Rabbi Marc, calling himself the Williamsburg Rebbe, has created a blog to let us know what he is reading and thinking.  Click here to access his blog.

Marc Lee Raphael has been rabbi of Bet Aviv since 1998. He is also the Nathan and Sophia Gumenick Professor of Judaic Studies, Professor of Religious Studies and Chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at The College of William and Mary. He recently completed a twenty-year term as editor of the quarterly journal, American Jewish History, and edited The History of Jews and Judaism in America, published in 2009, for Columbia University Press. This same press published his Judaism in America. In 2005, The College of William and Mary published his Towards a “National Shrine'' : A Centennial History of Washington Hebrew Congregation, 1855-1955, the most recent in a long list of books he has written and edited on the history of Jews and Judaism in the United States. Also, Rabbi Raphael wrote A History of the Synagogue in America for New York University Press that will be published  in 2011. A native of Los Angeles, Professor Raphael is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., History and Ph.D., History) and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (M.A., Religion and rabbinic ordination). Residing in Washington, D.C., he frequently leads walking tours of the Washington Jewish community of the nineteenth century ("Of a world that is no more"). He and his wife Linda Schermer Raphael (George Washington University) frequently teach "The Representation of the Holocaust in Literature and Film" using their edited book (Rutgers University Press), When Night Fell: An Anthology of Holocaust Short Stories.

Many of you know that Rabbi Marc has written his autobiography and we are privileged to be getting a sneak preview.

Click on the links below to read previous installments.

• Installment1: a pony for Chrismas[sic]
• Installment 2:  the Rabbi's Bar Mitzvah

To read a review and order you copy, please click here.

Rabbi Raphael has established a lending library of Jewish books that will appear at Shabbat services on a book cart.  Please feel free to browse the books and bring home those that interest you.  The Rabbi's intention is to provide with good sources of Jewish learning.  There is no sign-out sheet - borrowing is on the honor system.  We hope the library grows with additional donations as time goes on.

Diary, August 16, 1957

"Rabbi Gottschalk, batting left, homered off my best windmill fastball in the staff vs. camper softball game."

When I turned fourteen, my parents began to talk to me about attending a Jewish overnight camp the following summer. Such an idea would never have occurred to them – my brother, sister, and I had been sent to a horseback-riding day camp each summer because of our mother's riding skills – but two factors were to change the usual summer routine and result in a lifelong career decision. First, I had developed serious allergies to most animals with which I came into contact, including not only dogs and cats but horses. And second, Rabbi Lewis had told my parents that it was rare that an early teen loved religious school as did I, and that the congregation would help them financially if they would send me to the Reform Jewish "sleep-away" camp in northern Californian.

I was eager to stop riding horses, but resisted going away from home. But my parents convinced me to give Camp Saratoga, named after the town it was near, a try, and my pleasure at attending Sunday School led me to imagine I would enjoy camp. I did not.

My allergies were quite serious, and I was enormously uncomfortable in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But I made some friends (Sue and Mike), with whom I have remained close ever since that camp session, and I studied with several awesome rabbis and one impressive rabbinic student, Allen Podet (b. 1934). I vividly remember their names, the classes I had with them and my immense awe at their Judaica learning. I actually wished the camp were more like a school and less like a social club, for I was not aware of opportunities at home to study Judaica at home as intensely as I was able to do at camp for two weeks. But most of all, I remember a camp baseball game-and the decision I made after the game.

In the summer at home I played Little League, Pony League, and Babe Ruth League baseball, and was kept in the lineup, despite having relatively poor fielding skills and striking out one of every three times I batted (I still have my stats), because I also hit home runs as often as I struck out: exactly a third of the time. My hero while growing up was a legendary Pacific Coast League slugger and strike-out artist for the Hollywood Stars – Frank Kelleher-and I begged my dad to take me to PCL Sunday afternoon double header games at Gilmore Field in the early 1950s to see Kelleher hit home runs. (Kelleher retired at the end of the great 1954 season having hit 226 home runs in a Stars uniform, more than anyone who ever lived.) I wanted to be like him, and (mostly) imitated him quite precisely. I even lifted my left leg as I began my home run (or strike out ) swing.

