“Truth is in the eyes, lies stay behind them.”

That is the adage that came to my mind this week as I chanted the trifold blessing of the Kohanim: “May the Eternal bless you and protect you. May the Eternal’s countenance shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the face of the Eternal lift up before you and grant you peace!” I will never forget Leonard Nimoy’s character, Mr. Spock, holding his hand out the same way that the Kohanim do and giving that wonderful Vulcan greeting, “Live long and prosper.” The Kohanim kept a space in between each set of fingers. You see, it wasn’t just that the Kohanim were looking eye-to-eye with those they were saying the blessing on, those who were being blessed were looking through that space, making another most intimate form of contact. They were looking beyond that space; they were looking into the face of G-d, to see G-d’s eyes, and, as they do so, G-d responded in kind by looking directly back into their eyes as well.

“Truth is in the eyes.”

Perhaps that is why some people who are having difficulty in their relationships have trouble looking into the eyes of the one they are (temporarily) on the outs with. And who among us hasn’t gotten so upset by someone else’s behavior that we say, “I can’t even stand to look at them” or, “I don’t want to see them anymore”?

Let me go back to Mr. Spock’s Vulcan greeting for a moment, to “Live long and prosper.” What is the first sentence of the Birkat Kohanim? “May the Lord bless you and protect you.” What are the goals of blessing and protection? According to Rabbi Stephen Kushner, this has to do with the bare necessities of life: a home, food, clothing, the material things we need, the things that we need in order to prosper.

In the second verse, we mention grace, or if you prefer another translation, beauty. We don’t need grace and beauty to survive. Grace and beauty in our lives are beyond mere survival. They are about the extras in life that enhance our life, that make us content and give us meaning. But, as Rabbi Kushner points out, grace and beauty come from the light of G-d. In other words, we are not only getting something from G-d, we are actually getting a piece of G-d, the light of His love.

In the final verse, we talk about that all elusive Shalom — peace. That peace comes from intimacy with God and with those we love, by seeing each other in all our goodness, in all our love, and with all our perfect imperfections.

That is why in the third verse we read, “May the face of the Eternal lift up before you…” because when G-d lifts up his face, He is allowing us to make eye contact with Him and He is making eye contact with us, the eye contact that brings intimacy, and that intimacy brings peace.

Eye contact, as Rabbi Kushner points out, requires vulnerability and it requires trust. That desire to look into another’s eyes gives us the strength to get over our own insecurities, and to open our eyes and our heart to another human being and to G-d as well.

It is that intimacy that brings us to wholeness.

Of course, we are taught that no one can see G-d, at least not physically, but, when we make eye contact, we do not need to see a body. Looking into each other’s eyes, we come upon an intimate moment when we see deep into each other’s souls, and, hopefully, we see each other through the eyes of love. For it is through the eyes of love that we truly connect at the most intimate of levels.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach, 201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33441. Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m. High Holiday tickets still available 954-421-7060.

Everybody needs a change once in a while. It might be something as simple as a change in hair color. It might be a change of attitude or lifestyle. And even if you don’t want to change, we all know there are times we have to adjust to change whether we want to or not.

Try and imagine the changes the Children of Israel had to go through after being freed from slavery, wandering around in a strange new land.

Not only were they in an unknown place, but they had no idea how long they were going to be there.

When someone is admitted to a health center, they are coming to a strange place and they have no idea how long they will be there.

In the wilderness, the Children of Israel had to learn to sleep under very different conditions. And those of us who have had to go through a medical ordeal face a similar issue as we find ourselves having to sleep in a strange bed, with pillows that are not as fluffy as we are used to. We may have an injury or a surgical area that makes it impossible for us to sleep in the position that we are most comfortable in.

In the wilderness, The Children of Israel had to adjust to different sights and different sounds.

Those of us who have spent time in the hospital can relate.

There are the constant beeps of medical equipment, the lights on all night long, the noise coming from the staff and from those who cannot help but moan in pain. And there is the waiting.

The Children of Israel did not know how long they would be stuck in the desert and, as patients, we have no idea how long we will have to wait for the aide, the nurse, the doctor or our pain pills.

And then there was the Manna, the food that fell from the heavens.

