Matir Asurim: Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People
Elul 84 Divrei Matir Asurim
NOTE THIS MONTH: Torah Explorations and New Years Thoughts are formatted separately from organizational notes, to allow easier sharing with new readers.
Elul 5784 COMPLETE FORMATTEDDivrei Matir Asurim (formatted for printing or reading on-line)
This Divrei Matir Asurim is part of a continuing experiment in inside/outside communications. This material is available in three formats: straight text for copying into emails; formatted text for copying/printing for postal mail; and on-line in hypertext (with some internet links for those who can access them, below). Please share Divrei Matir Asurim, in whole or part, with interested inside readers.
Inside readers, please send responses to news shared here, additional thoughts on MA operations, or Torah Explorations: through outside MA pen pal, if you have one; through postal mail directly to: Matir Asurim, PO Box 18858. Philadelphia, PA 19119; or by emailing matirasurimnetwork@gmail.com. To contact the editor, email ethreporter at gmail.
Rosh Chodesh Elul: Sep 2-4 Selichot: September 28 after nightfall
Rosh Hashanah 5785: begins the evening of Oct 2
MEETINGS AND OPERATIONS
Core Organizers and Working Groups
The August 18 meeting focused event planning and preparations for making best use of grant funding.
Information Session. The first event is an on-line information session for outside folks interested in learning more about Matir Asurim and how to get involved. That is scheduled for September 9.
Author Discussion. The second event is an on-line discussion with Dr. Robin Bernstein, author of Freeman’s Challenge. This new book focuses on the system of prison labor for profit developed in New York state in pre-Civil War years. This “Auburn model” of incarceration still influences how prisons operate in the U.S. and other places.
Professor Bernstein is a cultural historian specializing in race in the U.S., from the nineteenth century to the present. She teaches at Harvard University, holding these titles: Dillon Professor of American History, Professor of African and African American Studies, Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality; Chair of doctoral program in American Studies.
Professor Bernstein joins Matir Asurim to discuss themes from her new book and and its relationship to Jewish work in- and around prisons.
The event is scheduled for September 25, and we plan a transcript to share with inside readers.
Grant Funding. Matir Asurim is grateful to individual donors and to the Rise Up: Nurturing the Soul of Jewish Justice Initiative, which are providing funding for projects in the new year
Next General Meeting: October 20.
NOTE: this section lists the execution of Loran Kenstley Cole as upcoming. Mr. Cole has since been killed. Here is an update on this case.
Memorial and Special Concerns
Recent Losses to Execution:
August 7 (Texas): Arthur Lee Burton
August 8 (Utah): Taberon Dave Honie
Scheduled Executions:
August 29 FL Loran Kentsley Cole
September 24 TX Travis James Mullis
September 24 MO Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams
September 26AL Alan Eugene Miller
September 26 OK Emmanuel Antonio Littlejohn
TORAH EXPLORATIONS
for 2024: Psalm 139 is sometimes used at times of trouble or concern, including the start of a new month. This shofar note was created for the start of Elul some years back and is shared here for Rosh Chodesh Elul 5784 with the same intention: Renew our lives at the new moon and for year ahead.
Line drawing of a shofar with English text along edges, as follows: Understand the turbulent branching of my thoughts. See the road that brings me sadness and lead me instead on the path of eternal life – Ps. 139: 23-24. These English verses are from Pamela Greenberg’s translation of the Psalms (Bloomsbury Press, 2010). Text added below shofar: Takhlit sinah s’neitim “Put an end to the hatred of haters” – Ps. 139:22
Schedule of Torah/Haftarah Readings for Deuteronomy/Devarim
Hebrewtitle [English]. Chapters: verse* Haftarah** Civic date. Hebrew date
Devarim [Words/Matters]. Deut 1:1 – 3:22. Isaiah 1:1-27. Aug 10. 6 Av
Va-etchanan[“I pleaded”]. Deut. 3:23-7:11. Isaiah 40:1- 26. Aug 17. 13 Av
Eikev [As a result]. Deut. 7:12-11:25. Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3. Aug 24. 20 Av
Re’eh [“see”]. Deut 11:26- 16:17. Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5. Aug 31. 27 Av
The lowest day of the calendar, Tisha B’Av, is behind us in the month of Av. Tthe high points of the fall holidays are ahead, in the first month of the new year, Tishrei. So, Elul, the final month of the Jewish calendar, is also a time in-between.