While I wasn't playing baseball, I was also a softball pitcher. I couldn't hit, fielded poorly, but had three skills that made me the regular pitcher on my teams: I never walked a batter; I had a windmill windup which I used to throw a fastball or a change-up; and few batters (at least the first time they played against my team) could tell which pitch would be coming. I guess the additional reason that I pitched for all my teams is that when only nine guys showed up, there was no other position at which it was safe to put me.

So when I heard there would be a Sunday afternoon camper vs. staff softball game, and that it would be fast pitch (girls did not play sports with boys at Camp Saratoga in 1957), I assumed, correctly, that I would pitch. And I assumed, as well, that rabbis and rabbinic students would be relatively poor batters, especially immigrant rabbis. This was mostly true, but (the details of the game need not detain us) Alfred Gottschalk, a twenty-seven year-old German-born immigrant who had been ordained a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion that June, was an exception. I already knew him at camp as an inspiring teacher, but was surprised to discover that he was also a fearsome hitter, and his home run off my blazing windmill windup fastball not only won the game for the staff but led to my career decision.

Our new feature called Ask the Rabbi will contain the answers to questions on various aspects of Jewish life. Each month one or two questions of interest to our congregants and answers supplied by Reform rabbis will appear in this space. Let us know what you think. If you have a question to submit, please click here to send us a message.

Q: Life after Death: What does Judaism Say?

Text: At the time of judgment in the future world everyone will be asked, “What was your occupation?” If the person answers, “I used to feed the hungry,” they will say to him, “This is God’s gate; you who fed the hungry many enter.” “I used to give water to those who were thirsty”-they will say to him, ”This is God’s gate; you who gave water to those who were thirsty may enter.” “I used to clothe the naked”-they will say to him, “This is God’s gate; you who clothed the naked may enter”…and similarly with those who raised orphans, and who performed the mitzvah of tzedakah, and who performed acts of caring, loving-kindness. Interpretation: This midrash is based on a verse in the Book of Pslams that says “open for me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter to praise God” (Pslam 118:19). Although the plain meaning of the text likely refers to the gates of the JerusalemTemple, where it was believed that God’s Presence resided, the midrash understands it in terms of the future world. Thus the gates of righteousness are understood to be the gates leading into the world-to-come. There was a rabbinic belief that when a person dies, that person will be brought before the heavenly court for judgment and asked a series of questions. The Talmud (Shabbat31a) delineates the following four questions: Did you conduct your business affairs with honesty? Did you set aside regular time for Torah study? Did you work at having children? Did you look forward to the world’s redemption? These questions clearly demonstrate that ethics is at Judaism’s core. The midrash based on the Book of Psalms also demonstrates God’s concern for how a person lives his or her life and whether a person left the world a better place for others. Such a person, deemed a righteous one, is allowed entrance into the gates of righteousness. Life after Death: What Does Judaism Say? Jews and Judaism have generally been much more concerned with this world than the next and have concentrated their religious efforts toward building a better world for the living. This is in marked contrast to the religious traditions of the people among whom the Jews have lived. For example, in Islam, afterlife plays a critical role, and while this may not represent mainstream Muslim thought, to this day Muslim terrorists who are sent on suicide missions are reminded that anyone who dies in a “holy war” immediately ascends to the highest place in heaven. Belief in any type of afterlife was little pronounced in the early biblical period. During the rabbinic period, however, it began to assume a more prominent place in Jewish faith. A doctrine of the immortality of the soul developed that suggested that the body returns to the earth, dust to dust, but the soul, which is immortal, returns to God, who gave it. In addition, Rabbinic Judaism also affirmed the eventual resurrection of the body with its soul that will occur with the coming of the Messiah. (Reform Judaism rejects the idea of resurrection, and both Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism usually understand the messianic idea in more abstract metaphoric terms.) This remains an area in which each of us must confront the wonder of existence on our own and make peace on our own terms with the mystery of death. Questions for reflection If you believe in a future world, what is your conception of it? What is your understanding of a person’s soul? How would you define it? Proverbs 20:27 says that “the soul is God’s candle.” What does this mean to you? Adapted from Ronald H. Isaacs, A Taste of Text: An Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (New York: UAHC Press, 2003), 51-56. Published as 10 Minutes of Torah, Union of Reform Judaism, April 12, 2007