They had to get used to the Manna, as it was simply not the food they were used to. And, one thing I can tell you for sure, no matter how good the food in a health center or hospital might be, it sure as shootin’ is not the food we are accustomed too.

And, depending on your illness or injury, you might have to get used to using a special utensil to eat with or you might need to be fed. The Israelites were told to gather a double portion on Fridays as they were not permitted to gather food on the Sabbath and, if they tried to do so, the food would be rotten.

Who among us hasn’t faced a test or procedure where we are told that we better eat or drink a little more on this day because, as of midnight, we will not be able to have anything to eat or drink.

G-d gave the Children of Israel a list of rules to live by. The medical care providers (though they are certainly not gods) tell us what we should and shouldn’t eat, what kind of exercise we should do and for how long, and when to take our meds. They tell us what rules we should follow to live what will hopefully be a longer and healthier life.

The question is, Will we make those changes? Will we comply?

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

I want to talk with you about walls today. Why? Because we all put up walls; and because I felt myself climbing the walls as I tried to figure out what to write about this week.

I sat at my desk and I looked at the walls. Those walls contained pictures and those pictures made the walls speak to me. Those walls spoke to me about their family history.

They spoke of the Walls of Jericho and how Joshua made those walls come tumbling down.

Those walls told me how some of their family became famous for keeping people out and how some became famous for keeping people in.

Those walls talked to me about the Great Wall of China, which was built to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from the attacks of Nomads.

They told me about The Berlin Wall, built in the middle of Berlin by East Germany to stop East Berliners from escaping to the west. Thank goodness that wall went down in 1989 with the fall of the Soviet Union.

Those walls told me of the great Walls of Troy, built to protect the city of Troy.

Those walls shared the story of one of the newest members of the wall family, The Vietnam Memorial Wall, which was built to honor those who fought and died or are still Missing in Action from yet another horrible time of war.

And, those walls proudly shared with me the story of their Jewish Branch, the Kotel, the Western Wall, the sole remnant of the Holy Temple located in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Riskin notes that Harav Kook, speaking of the Western Wall, said, “There are some hearts which are made of stone, and there are some stones which are truly hearts.”

Cardiologists may be able to go inside our bodies to see the wall of our heart, but there is an emotional side to the heart as well. Jerusalem is the heart of our people and The Wall … the Western Wall … is the heart of our city … and the seat of our soul.

Others may have damaged the walls of our heart, but we have found a way to bypass the damage by building something through the study of Torah that can survive beyond the walls.

Harold B. Lee wrote that, “The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes.” What have we done and what are we doing of importance in this, our home?

Comedienne Goldie Hawn said, “Comedy breaks down walls. It opens up people. If you’re good, you can fill up those openings with something positive, maybe combat some of the ugliness in the world.”

As slaves in Egypt we lived a life imprisoned behind the walls of the Pharaoh. G-d freed us from those walls. He showed us that there were other walls for us to get through, as we walked through the Red Sea with a wall of water on both sides of us.

We still have many walls to get through. We have walls to break down and we have walls to build up.

Maryanne Hershey wrote, “May your walls know joy. May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility.”

Joshua may have blown a horn and knocked down the walls of Jericho, but, in just a couple of months, we will blow the Shofar for the High Holy Days.

May the blasts from that Shofar remind us to fill every space in the walls of our heart with loving kindness, and let us say, Amen.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

There is a prayer that is traditionally recited upon wakening in the morning. It is the Modeh Ani which basically says, “I thank You G-d for this new day.”

What a wonderfully positive expression of gratitude to begin anew.

Oddly enough, I recently read an article online that talked about the most important thing in a happy marriage and, according to that particular analysis, the No. 1 ingredient that was found to exist in happy marriages was that both partners took the time to express gratitude to their partner on a daily basis.

I used to sarcastically tell a story about gratitude in marriage.

I would say how wonderful it was (and please don’t call me a male chauvinist for this … it is just a story) about how after a couple returns home from their honeymoon, the wife lovingly works in the kitchen to prepare these amazing meals each evening.

And, for the first two weeks, or, if you are really lucky, for the first two months, the husband lavishes praise upon her, letting her know each and every night how grateful he is, how delicious the food is, how loving it is for her to take the time to prepare each of his favorite dishes.

And then, you should pardon the expression, the honeymoon is over.