Many Jews treat this in-between time as a special gift, a time to focus on letting go of the previous year and working to prepare for the new year. One related teaching links the name “Elul” to a verse from the Song of Songs. The letters of the name — alef-lamed-vav-lamed — match the first letters here:
“Ani l’dodi v’l’dodi li — I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”
— Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim) 6:3
In addition, the final letters of these words add up to 40 = yud + yud + yud + yud = 10 + 10 + 10 + 10. This is understood as a hint that the verse is talking about the 40 days of Teshuvah / Return, from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur.
Linking Elul to this verse highlights the month as a time for a loving connection with the Divine and with the divine in ourself and others. More on this in For Times Such as These excerpts.
Because
“Because”by Rabbi Yael Levy
from A Way In: Directing the Heart Through Jewish Mindfulness
Yes, I will offer blessings with my life, To all that is I lift my hands. Psalm 63:5
As the season continues to gently turn us, the Torah calls: Because.*(Deut. 7:12)
Because everything comes on the heel of everything else, Because every action has consequences, Because all is connected,
Because we are not the source Because we are not all powerful, Because we are not the center,
Because we are here together with all life, Participants in the Infinite Unfolding,
This is what is asked of us: To live with awe, To walk in paths of truths, To love, And to be of service with full hearts and souls, For the well-being of all life. (Deut. 10:12)
May the calls of the season guide us with gentle care.
USED WITH PERMISSION
Rabbi Yael Levy kindly offers her teachings for re-sharing though Divrei Matir Asurim.
Note
* This teaching is based on passages from the Torah portion Eikev. The word “eikev,” starting the portion (Deut 7:12), can be translated as “because” or “as a consequence.” It is also related to the word “heel,” and the name, Ya’akov or Jacob.
Psalm 27: for Elul and the Season of Return
Psalm 27 is linked with the season of return, from the start of Elul through Yom Kippur (or the end of Sukkot).
Here are two interpretations to compare and use in this season:
God is my light, my salvation. Who am I scared of. My life’s fortress. Who frightens me.
2) Villains approach to devour my flesh. Foes. Enemies. They collapse, fall!
3) If you assemble a camp against me my heart will not fear. If you mount a war against me, I’ll be sure of this–
4) I’ll ask one thing of God (request) To be settled in God’s house all my days To view God’s pleasant side To visit God’s palace
5) Yes they’ll hide me from catastrophe in their sukkah. In their tent, conceal me. Lift me in strength.
6) Right now. Lifting my head above surrounding foes I’ll sacrifice pealing offerings I’ll sing to God. I’ll chant.
7) Listen, God. I’m calling. Feel sorry for me, respond
8) My heart says we are requesting you God I am requesting you God
9) Don’t hide from me. Don’t be angry at me, my support. Don’t abandon or leave me, my solution.
10) Parents leave me and God — take me in.
11) Show me your route. Guide me to the straight path because of those exploiting me.
12) Don’t give me up to the bodies of those who hate. False witnesses have stood up against me Panting violence 13) If only I could believe that I’ll see Divine good in life’s land
14) Aim your hope Godward. Strengthen the nerves of your heart. Once again aim your hope
— Zackary Sholem Berger
This interpretive version by Zackary Sholem Berger, originally appeared on medium (Sep 5, 2019). It is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Yah, you are my Light, my Savior, Whom need I dread? Yah, With You as my strong Protector Who can make me panic?
