"How We Engage in the World" - Kol Ami newsletter 4-5-2022
04/05/2022 06:01:21 PM
Apr5
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Kol Ami Newsletter: April 5, 2022
Rabbi's Week in Review
As we are in the midst of preparation for our Pesach/Passover observance (mostly about the food, but also a good spring cleaning), we also start to ponder the themes of the holiday. Much more than celebrating our freedom, the holiday compels us to engage in figuring out what comes after liberation. What have we learned from the experience of the Exodus that informs how we engage in the world?
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Metzora (Vayikra/Leviticus 14:1-15:33). We continue reading about skin disease, and how in our Torah it is attributed to committing the sin of slander. One avenue for further exploration and study would be to compare the sin of bad words with the creation story in Chapter One of Bereishit/Genesis, wherein G-d speaks the creation of the universe into existence, a study of the impact of good words versus the use of words for ill intent.
Worship Event of the Week
This Friday, April 8, will be Family Shabbat on the patio at All Souls (inside for inclement weather). Our Family Experience program begins at 6 p.m. as we prepare for our upcoming Passover celebration. We will explore Passover themes around helping the strangers, the outsiders in our midst. A joyous, informal, short Shabbat service begins at 6:45 p.m.
Weekly Feature
A Sense of Place By Ellen Karp Global dislocations and political turmoil present a painful challenge to what American Public Square president and Kol Ami member Allan Katz calls on us to promote: civility, truth and perspective. We are reminded that we, as Jews, have been taught to understand the stranger’s plight because we, too, were strangers in Egypt.
The pain of being the stranger — without a sense of home, with having lost that sense of place — is one with which Jews across the centuries can identify.
More people more recently have had their sense of place brutally torn from them because of war, and Jewish Vocational Services in Kansas City is working to help resettle refugees. Ever since JVS’ founding, in 1949, generations of Holocaust survivors, Russian emigres and, now, Afghans have re-established a sense of place with the help of JVS. Given events in Ukraine, JVS stands to play a relevant and crucial role in reaching out to even more strangers who find themselves in a strange land.
Closer to home, Kol Ami’s commitment to Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund (MFAF) is also part of this understanding. We encourage you to continue collecting clean paper grocery bags for MFAF, which uses them to distribute food. Donating the bags, as well as white rice and dry pinto beans, is an easy and effective way to be part of the work that MFAF does in providing for the myriad needs of migrant farmworkers and their families. (They are considered essential workers, yet they themselves need food, as well as medical services and education assistance because of the itinerant nature of their labor). Email newsletter@kolamikc.org to arrange a pickup.
You can help refugees by donating gently used or new items to JVS. Interesting fact: Of particular interest are rugs of all sizes (new and used). Rugs are a prevalent and comforting presence in Afghan homes. Hardwood floors are unfamiliar and foreign to many of JVS’ Afghan clients. Click here to learn what other items can be dropped off at the JVS warehouse.
Remember the words of Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot: “It is not up to you to finish the task, but neither are you free to avoid it.”
Kol Ami Event
Kol Ami Second-Night Seder Saturday, April 16
We are pleased to invite the community to our first-in person seder since 2019. Reservations are limited, so please click here to find out more about the seder and reserve a spot. The cost is $20 per adult and is a catered, primarily vegetarian meal. Make your reservations soon so you can join us as we come together to celebrate the story of our freedom from slavery. Please note our COVID policy and be prepared to present a vaccination card or recent negative test result.
Social Justice News Local Issues In addition to ongoing efforts to settle and provide needed assistance to refugees — refugees from the Ukraine, from Afghanistan and from so many places of conflict and poverty throughout the world — we still have local issues of injustice to battle. On Monday, two rallies were held. The first was in support of Black officers of the KCPD who for years have been targets of racism and discrimination from within the department. The second rally was in support of health-care workers at Truman Medical Center fighting for living wages and better working conditions. Their work, whether custodial or food service or some other position in the hospital, is vital to bringing the sick back to health. They need to be treated with dignity and fairness in order for them to do their important work. — Rabbi Doug