The husband now takes all those wondrous meals for granted and does not express any gratitude at all.

Now, instead of the wife feeling that what she is doing is appreciated, what used to be a joy to her now feels like she is stuck slaving away in the kitchen.

Make no mistake about it, gratitude is important and it is important not just to the recipient but to the acknowledger.

Now let’s turn back to the prayer that is traditionally recited upon waking.

How many of you get up in the morning and your first thought is, “Oy, my aching back?” How many of you wake up in the morning and simply think, “Oh no, not another day?”

Not a very positive way to start the day, and it immediately triggers your brain to put the emphasis on negatives.

Modeh Ani, on the other hand, has you start your day with words of thanks, of gratitude. The practice of thanking G-d each and every morning just for waking up teaches an important lesson. You see, just because we get up each and every day does not mean that we should take it for granted.

Neither should we take other daily things for granted.

Funny, we don’t give a thought to breathing until we have difficulty catching our breath. We don’t give a thought to our heart beating until we feel those beats out of sync.

A friend of mine recently needed some eye surgery. I was on the phone with her late at night to see how she was doing and she said that it is amazing that she is beginning to be able to see again.

I learned something very special from those words. How many of us close our eyes at night to go to sleep and, when we wake up in the morning, we rub our eyes and open them up to start the day? How many of us take the time to thank G-d, not just that we have a new day, but that we can see again?

Blessed is G-d who enables us to open our eyes and see.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

I was in Orlando not too long ago and I had the pleasure of watching the incredible fireworks display as the sun set at Epcot. But, as much as I enjoyed the sights and sounds there, I did not get those goosebumps that I get watching similar displays on the 4th of July.

For some reason, this year, a question came to my head about why we celebrate the 4th with fireworks. The first person I asked told me that it had to do with a letter written by John Adams to his wife as the Continental Congress adopted the final version of the Declaration of Independence which said: “I am apt to believe that (Independence Day) … ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to G-d Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

I thought that I had my answer. I thought that I knew why we shot off fireworks on the 4th.

But as I was preparing to write this article, I was looking over a recent Torah reading that we have done in Synagogue. And we have been reading a lot about death recently. We read about how to purify oneself if one comes in contact with a dead person. We read about the death of Miriam. We read about the death of Aaron. And, we read about the death of Moses.

How on earth did that fit into our upcoming Independence Day and the shooting off of fireworks? Well, oddly enough, there is more than one connection. First of all, it was Moses, Aaron and Miriam, with the help of G-d, who helped lead the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom and from the Pharaoh.

Independence Day is about G-d helping us free ourselves from what one could conceive as a more modern Pharaoh, King George III, which brings me back to the whys of fireworks.

You see, in Pre-Revolutionary years, colonists held annual celebrations of the king’s birthday and they did so with ringing of bells, with bonfires, with processions and with speechifying.

But, in 1776, some of those colonists changed things just a tad. Instead of celebrating the king’s birthday, they held mock funerals for King George III. This was a way of expressing being led to freedom from the monarchy. These celebrations included concerts, bonfires, and the firing of muskets and cannons.

So now I thought I had my answer about fireworks.

But, then, I learned from another source that while Congress was in the midst of dealing with war, such loud and beautiful displays were held to build the spirits of those whose loved ones were off fighting for our freedom.

So, now I had my answer.

Nope, because then I found an article that talked about how, after the Revolutionary War, we continued to celebrate the 4th with loud noises, lights in the sky and political orations to create a feeling of unity among all Americans.

Okay, so maybe I’m still not really sure why we have fireworks on the 4th, but we can still enjoy those wondrous displays. And, as for unity, let me remind you, with the recent tragedy in Charleston, that that incredible city has a music festival each year called Moja. Moja is a Swahili word and it means “One.” As we celebrate American Independence Day, let us remember that we are all one. Let us celebrate together in peace, as One Nation, under G-d, Indivisible with liberty and justice for All.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Years ago, I was blessed to work with my father of blessed memory.

We not only got to share the pulpit for several high holy days, we also did rounds together at several health centers. Back in those years, we worked alongside a wonderful Franciscan Friar, known lovingly to all those under his charge as Father Joe.

One day, the three of us were walking down a hospital hallway side-by-side and someone came up to us. They looked at my father and then at me and said, “I never remember, which of you is the father and which of you is the son.”