2) When hateful bullies gang up on me, Wanting to harass me, To oppress and terrorize me, They are the ones who stumble and fall.
3) Even if a gang surrounds me My heart is not weakened. If a battle is joined around me My trust in You is firm.
4) Only one thing do I ask of You, Yah, Just this alone do I seek: I want to be at home with You, Yah, All the days of my life. I want to delight in seeing You, When I come to visit You in Your Temple.
5) You hide me in Your Sukkah on a foul day. You conceal me unseen in Your tent And also raise me beyond anyone’s reach.
6) And now, as You have held my head high, Despite the presence of my powerful foes, I prepare to celebrate and thrill, Singing and making music to You, Yah!
7) Listen, Yah, to the sound of my cry And, being kind, answer me.
8) My heart has said: I turn to seek You, Your Presence is what I beg for.
9) Don’t hide Your Face from me. Don’t just put me down, You, who have been my helper Don’t abandon me, don’t forsake me, God, my support.
10) Though father and mother have left me You, Yah, will hold me securely.
11) Please teach me Your way And guide me on the straight path.
12) Discourage those who defame me. False witnesses stood up against me, Belching out violence. Don’t let me become the victim of my foes.
[I would not have survived] 13) If I had not hoped that I would yet see Yah’s goodness fully alive on Earth.
14) So friend, you too, hope to Yah. Be sturdy! And make strong your heart! And most of all —keep hoping to Yah.
— Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l
This translation by R’ Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Versification by Aharon Varady. It is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Lulei, Elul, Doubts
The Hebrew of Ps. 27:13 begins with the word lulei: “if not” or “unless” or “except.” Printed editions of the psalms have long added extra dots around this word. These dots link Psalm 27 with Elul in at least two ways:
1) they point to shared, but reversed, letters: lulei [lamed-vav-lamed-alef]is the reverse of Elul [alef-lamed-vav-lamed];
2) they highlight shared themes of judgment and doubt.
Jews have many, varied ways of understanding what divine judgment means, for the Days of Awe and year-round. Doubts are common, though, regardless of belief system and season. And Psalm 27 expresses both faith and doubt. At any time of year, Ps. 27:13 can prompt us to wonder:
Do we see “Yah’s goodness fully alive on Earth”? Will we ever? Can we believe we’ll “see Divine good in life’s land”?
The new year can spotlight ways the Divine seems to be failing us, even as we try to focus on our own mistakes. So, it’s worth exploring how the Babylonian Talmud links those dots around “lulei” to doubt.
The Talmud treats the biblical King David as author of the psalms and imagines that he has deep worries. In the bible, King David makes serious mistakes; in Talmud and later Jewish commentary, he is referenced as a pious man but no saint. In this particular passage, the dots around lulei in Ps. 27:13 are suggested as evidence of the biblical character’s human doubts:
Why are there dots upon the world ‘lulei’? David spoke before the Holy One, blessed be He: “Master of the world, I am sure that you will pay a good reward to the righteous in the world to come, but I do not know whether I shall have a share in it’? Some sin might cause. (Ber 4a)
In this passage, King David never directly questions the idea of “a good reward to the righteous in the world to come.” But the Talmud text itself offers that incomplete expression: “Some sin might cause.” English translations and footnotes try to fill in a complete idea: David was worried about a future sin, maybe, or he was just not sure of his own piety. But the incomplete thought could include doubt about the whole idea of divine reward and punishment.
The incomplete thought in the Talmud is similar to the text of Ps. 27:13, which is a little odd. Translators struggle to make sense of it:
“If only I could believe…” [Berger, above]
“If I had not hoped…” [Schachter-Shalomi, above]
That might happen if I weren’t sure…” [Siddur Eit Ratzon]
As a whole, Psalm 27 includes a range of emotions and belief states: fear, confidence, faith, worry, anger, gratitude, hope. The Talmud story of King David adds more layers of emotion and concern.
