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Elyakeem@YourSpark.com 917.822.0117

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BLOG - PARSHA IN YOUR WEEK

You are invited to submit to a group blog diary titled 'Parsha in Your Week' where you share how themes in the weekly Torah portion correspond and show up in your own life each week. You can post once in a while or every week. It will be posted on www.YourSpark.com. Send submissions to Elyakeem@YourSpark.com, the blog system will be automated in the future.

Sincerely, Elyakeem Kinstlinger

Oct. 15, 2005

From: Elyakeem@YourSpark.com

A few weeks ago my sister a NYC Ballet dancer got a call to have dancers dance at a bar mitzvah to dedicate a new Torah. The Torah's journey started last summer in Morrocco when the Bar Mitzvah boy found it in a pile of other scrolls at a marketplace. His parents bought the Torah and sent it to Israel to be repaired, it turned out to be 200 years old, originally written in Iraq.

The Bar Mitzvah boy's parents are 2 men.

My sister doesn't do Jewish ritual dance, so she called me to see if I could help them with Jewish dancers.
I asked a dancer I know from the "Of Matter and Spirit Dance Group", and she said she wanted to do it and asked me to dance with her and we put together a troupe of 5 dancers.
We went to the Shul, choregraphed a dance for the Torah and welcomed it into this amazing reform temple that had the sefirot names etched into the walls.

We davened at Chabbad accross the street and the Chabbad Rabbi was happy that the reform temple had a Shomer Shabbat dance troupe making a good impression (while dancing to live music) on Shabbat.
Some people said it was the most spirited event they ever went to.

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From: Ariel Elisha Rosen levrosen@yahoo.com

9-28-05

yesterday morning I was awoken by my fellow rabbi
student AVI, and he immediately drove me, him, his
wife and littaw girl, to Jerusalem. IT WAS EVAN
GAVIREL KUMAR"S SON"S BRIS!!! So a really amazing
YEMENITE Rabbi did the circumcision and led
everything, and EVAN's wife said the bracha for
refuah. They played some music and I sucked on the
shekere. that's a hard instrument!

Then Eliyahu Mclean showed up, and I kept trying to
get to talk to him cause I wanted to connect about
feeling locked out of my culture here, especially as
regards multicultural issues and palestinian issues,
so to speak. I've been studying Rabbi stuff under the
trust and guidance of the faculty who believe in my
scholarship abilities. I plan on becoming a rabbi so
that I can judge in jewish law and open up the field
to the next era of global religious theology and legal
approach, including helping people take their love of
fellow jews and spread it to the hated arabs among
other things.

So I finally get to talk to Eliyahu, and he says,
"well, what are you doing tomorrow?" I told him
nothing (even though I'm sposed to be in yeshivah
school). "How bout today?" again nothing.

"you want to go with me to Aman, Jordan? there's an
interfaith conference today and tomorrow.

So i decided to go. I hung out with shaul in the
machane Yehuda shuk (Jewish winding streetmarket), and
who passed through of all people but the vice prime
minister of israel flanked by a bunch of guns. Lots of
people yelled out things, everybody was quite wordy
with the newspeople. My friend and guide UZZIELI, the
Yemenite healer of the shuk (market) brought him into
his shop to give him a healing. I saw shaul tell the
VPM something. (he later said he told him to bridge
the gaps in Israeli society) I was proud of him.
Some arab passed by, and the cops went after him. They
took him into a side room and we all went to watch to
witness what they did. At first I was glad so many
people cared to watch, but then I realized that many
were anti jewish-israel agitators who cared more about
gleaning photos for the destruction of our homeland
than true concern for the man. That made me sad.

I said goodbye to Shaul and we gave each other new
year brachas (blessings) for a sweet judgement and
wonderful year of growth. He, along with tens of
thousands of other Israelis, is going to UMAN, UKRAINE
for Rosh hashanna to pray at the gravesite of REBBE
NACHMON OF BRESLOV! and go to the BAAL SHEM TOV and
other chassidic masters. I gave him a kvittel
(yiddishe word for prayer request note) for him to
read at the tzion (grave) and we said faretheewell.