My dad immediately responded, “I’m the father and he’s the son,” at which point I looked over at Father Joe and said, “You know what that makes you, don’t you? That’s right, if my dad’s the father and I’m the son, then you must be the Holy Ghost!”

Father Joe wasn’t offended in any way, and, as he smiled at my sick humor, the patient in front of us got such a wonderful belly laugh, the first time he had laughed in ages.

Oddly enough, I now do rounds each week at the North Broward campus of Catholic Health Services. When I first started working there several years ago, everyone call me Rabbi. But I have been there for a long time, and, over the years, many of the staff and patients have slipped and, instead of calling me Rabbi, they call me Father.

The first time they do it and realize what they have done, they apologize. But I tell them, you have nothing to apologize for. I am honored that you accept my position here to the point that you actually refer to me in such a way.

I don’t have any children of my own, but I do have those who call me Father, and that is a blessing in my life.

Amazingly enough, here in America, we celebrate Father’s Day on the specific day we do because of Priests, Pastors and Ministers.

This year marks the 115th Anniversary of Father’s Day.

Sonora Smart Dodd came up with the concept of Father’s Day. Her mother died giving birth. Sonora’s father raised her and her five brothers all by himself. And, during the church service on Mother’s Day, Sonora knew there should be a special day set aside for fathers.

Her father happened to have been born on June 5, and she thought that would be the perfect day to celebrate Father’s Day. But when the Ministerial Association of Spokane, WA met to approve it, they felt there was too little time to prepare proper sermons for fathers so soon after Mother’s Day. And so it was that they opted to celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday of the month of June. That was back in the year 1910 and we have been celebrating it ever since.

Father’s Day was not meant to be a day for buying ties. And I believe that Calvin Coolidge said it best as he signed a resolution in 1924 pertaining to Father’s Day as a day “to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.”

I hope all the Fathers reading this column will take those words to heart. You can be a Saint to your children. In fact, in several traditionally Catholic Countries (Spain, Portugal, etc.), Father’s Day is observed on March 19, which just happens to be The Feast of St. Joseph.

Shalom my friends and a very meaningful Father’s Day,

Rabbi Craig H Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Mr. Weiss is a carpet salesman in Pittsburgh. I suspect that he spends each of his workdays observing people in his store as they look at all the carpets that are available. And, as he watches them, he may hear them say that they like this one or that one. He may hear them say that this color is great or this one is not bad. He may even hear them say, “Yuck!”

Some people may opt for one particular carpet on their first visit. Others may come back a few times. Some may just be browsing. Others will feel as though the store is either too expensive or that it has nothing they really like, or, perhaps, they did not like the way they were treated by the staff.

Keeping this in mind, it was not surprising to me that Mr. Weiss wrote an article called, “Confessions of a Synagogue-Hopper,” telling the story of how he enjoys hopping from one Temple to another. He even became a member of a few of them.

But, it would be a mistake for you to assume that because a congregation is Reform, Conservative or Orthodox that you know what their service will be like.

And I have a bit of a problem with Synagogue Hopping. You see, I looked up the word “Hop” and one of the first things I saw in the synonyms was “to bounce.” Hopping from one Temple to another is like bouncing. You will hop around and look for all the ups and downs of the Temple, instead of growing to feel like family and focusing on what you need to change within yourself and how you need to grow and mature, and build a relationship with G-d. You will spend your time analyzing what the Temple is doing right or wrong from your vantage point.

Another synonym for “Hop” is “Hurdle” and, if you hop from one house of worship to another, you may well put hurdles between you and G-d and those hurdles may become harder and harder to leap over. (Perhaps, that is where the expression “a leap of faith” comes from).

The next synonym I saw was “Trip” and, if you spend all your time hopping from one house of worship to another, you just might get yourself all tripped up and, sadly, that could lead to a big fall.

There is one more synonym I saw that I want to share with you “Skip.” If someone is a regular at my Temple and one Shabbat I do not see them in the pews, I know to check up on them. But if someone does not attend regularly, it will be pretty hard to notice that they are not there. And, if you hop from Temple to Temple, it can become very easy to skip whenever you do not feel the urge to attend.