…All of which points back to those weird dots and how they’re interpreted. Those dots have been a part of biblical text for centuries. Which means centuries of confused and doubting Jews. We might think we’re supposed to be entering the season of return with all the answers or with perfect faith. But those dots suggest that we can, maybe should, show up with all our own confusions and doubt.
The doubts expressed in Ps. 27:13 also remind us to use Elul for considering our own behavior and relationships.
Back to “Because”
Return to the verse Rabbi Yael highlighted in the meditation, “Because” (above, p.3):
And now, O Israel, what does the ETERNAL your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the ETERNAL your God, to walk only in divine paths, to love and to serve the ETERNAL your God with all your heart and soul — Deut 10:12, Jewish Publication Society (JPS) 2023 trans.; above is Rabbi Yael’s own trans.
Elul calls us to focus on the demands of Deut 10:12 and to ask about our individual and collective responsibilities.
What is our responsibility with regard to “Divine good in life’s land”?
Are we doing our part to make Divine goodness more “fully alive on Earth”?
As Rabbi Yael wrote:
Because everything comes on the heel of everything else, Because every action has consequences, Because all is connected…
High Holidays Excerpts
Note adapted from the 2023 High Holiday mailing: It is often taught that the month Elul is a month to spiritually prepare us for the Days of Awe (the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur). A verse from Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, is often associated with these spiritual preparations: Ani l’dodi, v’dodi li — I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. (More on this to come). This phrase invites us to consider what it means to think about and be responsible for one another’s wellness. It pushes us to remember that all of our struggles are bound up with one another’s and to remember that community and family is a verb – something that we are always in process with. With that quote in mind, it feels particularly important for us to reach towards you and to make sure you know that we are with you, dear community. You deserve love, you are worthy of care and healing and we know that you hold so much wisdom about the complexity and depth of what it means to repair in the face of rupture.
With blessings for tzedek, rachamim, v’shalom — justice, compassion and peace
Note adapted from the 2022 High Holiday mailing: We hope that the ancient words, contemporary creative interpretations, and artwork brings the intentions of each prayer close to your hearts. While we grieve that we cannot pray together, our hope is that these prayers are one small way of moving beyond the limitations of prisons.
We know that nobody is free until we are all free. As we bring in 5783, we are reaching towards each one of you, our beloved Jewish community across and beyond bars, with love, with care, with a commitment to justice and healing.
Whether or not the prayers are familiar to you, whether or not you feel prepared for the holidays or for the new year itself, we hope that this offering meets all of us with softness for our broken hearts. We hope that whatever meaning you find in these pages or make of their words, that we remember together that we all have the master key, that we can let our hearts ring out to God as loud as any shofar, and that our broken hearts are held by one another!
With blessings for tzedek, rachamim, v’shalom — justice, compassion and peace,
Val, Sarit, Cece, Laynie, Chava, Meli, Callie
and all of us at Matir Asurim: Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People
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SHOFAR: A COLLECTIVE CALL(from 2022 and 2023 High Holiday Mailings)
To everyone everywhere
No one, no one is excluded, from my heart.
To everyone everywhere
No one, no one is excluded, from my heart.
I wish you well, my beloved.
I wish you well, dear sweet soul.
I wish you well, my beloved. May you live with ease.
– Pablo Das
∞
“Suddenly you are awakened by a strange noise, a noise that fills the full field of your consciousness and then splits into several jagged strands, shattering that field, shaking you awake. The ram’s horn, the shofar, the same instrument that will sound one hundred times on Rosh Hashanah, the same sound that filled the world when the Torah was spoken into being on Mount Sinai, is being blown to call you to wakefulness. You awake to confusion. Where are you? Who are you?
