the time of year when skiers rejoice and bike riders long for summer.
Why, during our time of deep winter, would Jewish people and their loved ones celebrate the ‘birthday of the trees’ and eat lots of fruits and nuts that come from trees?
While the ground is cold and icy here, it’s becoming lush and green in Israel. The trees in Israel are just beginning to bud. Tu B’shvat dates more than 2,000 years to the time of the Second Temple, and is closely associated with the agricultural calendar of the Middle East. In those days, trees had to be mature enough (about 4 years old) before their fruits could be offered as a gift to support the Second Temple. At 5 years old, trees could be harvested to support farmers and families.
After the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the first century, many Jewish people simply ate fruit on this day to remember their lost connection to the land of Israel. About 16 centuries later, the Jewish mystics of Safed (a town in Northern Israel) revived the holiday by creating a Seder for the holiday, modeled loosely on the Passover Seder. The Jewish mystical idea behind a Tu B’shvat Seder was to honor the grandeur of trees and their fruit as a symbol of the sacred, and to bring more blessing into the world through celebrating trees as a source of life.
Tu B’shvat is a wonderful moment in the calendar to think about our relationship with trees, the natural world, and the earth. What do we appreciate about them? How do they sustain us physically and spiritually? How are trees a metaphor for our lives and our relationships?
Let me leave you with two beautiful teachings:
Shimon bar Yochai taught that “if you are holding a sapling in your hand and someone says that the Messiah has drawn near, first plant the sapling, and then go and greet the Messiah.”
~Avot d’Rebbe Natan 31b
Reb Nachman's Prayer written by Debbie Friedman
You are the One, You are the One, For this I pray:
That I may have the strength to be alone
To see the world, to stand among the trees,
And all the living things.
That I may stand alone, and offer prayers and talk to You
You are the One to whom I do belong
And I'll sing my soul, I'll sing my soul to You
And give You all that's in my heart.
May all the foliage of the field,
All grasses, trees and plants,
Awaken at my coming, this I pray,
And send their life into my words of prayer
So that my speech, my thoughts and my prayers will be made whole,
And through the spirit of all growing things
And we know that everything is one,
Because we know that everything is You.
You are the One, for this pray
I ask You, God, to hear my words
That pour out from my heart; I stand before You;
I, like water, lift my hands to You in prayer.
And grant me strength, and grant me strength to stand alone
You are the One to whom I do belong
And I'll sing my soul, I'll sing my soul to You
Take time during these days to connect with nature and to see all the beauty that exist in this wonderful world of ours.
Tu B’shvat is the 15th day of the month of Shvat, and the holiday always falls on the full moon. Although it took place on February 11, it can truly be celebrated every day. As we all know the winters here are usually long and dark, and the cold, hard ground in New England might be covered in snow. This is the time of year when skiers rejoice and bike riders long for summer.
Why, during our time of deep winter, would Jewish people and their loved ones celebrate the ‘birthday of the trees’ and eat lots of fruits and nuts that come from trees?
While the ground is cold and icy here, it’s becoming lush and green in Israel. The trees in Israel are just beginning to bud. Tu B’shvat dates more than 2,000 years to the time of the Second Temple, and is closely associated with the agricultural calendar of the Middle East. In those days, trees had to be mature enough (about 4 years old) before their fruits could be offered as a gift to support the Second Temple. At 5 years old, trees could be harvested to support farmers and families.
After the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the first century, many Jewish people simply ate fruit on this day to remember their lost connection to the land of Israel. About 16 centuries later, the Jewish mystics of Safed (a town in Northern Israel) revived the holiday by creating a Seder for the holiday, modeled loosely on the Passover Seder. The Jewish mystical idea behind a Tu B’shvat Seder was to honor the grandeur of trees and their fruit as a symbol of the sacred, and to bring more blessing into the world through celebrating trees as a source of life.
Tu B’shvat is a wonderful moment in the calendar to think about our relationship with trees, the natural world, and the earth. What do we appreciate about them? How do they sustain us physically and spiritually? How are trees a metaphor for our lives and our relationships?
Let me leave you with two beautiful teachings:
Shimon bar Yochai taught that “if you are holding a sapling in your hand and someone says that the Messiah has drawn near, first plant the sapling, and then go and greet the Messiah.”
~Avot d’Rebbe Natan 31b
Reb Nachman's Prayer written by Debbie Friedman
You are the One, You are the One, For this I pray:
That I may have the strength to be alone
To see the world, to stand among the trees,
And all the living things.
That I may stand alone, and offer prayers and talk to You
You are the One to whom I do belong
And I'll sing my soul, I'll sing my soul to You
And give You all that's in my heart.
May all the foliage of the field,
All grasses, trees and plants,
Awaken at my coming, this I pray,
And send their life into my words of prayer
So that my speech, my thoughts and my prayers will be made whole,
And through the spirit of all growing things
And we know that everything is one,
Because we know that everything is You.
You are the One, for this pray
I ask You, God, to hear my words
That pour out from my heart; I stand before You;
I, like water, lift my hands to You in prayer.
And grant me strength, and grant me strength to stand alone
You are the One to whom I do belong
And I'll sing my soul, I'll sing my soul to You
Take time during these days to connect with nature and to see all the beauty that exist in this wonderful world of ours.
A Thanksgiving Prayer
REFLECTIONS FOR THE THANKSGIVING TABLE: Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude. We are grateful for all the good that we have experienced this year, from food to family to moments of joy. We are also grateful for the strength that has enabled us to confront profound challenges in our lives, our country and around the globe.
This year, let our gratitude propel us to action, as we work to build a better world.
Let’s share our resources with those suffering from poverty, hunger and disasters
Let’s raise our voices to counter hate, prejudice and violence
Let’s celebrate difference and unite around shared values
Let’s welcome the stranger and open our doors to refugees
Let’s defend the civil and human rights that are the pillars of our nation
Let’s create a world of justice, equality and dignity for all.
This year, let our gratitude propel us to action, as we work to build a better world.
Let’s share our resources with those suffering from poverty, hunger and disasters
Let’s raise our voices to counter hate, prejudice and violence
Let’s celebrate difference and unite around shared values
Let’s welcome the stranger and open our doors to refugees
Let’s defend the civil and human rights that are the pillars of our nation
Let’s create a world of justice, equality and dignity for all.
UPDATED February 27, 2018