Oddly enough, the antonyms for “hop” are “to allow” or “to permit.” If you hop from one Temple to another, then you are not permitting yourself to become truly at home with the other members of the Congregational Family and you are not allowing yourself to have the full experience of becoming fully familiar with the service and how it can lead to a greater connection with others and with G-d.

So, instead of being a Synagogue- Hopper, why not consider becoming a “Synagogue-Hoper!” Experience all the ups and downs of your life with your Temple Family and with G-d by your side.

Let me close with a wonderful story of hope. There was a king who sentenced a man of his realm to death. The poor soul told the king that if he let him live, he could teach the king’s horse to fly, but the king would have to postpone his execution for one year.

Another man who was also condemned to death, asked him, “Why delay the inevitable?” and he replied, “It is not inevitable. The king might die, I might die, the horse might die. Then again, I might just teach the horse to fly. The odds are four to one in my favor.”

Do yourself a favor. Come to Shul filled with hope and we just might teach you how to fly!

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

In The Torah, we learn the laws of Shmittah, where we are commanded to let the land rest from all the hard work it has done in providing for us.

So we are told we should not plant, we should not harvest, nor should we prune during the sabbatical year.

Many of you might remember the story from earlier in the Torah where the Manna falls from the heavens and The Children of Israel are told to gather enough manna each day for that day only. But when Friday came along, they were told to gather a double portion. That extra portion was to be kept aside for the Sabbath and Israel was told that that portion would not rot … it would stay fresh and delicious.

Well, I don’t know about you, but if I had to depend on food magically falling from the sky, I would wonder — what if no food comes tomorrow? I had better consider gathering extra so that I will have in case nothing is delivered on the morrow. But somehow, the brunt of the people had the faith in G-d. Those who didn’t wound up finding that the extra food they had gathered had rotted away quickly.

In the Shmittah year, I know that I would be prone to ask the same question that we find in The Torah itself, “Should you ask, ‘What are we to eat in the 7th year, if we can’t sow or gather our crops.’”

And G-d responds, “I will put my blessing for you in the 6th year, so that it will produce enough for three years.” (Lev. 25:20-21)

How similar to the story of the Manna.

It even brings to mind the story of Joseph in Egypt when he knows there is a famine coming and advises Pharaoh to store enough grain and wheat so there is plenty of food during that time of need. In simple terms, he plans in advance.

I will soon be 61 years of age. I know to many of you that sounds like I am a young whippersnapper, but it just so happens that I am in the midst of planning for my future retirement. Fortunately, I have been putting aside an extra portion for years, building toward those Goldenah Yoren (Golden Years).

Many of you are already retired. Some of you are planning for that time … not just for a Sabbatical Year, but for years of retirement.

May we all be wise enough to gather those extra portions, to invest them wisely, to have enough to cover not just our basic needs, but enough to share special times with those we love whether it be in going to the theatre, to dine, to travel, to dance, or whatever trips your fancy.

That is my prayer for each of you today: may you have enough for all your needs, and don’t forget to gather an extra portion so that you can enjoy the rest of your years doing things you love to do, and may you have someone beside you who you love to share those joys with … and, while you are at it, why not save a little extra for those who were not as wise in gathering enough for themselves and their families.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

When I was a young lad, one of the members of my father’s congregation, owned a poultry plant and I used to dread going there. Now, you might think it was because of the chickens being slaughtered or the odor in the place … or, perhaps, because the place was so cold you felt like you were living in Syracuse in the midst of a frosty winter’s day.

But none of this had anything to do with my dread. So, what made me dislike going there so much? Let me tell you, and I am ashamed to admit it. There was an employee there who had a very disfigured face. Back then, I had enough trouble being in the same room with someone who wore a brace on their legs or who had an amputation, so you can imagine how terrified I was of looking at this particular person’s misshapen and discolored features.

How on earth did I go from having trouble with that to working in health centers where, over the years, I have come across just about every one of those things, plus many more? That’s a good question. And I think it had to do with a recent Parsha we read in the Synagogue about a skin condition that many English Translations refer to as Leprosy (Not the leprosy we think of today.)

My parent’s got me to see that I was treating this person as a leper. I refused not only to have contact with him, but I refused to even look at him. Thank G-d my parents taught me, and believe me, it was no easy lesson to learn that, while I kept calling him that poor person, he was not so poor after all. He was very content with his life and grateful for what he had, which included a good job, a loving wife and children, etc. (I guess he wouldn’t fare too well on the computer dating sites many use today; in fact, he would be shunned).

