In our tradition, the only public confession we make is a scripted and communal one called the Al Cheyt:

• The sin we have committed against you under duress or by choice
• The sin we have committed against you openly or secretly
• The sin we have committed against you with our words…

But some of us feel the need for a more personal public confession.  So recently, in the spirit of reality television and our technology dominated culture, a few forward thinking Jewish organizations have provided a forum for individuals to make personal public confessions.  Last year, the Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, operated a Repent it Forward website program, where people could make confessions like:  “playing with my Blackberry but acting like I am reading important emails”, or “justifying littering by saying my trash is biodegradable.”  The National Jewish Outreach Program launched a projectforgiveness.com website a few years ago, in which people could post their wrongdoings (although the website seems to have expired – have the gates of forgiveness closed?!).

Our tradition teaches that repentance is only complete when we directly approach a person we have wronged to ask for forgiveness.  But for “sins” committed against ourselves, or some would say God, there is no reason why technology shouldn’t be harnessed to encourage spiritual reflection.  Nothing can replace face to face community, but cyber-community can also be holy space.

Is there something you’d like to confess publicly, not-quite-anonymously?

Consider this a safe space.  Post it here.

This is my first Miami summer with a dog.  It’s hot when I walk him at 7:00 am, and it’s hot when I walk him at 7:00 pm.  It’s just hot.  But the heat isn’t all bad.  It forces me to slow down from my usual frenetic fast paced day of appointments, work, calls, carpools, e-mails, cooking and more, and pause, stretch and breathe.

Fast is at a premium today.  We respond to e-mails instantly, eat fast food and multi-task. Even writing a blog is a quick communication device.  Instead of sitting down and really considering my thoughts and putting them down in a critical, orderly fashion, I’m thinking, writing, and eating a sandwich all at the same time.

My oldest daughter who just finished her Freshman year of college was home recently.  She sat on the couch watching TV, with her computer open in front of her bouncing from website to facebook, and her cell phone vibrating on her lap with multiple text messages.  The stimulation is endless.

My cousin just shared a story with me.  She was driving with her 6 year old son in the backseat.  He kept pestering her to look at something, and she kept telling him that she couldn’t, that she was driving.  “Can’t you ‘pause’ the road?” he cried to her?  Our children are being conditioned to get everything they want the instant they desire it.

Thank goodness for summer.  Let’s let the heat slow us down.  Let’s disconnect from technology, go to the beach and maybe even leave our cell phones at home.  Let’s do one thing at a time.  Let’s sip instead of gulp.  Stroll instead of dash.  Let’s pause the road.  Let’s do Shabbat.

Dear Diary:
Emerging from the subway at 96^th and Broadway, I heard the familiar sound of a man preaching from a Bible.  Some things never change.
But the Bible caught my eye — it was thinner than usual.  The man was preaching from a Kindle!  Some things will never be the same.—Ora Shtull

This just about sums up the work of The Open Tent.  The Judaism stays the same – same Torah, same holidays, same rituals (and then some).  But what’s changing is our approach.  We want to help you do Jewish in an unintimidating and meaningful way.  We’re doing everything from re-visioning the Seder through art, to making Shabbat on the beach with friends, to finger-painting the Sh’ma on pillowcases with our toddlers!  We bring people together to figure out how to do Jewish in a way that’s fresh and enduring.

Anyone who wants to join us is welcome.  Kayak under the stars in May.  Try Jewish yoga in June.  Join in the conversation on Facebook  (http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=50143776310&ref=ts) or here on our website.  The tent is open and expanding.

Every year when I see the full moon on Purim I know I have a one month countdown until Passover.  This means cleaning the house, extending invitations, and figuring out how we will make this holiday new, meaningful, relevant, engaging and holy.  In the past, we’ve asked our guests to bring questions or objects that represent freedom to them.  We’ve done impromptu skits (using props like brooms, stuffed animals, masks and dolls), played “Who wants to be a millionaire” using Passover questions, conducted interviews, and played charades.  I love buying props like plastic frogs, rubber locusts and ping pong balls for our 10 plagues.  We sing old songs like Dayenu, along with new songs like “Take us all out of Egypt” to the tune of “Take me out to the ballgame”.  We give out prizes like kosher bubble gum or bubbles in a frog for the best question.  We’ve made Passover fortune cookies out of matzah.  For us, Passover is more than a holiday meal, it’s an EVENT.

All of the special items on the Seder plate and ritual elements are designed to engage participants in questions, discussion and drama.  At our Seder we love questions, but the one question we never want to hear is:  Is it time to eat yet?!

There are now so many resources to help us design the most meaningful experience for the young and not so young.  Check out:  http://bangitout.com/ and http://opensourcehaggadah.com/ in addition to the wonderful resources myjewishlearning.com is providing on our website.

Even the iphone is in on the action this year.  There is now a new ap called iMah Nishtanah,  for those who want to learn the 4 questions in time for Seder.

The moon will soon be growing full once again.  It’s time to get in high gear and figure out how March 29^th, 2010, will be different from all other nights!

Parenting is the most important job most of us will ever have yet these children come into our lives without any instruction manuals whatsoever!  And just when we think we’ve got things figured out, our children reach a new stage which requires an entirely new figuring.  That’s what makes these books and discussion groups so necessary and important.

