blogs/rabbi-ed-feinstein

On Sunday evening, May 6, our community will gather at the
2018 Gala Celebration to recognize and celebrate Malkah Schulweis.

~ These are the opening remarks prepared by Rabbi Ed Feinstein ~

Teaching Godliness.
A Tribute for Malkah Schulweis

I asked the children in our school -- what's the difference between a noun and a verb?

Every child knew the answer: A noun is a person, place or thing. A verb is an action, something we do.

Then I asked them: What is “God” -- a noun or a verb? They all gave the answer -- God is a noun. God is a Someone, or maybe a Something, but definitely a noun.

So what can you tell me about that noun? I asked. Long pause, then: Nothing. God is beyond all description. God is infinite. There are no words to describe God.  

So I asked again -- What if God is a verb? If God is a verb, God would be something we do -- an act, a deed, a gesture. Can God be a verb?

They thought hard.

Then I asked, if God were a verb, what sorts of actions would those be? What are the things we do that are Godly?

The hands all flew up: Visiting a sick friend. Feeding hungry people. Taking care of living things. Protecting the earth. Loving my family. Making peace.

“You have declared the Lord this day to be your God and to walk in God's ways.”(Deuteronomy 26:17) Asked the Talmud (Sotah 14a): What does it mean to walk in God's ways? Is it possible for a human being to walk in the path of the divine? The Rabbis answered: To walk in God's ways is to pursue God's ethics. As God protects the vulnerable, so you protect the vulnerable. As God heals, so you heal. As God brings peace, so you bring peace.

Rabbi Schulweis called this insight, Godliness. It is a way of thinking about God that turns our attention from the heavens to the heart. God is not “up there,” but right here, in our next word or act or gesture. The great question of theology is not, Where was God? But, Where am I? Revelation is not located on some mountain in the desert, but in our own responsibility and responsiveness..

Malkah Schulweis has spent a lifetime teaching Godliness. She is a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She is a dazzling teacher of literature and a brilliant therapist, she has exquisite insight into the human personality and the human condition. She is a community leader carrying forward a vision of Jewish life and ethical action that she and Rabbi Schulweis formulated over the decades of their loving partnership. But above all, Malkah lives Godliness. Malkah teaches Godliness. She demands that we raise our expectations of ourselves, our Judaism, our community.  She represents a way of living in the world that gives testimony to the potential of human beings to build a world of compassion, generosity and caring.

We honor Malkah because she reminds us all that Godliness lives in us.

When Moses was near the end our his journey, his people asked him for his truth. He turned to that generation and told them --

The truth that I offer you today is not too beyond you; it is not far away!

It is not in heaven �" that you should say, “Who will go up the heavens and get it for us, and teach it to us, so we can do it?” And it is not across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side and get it for us, and teach it to us, so we can do it?” No! It is within you. It is in your heart and in your mind to do it! (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

For all that you have taught us, Malkah, for the gentle and wise way you have elevated us, for the gift of your vision, your insight, you loving insistence that we can be more, we thank you and offer you all our blessings.

- Rabbi Ed Feinstein