P O Box 253
1189 Cape Cod Road
Stowe, Vermont 05672
802-253-1800
info@jcogs.org
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Welcome to our warm and vibrant community. We come from extraordinarily diverse backgrounds. We look to JCOGS to fulfill a wide range of religious, social, and educational needs, but we are all unified in building a strong Jewish community in Stowe. My focus as the Rabbi of JCOGS includes religious programming and pastoral counseling. I plan and lead Shabbat evening services, generally on the first and third Fridays of the month. I also conduct our High Holiday services, services for Sukkot and Shavu'ot, and other ceremonies throughout the year, such as the Tu B'Shevat Seder, Purim celebration, Passover Seder, commemoration of Tisha B'Av, and Chanukah celebration. My style of worship is relaxed and inclusive. I complement the traditional Hebrew prayers with ample explanations, alternative readings in English, lots of singing, and discussion. My main goal is to include everyone in our congregation, regardless of his or her spiritual leanings.
I
am available for pastoral care in times of joy and need. If you are celebrating
a special occasion, I am happy to include your simchah at Shabbat services. If
you are preparing a major life cycle event, such as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or a
wedding, feel free to contact me to officiate. If you know friends or family
members who are ill or are recovering from injury, please give me their names,
so that I may mention them during the Mi Shebeirach prayer, the public prayer
for healing that we recite at every service. If, God forbid, you are
experiencing a crisis, such as the death of a loved one, do not hesitate to call
upon me for the funeral or Shiva service, or simply for spiritual counseling. In
fact, feel free to contact me for any reason. I respond to e-mail very quickly
at rabbi.brian.besser@gmail.com I was ordained in June, 2010 from Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, a transdenominational institution that blends the rigorous academic education of a classic seminary with the yeshiva-style approach of a beit midrash, that is, two students poring over a page a Talmud together. I interned as a hospital chaplain at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in 2008. I plan to carry forward both the love of learning I acquired at Hebrew College as well as my pastoral training in the JCOGS community. We are each contributing our efforts on behalf of JCOGS in our own individual ways. I look forward to working closely with you for many months to come.
Brian Besser, rabbi.brian.besser@gmail.com Weekly Correspondence from the Rabbi: The Space Between Apology and Forgiveness Dear Friends: After 45 days in rehab following allegations of infidelity, golf pro Tiger Woods appeared before the television cameras to issue a brief, tightly scripted statement: “I know that I have bitterly disappointed all of you… For all that I have done, I am so sorry…” For many listeners, however, his words were vapid and disingenuous. One blogger wrote: “By spoon feeding the public, he decides what they need to hear. Tiger still plays by Tiger’s rules.” 59 days into the largest oil-spill disaster in American history, BP chief executive Tony Hayward said to Congress: “I am deeply sorry for the lost lives and environmental damage” from his company’s doomed offshore rig. He was met with widespread cynicism and anger. A typical reaction: “Too little, too late! He is saying as little as possible to appease the public, but feels no remorse whatsoever.” Are some apologies too vain to be accepted? Are some wrongs too grave to be forgiven? I know of no more profound exploration of the twin moral imperatives, to apologize and to forgive, than Maimonides’s classic Laws of Repentance, for its penetrating psychological insight and spiritual guidance. Maimonides’s injunctions are decidedly varied in tone. At times, he goes to extremes to encourage the fallen sinner: “If a person transgressed all of his life, but repented on the day of his death, all his transgressions are pardoned, as it is written: ‘Until his dying day, You wait for him; if he returns, you will straightway receive him.’” Elsewhere, his admonishments can turn quite harsh: “Sleepers, awake from your sleep! Slumberers, rouse yourselves from your slumbers! Examine your actions and repent!” On the subject of apologies, he mandates: “One must not show herself cruel by not accepting an apology; she should be easily pacified, and provoked with difficulty. When an offender asks her forgiveness, she should forgive wholeheartedly and with a willing spirit. Even if he has caused her much trouble wrongfully, she must not avenge herself, she must not bear a grudge.” On the other hand: “One who makes a verbal confession without resolving in his heart to abandon his sin is like one who takes a ritual bath while grasping a defiling reptile. The bath is useless unless he first casts the reptile away.” As we approach the High Holidays, the season of repentance, here’s what I would say to the offender: “Beware of empty words and vain promises. Better no apology at all than hypocrisy.” But to the injured party I would say: “Meet your perpetrator with compassion and forgiveness. Resentment will destroy you much sooner than it will touch him.” Rabbi Brian rabbi.brian.besser@gmail.com Please note: In response to requests, I have now published all of my weekly correspondence to you as a blog on the Internet. Please view them at any time at: http://rabbibrianweeklycolumn.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Correspondence from the Rabbi: Is Islam Inherently Violent? Dear Friends: I am troubled by the vitriolic verbal attacks that some opponents of Park51, the planned Islamic community center near Ground Zero, are waging against Muslims. Arguments against the project’s completion seem to fall into three main categories: (1) sensitivity: it would rub salt into the still raw wounds of the grieving families (this is the Anti-Defamation League’s thinking); (2) symbolism: it would represent a triumphant victory for the terrorists; (3) security: it would compromise national sovereignty. I believe the first rationale to be a noble attempt to balance the general constitutional principle of freedom of religious expression against the personal emotional needs of the victims in this particular case. (As the ADL national director put it: “it is not a question of rights, it is a question of what is right.”) I believe the second and third positions to be based upon deep-seated fear and mistrust. (As one demonstrator’s placard read in the pages of last week’s issue of Newsweek: “Islam Kills!”) I am not an expert on
Islam or the Quran, but I have devoted myself to Jewish living and Jewish
learning. I am aware that Judaism, like all the great world religions, is not
monolithic, but comprises many groups. A few of these groups, I am ashamed to
say, advocate and perpetuate violence against non-Jews. Even the Torah contains
certain bellicose verses that call for the extermination of the enemies of
Israel. I would not want those groups and those verses to define the Judaism
that I practice and preach. I see as my Rabbinic role to present a valid Jewish
alternative to fundamentalism—through my theology, through my interpretations of
Scripture, through my endorsements, and through the way I conduct my life. It is
not my role to counteract fundamentalism among Muslims, but I can surely promote
those moderate imams who do. Ultimately, that is the reason why I support
Park51. ************************************************************** Please note: In response to requests, I have now published all of my weekly correspondence to you as a blog on the Internet. Please view them at any time at: http://rabbibrianweeklycolumn.blogspot.com/
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