So I hooked up with Eliyahu again and we had some taxi
foibles. finally we made it back the way we came, and
saw evan gavriel kumar and waved, then shaul, and
waved. The taxi driver said he'd drive us all the way
to the jordanian border, so the price was right and we
left. He was a middle eastern Jew with an arabic
israeli accent. He was very into the work eliyahu was
doing, and he welcomed our friend who we picked up
about 25 minutes into the trip, Eliyahu's friend
Abdallah, the great bedoin palestinian desert guide
and generally sweet soul. we all had a great time in
the ride. The cab driver wanted to hear some Torah,
so I gave over this Torah from rebbe tzvi Meir of
Jerusalem:

The ikar (center) of Rosh Hashanna: all creation wants
to exist. But on rosh hashanna "AIN OD MILVADO."
NOTHING EXISTS BUT HIS UNITY. Creation says, I don't
want it to revert to the light before creation! I
won't exist! but God says, nope, I'm reverting
everything to nothingness. So all creation gets
together and fights Rosh Hashanna so it can exist. So
this is the bechina (aspect) of the SHOFAR-RAM"S HORN.
The Shofar blowing blasts the world so that it is
scattered desroying all the directions and there is no
more timespace. during the year we need the
directions, but on Rosh hashanna, all creation has to
break apart so that new things can have room to grow,
and so the universe can expand to let in greater
light. IN this light we can become new creations and
like fetuses again, which have no fixed form yet.
This is the secret of the struggle between chaos and
order. Letting the light of TOHU-CHaos into the world
helps everything connect to the divine source, who's
nature is above order. But then the world exists
afterwards again, and then this chaos can be used to
bring light into the order in a useable way. may the
judgements be sweetened.

The cab diriver liked that Torah but I felt guilty for
not quoting my source. but the conversation had moved
on by the point i'd dwelled on the matter.

So we got to the border at nightfall. then the
authorities wouldn't let abdallah across, because he
was supposed to use this other border crossing as a
palestinian. They were gentle with him and us, but
they wouln't let us just take him across. It was
another sad moment of realizing where society and
humanity stands today. Even the border soldiers,
young, seemed touched by how stupid it was. It was a
reflective moment on the bench outside the border
building. Still, when it became clear that I'd been
living illegaly in Israel for the past 6 months, I was
able to talk them into letting me go through and come
back without much effort.

We waited for an hour to cross the jordan river, a 100
meter bus ride. we got across and put on our hats to
hide our sidelocks. I kept quiet and Eliyahu spoke
arabic from there on. HE gave me this big puffy
dreadlock hat. I looked like a hippy. There are some
pictures coming later, I'll see if i can get one.

After an hour and a half we got to the hotel, and we
got the royal treatment. the suite! so we hung out
with this arab professor who had taught at UC Davis
once for a year, and this Israeli professor type. Then
we went to the room, where we watched a movie from
Egypt made in the 1940s, about an Egyptian soldier in
the war of '48 against Israel, with this brittish spy
mistress he gave fake info to. It was interesting to
moonlight on the other side watching this film. A
little strange. Then we watched a corny episode of
"frasier with arabic subtitles, and an israeli tv show
about ethiopian Jewish immigrants that was
interesting.

Then in the morning we went to breakfast and I looked
at all the pretty arab girls. I met a rabbi who seemed
very deep and we conversed briefly. His name was Rabbi
Dov Maimon, and he happened to be a maimonedean
scholar who's interest in interfaith dialoge was
coming out of Maimonedes writings and those of his son
and grandson, back a thousand years in Egypt. He was
more interested in dialoging with the more hardcore
elements of Islam. We were interacting with the more
liberal Islam that existed prior to the fundamentalist
revivals of the late 20th century.

We were in the meeting which we had missed three days
of, and I sat next to a young arab girl from tunisia.
We hit it off, and ended up spending the rest of the
conference dialoging with each other on theological
issues and struggles in Islam and Judaism. She was
very compelling, and Rabbi Dov intimated to me that if
the conversation had gone on another day we would've
ended up in a romance before we knew it. He wasn't far
off, but the oppurtunity did not arise. Still we took
each others contact info.

Then at lunch We sat with these two other ladies, a
brilliant hippy from berlin who'd been in San
Francisco during the sixties, Eliyahu, and a young
girl from sweden.

That was the end of the conference for us, and we all
said goodbyes, and headed back to Israel. Me and Rabbi
Dov spent much of the cab ride to the Border talking
about contemporary movements in Jewish demographics,
and why Jews in america who leave the "money money
money" jewish world, also leave judaism. We also
talked about the Rambam's veiw of prophetic states and
his idea of a neccisary recouping what was lost in our
tradition from the sufi muslims. This was written in
the 11th century. Rabbi Dov felt it was still a
brilliant thing to pursue. But I told him I felt a
non-aescetic path that delved into aesceticism was
more neccesary, so long as the purpose was to reveal
God's light in the creation rather than "escape" to a
spiritual place. And how we could literally "sneak"
the light into this world to the degree that
eventually our physical desires would be bound to
holiness and the need for governments and religions
would cease to to the next level of human
physio-spiritual evolution. we discussed point
counterpoint around that and ultimately referenced the
BAAL SHEM TOV.