“The horn blows to usher in Elul….The Torah also stands ready to help keep us awake. As we move through the month of Elul, we also move through the Book of Deuteronomy, and each of the weekly Torah readings – Re’eh, Shoftim, Netzavim, Ki Tetze – whispers to us, “Wake up! Wake up!” Each of these readings offers a subtle rhyme to the process of awakening to which the month of Elul has called us.” – Passage from This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared, by Rabbi Alan Lew
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we blow the shofar. The piercing call of the ram’s horn is meant to shatter us, startle us, spiritually awaken us to the work of repentance, accountability and the collective need for transformation. The shofar’s call breaks open our hearts and it is from this place that we can heal.
In a prison, there is much that shatters and reminds us of the immensity of healing that is needed. But for most, there is no shofar. May the collective sound of our shofars across Turtle Island reverberate, move through the air to find each one of you. May the shofar blasts mingle with my prayers to meet your prayers. May the air that you breathe feel thick with care and may you feel the yearning in the shofar vibrations that call us towards a world where healing, transformation and abounding love for all is possible. May our shattered hearts meet your shattered hearts in the wind and in the breeze that knows no limits, no walls, no borders, no bars. May we feel the many ways that we are connected despite impossible circumstances. May the shofar remind us that we are not alone in this work.
∞
And G!d says: Hear the sounds of the shofar! And if you cannot hear the shofar, if you cannot step foot in the synagogue for whatever reason, then hear what is meant to wake you.
Hear: I Can’t Breathe, Hear: Black Lives Matter, Hear the cries of the refugees, Hear the names of the restless dead. Wake. Stay woke. It is all a shofar. – Dane Kuttler
The Lace Midrash — (from 2022 High Holiday Mailing — study/art session held Summer 2022)
[A group of 12 or so gathered in Chicago, IL] to think about Rosh Hashanah and what we could send you to make the holiday meaningful. We read this selection from the Mishna (Rosh Hashana 1:2) and had an interesting discussion about how God sees us; our hearts, our deeds, and how God relates to us; as troops, sheep, special individuals, or as all basically the same. Then we had some quiet time to express our thoughts and feelings through making art. It was a special opportunity to gather… and feel that we were also gathering with you, the readers of this offering.
This is the text that we read together:
At four times of the year the world is judged: On Passover judgment is passed concerning grain; on Shavuot concerning fruits that grow on a tree; on Rosh HaShana, all creatures pass before Him like sheep [benei maron*], as it is stated: “He Who fashions** their hearts alike, Who considers all their deeds” (Psalms 33:15); and on the festival of Sukkot they are judged concerning water, i.e., the rainfall of the coming year.
∞
[Art made in the 2022 study group is featured throughout the 5783 high holiday mailing. Here’s one piece: clay jar with text in Hebrew and English.]
* Babylonian Talmud (RH 16a) suggests several meanings for “bnei maron“: flock of sheep; soldiers of King David’s house; steps of Beit Maron [a steep climb]
** “fashions = ha-yotzer” (Ps. 33:15) is a strong feature in “Ki Hinei Kachomer,” a liturgical poem recited or sung in many high holiday services
Ki hinei kachomer beyad hayotzer. Birtzoto marchiv uvirtzoto mekatzer. Ken anachnu veyadcha chesed notzer. La’brit habet ve’al tefen la’yetzer.
Behold, we are like clay in the hand of the crafter, who lengthens and shortens it at will. Thus we are in Your hands, merciful Creator. Remember the Covenant and do not listen to the Evil Inclination.
For more Matir Asurim High Holiday resources, click here for 2022 machzor
For Times Such As These: Elul Excerpts
What has grown in the last year of your life? What have you cultivated in the past year? What has fallen away? What have you thrown away?
In the past year, when have you felt most alert, oriented, grounded, awake, powerful? What was happening in those times? What people, practices, stories, and understandings can you bring forward from those times?
What do you want to bring your energy to in the new year?
What do you want to pay attention to everyday? — Katz & Rosenberg, p. 277
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Elul is a time of divine love, abounding forgiveness, and generosity for ourselves and others, where and whenever possible. The name of the month, Elul, it is taught,* corresponds to verse 6:3 in Shir HaShirim:
אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי
I am my beloved[‘s] and my beloved is mine.