One theme which came up at my Mother-Daughter group last night, and again at the Blessing of a Skinned Knee Discussion today, is the tension between giving our kids enough freedom to help them grow, and yet at the same time keeping them safe.  In today’s world we’ve become so fearful of all the bad things that can happen that many of us try to protect (or over-protect) our children from everything. I even read in the newspaper about a parent who was warned by the police that she could be arrested for child endangerment because she let her son ride his bike to baseball practice alone!

In the Talmud we’re instructed that there are 3 things we are required to teach our children:  1)  Torah  2)  A trade and  3)  How to swim!  Swimming, of course, is a survival skill to teach our children.  But more importantly, when we teach a child to swim we need to let go of her to see if she will, quite literally, sink or swim!  For many of us, it’s the letting go part that’s so hard!  But if we never allow our children to fail, they will never learn independence and resiliency.

This Fall, we left our oldest daughter at college for her Freshman year and I really had to let go.  From the moment our babies become toddlers, they begin the process of inching away from us.  In what seems like an instant, our child’s tearful goodbye on the first day of kindergarten becomes our own tearful goodbye on the dormitory threshold.  And each time they move away from us, it’s our natural instinct to run and grab them back.  Believe me, I was tempted when we left our daughter at college!  We love our kids so much that we want to always be there for them because we think we know what’s best for them, or to shelter them from the harm we fear will befall them.

The fifth commandment teaches us to honor our parents.  We honor our children when we believe in them, guide and encourage them and allow them the space they need to discover for themselves who they are destined to be.

I remember the first time I ever visited the Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall or Kotel).  I was 16 years old and visiting Israel on the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program.  I had this vision in my head of what it would be like to see the Wall for the first time, to touch it with my own hands, to smell the ancient city of Jerusalem…and I was utterly disappointed.  First of all, the Wall looked much smaller than I had imagined, particularly the women’s side, which appeared to be about half the size of the men’s.  Secondly, on the women’s side of the Wall, nothing was happening.  All the action was on the men’s side – dancing, singing, praying out loud.  And then, what was especially irksome, was that many women and girls had lined up by the partition, and were watching the activity on the men’s side, without any thought to making things happen on the women’s side.  I vowed then and there, that I would one day return to the Wall and with devotion and love, bring life to the women’s side.

I am happy to say that I have fulfilled that vow.  I have had the privilege of visiting the Wall on many, many occasions, and of bringing groups of women to pray, dance and sing with me there.  Each time, when we lift our voices in song and our feet in dance, others join in, grateful for the opportunity of joyful expression.  Luckily for us, we have never been arrested.

Last week on Wednesday morning, a young medical student visited the Wall with “Women of the Wall”, a group which has monthly Rosh Hodesh (new moon) meetings at the Wall, and she was arrested for wearing a tallit (http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1129040.html).  Police said they arrested the women for not dressing in accordance with the site’s “dress code”.  Orthodox men, threatened by women’s spirituality, are suppressing women’s desire to pray out loud as a community, wearing the traditional garments Jews wear in prayer.

All over the world, women are allowed to wrap themselves in a tallit, a traditional Jewish prayer shawl, for prayer – everywhere — except for the holiest place on earth!  On this American holiday of Thanksgiving, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to pray as I wish, with other women or men, wearing a tallit or not.  Next time I’m in Israel, I will once again pray at the Wall, and one of the things I will pray for is the acceptance of women’s rights in Israel.

I just read in the paper that the Swedes are starting to put a new label on food – not the calorie number or protein content, but the amount of carbon used to produce and transport the product (e.g. “Climate declared: .87 kg CO2 per kg of product”, New York Times, October 23, 2009).   I have heard that the average meal travels an astonishing 1500 miles from farm to fork.

All of us need to start paying attention to not only taking care of our bodies with the food we eat, but taking care of the world.  There’s a midrash (a story) from Jewish tradition that says when God was finished creating the world, God took Adam and Eve on a tour of the Garden of Eden.  At the end of the tour, God said, “Take care of this place.  Because if you don’t, there will be no one to set it right after you.”

We here on Miami Beach, are trying to take steps to reduce our carbon footprint.  This month, we are launching YAROQ, (which means “green” in Hebrew), an organic Jewish CSA (Community Supported Agricultural Initiative).  The Open Tent and Temple Beth Sholom are working with an organization called Farm Fresh Miami to create a community of people who are interested in eating well and caring for our planet.  Twice a month, Farm Fresh will deliver organic, locally grown produce to members of the CSA.  About 60 individuals/families have already signed on.

Mindful eating has always been part of what it means to be a Jew.  The tradition of sayings blessings before we eat is supposed to heighten our awareness of what we are about to eat, and our gratitude for the miracle of good food.  (There’s even an i-phone ap now for which blessing to say before eating).  I read a story about a teacher from Berkeley who told about a time when her students washed and trimmed and cut up all the ingredients to make a big salad.  “Now wait,” she said, to the students.  “Before we start eating, let’s stop to think about the people who tilled the ground, planted the seeds and harvested the vegetables.”  Then the kids stood up at their desks and gave the salad a standing ovation.  Now that’s mindful eating!

If you’re interested in being a part of our mindful eating community, Yaroq, please call:  786.507.6104, or write ma#mce_temp_url#.