And then in the cab from THe border to Jerusalem we
talked about why Judaism had to be marketed as
universal, for as shlomo carlebach said "say that
Torah's for the whole world and the Jews will make up
90 percent of the listeners. Say it's for Jews and you
won't get a soul." I told him about the successes of
Lerner and we referenced the Kabbalah Center of Rabbi
Phillip Berg. Rabbi Dov works for some agency dealing
with long term planning on demographic studies and
outreach. He told me he expected something good from
me in ten years time, but my story was too limited to
apply in demographics.

Then I got out in Jerusalem and walked to nechlaot,
where I said hi to some friends and went to the bus.
On the bus, it was so crowded that I sat in the very
front, next to a girl I originally thought was thai,
but then though was of the Indian jewish community of
the tribe of Menashe, then i realized she was regular
sephardic israeli. Then, when there was absolutely no
room left, a tall and beautiful russian woman got on
the bus with these jeans that were so tight there was
no room for any more stiches even. So my head was
level with her _________ and I was sitting there
looking and thinking about how I prayed at the bus
stop to sit next to someone cool who would bring me to
repentance in sequence of Rosh Hashanna. I tried to
figure out how this fulfilled that, as I couldn't help
but see some bizarre answer to my prayer. when I think
simply though it seems obvious.

then I got back to bat Ayin. Eliyahu had encouraged me
to share with the arab folks that I live in a west
bank settlement, which he felt would promote dialogue
and understanding. I avoided it at first, but soon
realized people were interested to hear about it.

that's my story for two days

SHANA TOVA METUKAH!

ON monday night through wednesday night the whole
world passes by God like a flock of sheep
Let us pray for a merciful judgement and a sweet sweet
year!
a year of our dreams!
returning to our light!
finding our muse
finding our partner

peace and love
Ariel Elisha

trips on fair lanes doth work wonders fow da soul
rabbi funkay woo- woo!

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Shabbat Bahalotecha June 16, 2005.

"Rabbi Little Feather."

Every time he would sit down to learn Torah in a class, he would fall asleep, even on Shavuot, the holiday when you are supposed to stay up all night learning. Finally a friend said ' I know why you fall asleep, it's because you really want to be teaching.'

So the next Shabbat he made a meal, went to shul and invited 15 people back to eat dinner. He read the parsha weekly Torah portion before Shabbat, went to some websites and drew a picture of what it looked like when the Jews camped in the desert after Sinai.

Then at the meal, he taught what he had read and gave others a chance for self expression on what was just taught.

One woman said 'Your Torah teaching is like good clean food.'

Then as the guests were leaving, a non-Jewish man, who had come over for dinner, plucked a feather from the decoration on a woman's pocket book, stuck it in the teacher's kippah and said 'You are Rabbi Little Feather.'

The next day, he wore the feather in his kippah to Shul, and was asked by a 48 year old family man 'can you teach me how to fly.'

story by:
Elyakeem@YourSpark.com

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Dear Rabbi Little Feather,

Dear Rabbi Little Feather,

Here is a story for you. I found it in a book that was
on a very high shelf in my home. I must have forgotten
the book was up there, because I didn't recognize it
at all when it fell off my shelf, opened to page 613.
Here is what it said on page 613:

Once there was a girl. There were words she wanted to
hear. Everywhere she went, she didn't hear them. So
she stopped listening. And then she stopped going to
all the places she didn't listen. There were many
people like this woman. For where the heart will not
fly, the legs will not go.

Once there was a man. There were words he wanted to
say. But everywhere he went, he didn't say them.
Instead, he listened very deeply. There were few
people like this man. Listening deeply is a more
complex art than speaking shallowly.

After dark on a holy night, the sort of night with a
howling moon, a bird spoke to the man.

"Speak," the bird said.

The man said, "Good idea," and began making
preparations.

When the woman heard the man was going to speak, soft
down grew around her heart, and she went to the place
where the man had made his preparations. Many others
came to listen, too, their hearts soft and hoping to
become aerodynamic.

When the man spoke, the down in the hearts of the
listeners was replaced by beautiful feathers. Some
grew pure white feathers. Others grew irridescent
green feathers. Some grew feathers that were gilt in
gold. One woman had feathers the red of a cow that had
lived long ago. One man grew purple feathers.

The people admired one another's beautiful feathers,
and their minds and hearts and souls soared.

This was the night of the birth of Rabbi Little
Feather, so named by one of those who flew behind him.

Photo of Mia Cohen, 'The Kohen of Flowers', shortly after her 10th flower hand-off.

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