And then, there are those of you who have experienced taking a fall. The reason I bring up a fall has to do with the cuts, gashes, breaks, black and blue marks and shiners that come from the fall. When such things happen, I have seen individuals deal with it in two very different ways. The positive one is the one who doesn’t let their black eye keep them from going out and being with others; but then there are those who are so vain that they hide in their room or in their home until the bruising goes away and they look like themselves again.

The problem is that, during the time, they have closed themselves off from others. They have done what used to be done to lepers; they have excluded them from the community and, sadly, in the case of these people who are bruised from a fall, they wind up doing the same thing to themselves. They close themselves off from everyone and, in doing so, they turn themselves into lepers.

I recently dealt with another scenario in which a person can feel like a leper. The lady [a man] was with for the past few years broke things off with him and would not be the way she used to be with him. The warmth was gone, the regular calls, the time together and he felt so much like a leper that he wondered if he would ever know love again.

My friends, I am a romantic. I believe in love. G-d does not shun us; but some of us make ourselves feel like spiritual lepers by shunning G-d. And some make themselves lepers by avoiding the love of another. Let G-d in and don’t just let yourself be loved … return that love tenfold.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9

Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, was observed at Temple Beth Israel on April 16, as it was in Synagogues all over the world. During Shabbat services this past Saturday, as I read a long list of members of our congregation who are no longer with us and of their family members as well, I couldn’t help but notice that many people on the list had the same last name.

It could have been just a coincidence, but it wasn’t. Several families had the same last name because they were all from the same family. Someone asked me how hard it must have been on these families to have so many of their kin die in such a short period of time. But the fact of the matter is that their family members who put them on the list to have the memorial prayer recited for them each year are not even sure when their loved one’s died. You see, each of them perished in the camps during the horrors of the Nazi movement.

And so it was that these families picked a date to remember their loved ones and to honor their memory. When someone we love passes away in our day here in America, we take for granted that, not only the date, but the time of day and the cause of death will all be recorded in the medical chart and will be made available to us. But imagine not knowing how or when a loved one died.

Oh, we know the cause; the cause was hatred; the cause was that there were those who wanted to exterminate the Jews; the cause was that there were those who saw the Jews as less than human; the cause was putting such horrific labels and blame on us that we were little more than dirt in other’s eyes and, sadly, to this very day, there are many people throughout the world who feel that way toward us and, if not toward us, then toward another group of “others,” of “outsiders” of those who are “different.”

Each year on Yom HaShoah, survivors are called upon to speak. The odd part is the stories all begin the same way. Each of the survivors can recall a …. you should pardon the expression … “normal, ordinary life.” Each woke up in the morning. Each went to sleep at night. Each ate meals. And each had goals for the future.

And then, the unthinkable happened. And, in what must have seemed like a blink of the eye, all the rumors, all the gossip, all the whispers became a horrific reality.

Jews were barred from schools, from professions. Jews were barred from getting money, their own money out of their bank accounts. Jews were barred from possessing guns. Jews were beaten. Jews were rounded up. Jews were sent away never to be seen or heard from again.

Each year, we have fewer and fewer survivors left to tell the story. Each year, we have more and more people in the world who deny that the Holocaust ever took place. Each year, our enemies who used to complain that we were always bringing up the Holocaust, now use the term “Holocaust” and “Genocide” against us.

And our survivors call out, “Don’t just remember the past; learn from it!” And so, as we recited Kaddish for those who perished in the Shoah, I couldn’t help but remember the words of Elie Wiesel who wrote:

“Let us say Kaddish not only for the dead, but also for the living who have forgotten the dead and let the prayer be more than a prayer, more than a lament; let it be outcry, protest and defiance. And above all let it be an act of remembrance. For that is what the victims wanted: to be remembered, at least to be remembered. For just as the killer was determined to erase Jewish memory, so were the dying heroes and fighting martyrs bent on maintaining it alive. They are now being defamed or forgotten – which is like killing them a second time. Let us say Kaddish together and not allow others to betray them posthumously.”

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach (201 S. Military Tr., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442). Regular Shabbat services are open to everyone on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.