Elul is a time of experiencing God as Beloved and Lover. Centuries of Jewish tradition have built up infinite understandings of, metaphors for, and expressions of the Divine. It is notable that in the month when instructed to do the most self-reflection, to sit with harm we’ve committed and ways we’ve missed the mark, all of the significant God-talk is about love and care. And for those who don’t experience God as King, Sovereign, or Beloved, it is still possible to distill and apply the wisdom that there can be no transformation, individual or communal, without love and care. It is necessary to envision the forces of love and care as present, active, and acting in the wold and our lives. — Katz & Rosenberg, p.278
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In Elul, daily practices and liturgy change. The shofar is blown eery day to prepare for the new year, to announce its arrival and its process of becoming….The blasts of the shofar open our hearts and act as an alarm clock to wake us up….a beautiful example that nothing is sudden. making a full repair requires time to reflect , recommit, repair, and make a different choice the next time. The process of teshuvah is not flipping a switch….Hearing the shofar daily helps peel back layers that have built up over the past twelve months, and gently eases one into the month ahead. — Katz & Rosenberg, p. 280
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Why is there all of this praying and singing and horn tooting? It all is for the sake of cheshbon ha’nefesh and teshuvah: the accounting of one’s soul and making repair.** This is the heart of Elul and the High Holiday season: to excavate our lives, to examine how we treating each other, to reflect on how we are living our values, to try to know and understand the harm we have caused and experienced in the past year, and to make amends.
Cheshbon ha’nefesh, soul searching, can happen through the traditional practices of Elul, through a musar practice of looking at particular aspects and values, through journaling, meditation, somatic practices, in therapy…in therapy, and through discussion with friends. Anything you do to take a serious and heartfelt account of how you’re doing is cheshbon ha’nefesh. The question then is what to do with what we have found?
First and foremost we are called to “make teshuvah.” Teshuvah comes from the root of the word “to return.” But to what do we return? We return to events of the past year and years, with the gift of time and perspective, to better understand what happened and why, our behaviors and roles in the event. We return, through the practice of making amends, to ourselves. One of rabbinic Judaism’s core theological foundations is an understanding that people are made b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of the Divine. When we commit harm, we are moving away from our core selves. When we make teshuvah, we return to our essential goodness. — Katz & Rosenberg, p.284
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For Times Such as These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year. Rabbi Ariana Katz and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. Wayne State University Press, 2024. Excerpts, with adaptations, used with permission
* Endnote cites Mishnah Berurah 581:1 for the teaching about Elul and Song of Songs 6:3.
Mishnah Berurah [“Clarified Teaching”] includes explanations of Jewish laws. The author is Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (1839-1933 CE). Kagan is also called “Chafetz Chaim,” after his most famous book. Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan’s writings titled Chafetz Chaim focus on the careful use of words. The words “chafetz chaim” are found in Psalm 34:12-14 —
Who is the person who delights in life [chafetz chaim], who desires to see good days?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from deceitful speech.
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Jewish tradition is very concerned with the power of words, how they can be used to harm people. The high holiday prayers are full of sins we commit by using words in hurtful ways. And Kagan’s detailed teachings about using words are often studied at this time of year.
See also NOTE on Elul to see how the first and last letters of “ani l’dodi v’l’dodi li” hint at Elul and the season of return. And NOTE on Chafetz Chaim.
The first word, “accounting,” is pronounced: chesh-bone with ch as a strong, back-of-the-throat h-sound, like the start of “Chanukah.” The second word, “the soul,” is pronounced: ha-nef-esh,
The related section in For Times Such As These notes that there are many teachings, from over the centuries, about how cheshbon hanefesh and teshuvah can work. They conclude:
We will spend our whole lives learning and practicing how to be in better relationships with ourselves and each other and the world. Jewish tradition offers us seasons of wisdom and practices, and community in which to do with work. — Katz & Rosenberg, p.286
