A Grater Message

Binary Vision Doesn’t Work

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:00:55 -0700

For the past twelve years, I have had the great pleasure of being a part of a special family known as the Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellows, which most of you know was my first job as a rabbi, serving two years in this capacity at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, one of the largest, most progressive and enigmatic synagogue communities in the world. I was the third fellow in a line that now includes eighteen amazing rabbis, serving in different congregations and organizations all over America and in Israel. This past week I got my annual fix of these folks, which include some of my best friends, as we spent together on retreat on Fire Island, NY. I tell you this for two reasons: one is that I want to thank you and appreciate you as a community that understands and supports this annual retreat as a way for your rabbi to recharge, reenergize and learn Torah, pray, sing, laugh and relax with my teachers, friends and colleagues. I always come back feeling great and I thank you for allowing me that gift. Second, the backbone of tonight’s talk is based on a d’var torah one of the fellows gave on Wednesday. So, as they say in rabbinic thought, b’shem am’ro, in the name of the one who spoke, I thank my friend Rabbi Brent Spodek, who serves as Rabbi-in-Residence at American Jewish World Service, for his inspiration.

Technology and Shabbat Time

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:00:21 -0700

If only I could stop checking email and start writing this sermon! That is the thought that kept coming into my head as I sat and attempted to start this sermon, one that is to be focused on the great challenge of technology and the enormous gifts of Shabbat. I read two very interesting, polar opposite, yet complimentary things this week that are coalescing into this thought: the Sabbath experience has never been more important than in today’s world, which is inundated with information, technological distractions and the potential breakdown of the brain as we know it. The first thing I read was a frightening article in the New York Times called, “Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price,” which looks at how all the devices that we use, computers, video games, iPhones and other PDAs, email, Facebook, are affecting our lives; the article focuses on one particular family that is fairly extreme, it seems, but growing more common. The second is a book by Judith Shulevitz called The Sabbath World, where she explores our different relationships to time and how the Sabbath can come to save us from ourselves.

Adaptable Judaism

Sat, 5 Jun 2010 10:00:06 -0700

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater talks about how adaptable Judaism has always been part of our tradition. This week's Torah portion gives us an example.

Response to the Gaza Flotilla Incident

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 20:00:53 -0700

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater talks his initial response to Gaza flotilla incident.

Renewing Judaism

Fri, 14 May 2010 20:00:29 -0700

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater talks about renewing Judaism.