Rabbi Andrea Cohen Kiener

Cholent (pronounced: cholnlnt) is a bean dish served Saturday after Shabbat services.  From the tradition of not cooking on Shabbat, a hearty baked bean dish was left to embers Friday nights. The recipe is called Hammeen by west Asian Jews, meaning hot.  The European etymology is possibly similar, from the French for hot, chaud. 

Cholent is really a whole megillah, if you know what I mean. Which is to say, it’s more of a lifestyle than a recipe.

Cholent: The Process

Wednesday: Invite friends for shabbat lunch. There are no small cholents.

Sometime Thursday, wash and soak a combination of hearty beans, at least 3 varieties (lima bean, red, pinto, aduki, navy, black) and a grain (barley is traditional; for GF diets, use rice) So roughly 3 parts beans to one part grain. 

Friday afternoon, layer a generous amount of the ingredients below, in order, in a slow cooker or heavy pot:

Olive Oil

Chunked large onions (3-4)

Chunked potatoes, sweet potatoes (some add: carrots, meat, eggs) 3~4 cups

Rinsed beans and grain. Even the surface. Tuck a few bay leaves around the sides of the pot.

You’re almost done.  Next add a huge astonishing enormous amount of: Salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Drizzle olive oil over the seasonings layer.

Next, pour water into the pot (along the side; do not disturb the seasoning layer*) just up to the surface of the beans. 

Boil medium hard for 2-4 hours, adding water, just up to the surface of the beans, as needed.

After this step, the beans will be soft and we just want to slow cook it overnight. Set the crock pot to 200 degrees, or a very low flame if you are using a heavy pot. You do not want to boil it anymore, and we are not going to stir this at all. 

If you did this right, in the morning (around 3AM), the top layer will be a little dark and crunchy. Keep warm in your crock pot until serving. 

PS: I sneak some for breakfast! You can flatten out the crusty bits and just take a nice spoonful from a corner. Yummy.

PPS: Causes flatulence

PPPS: Arrange for an afternoon nap, if possible.

*If you stir or disturb the layers, the Cholent Fairies do not come

ON ZOOM: Please register here
Let’s come together as our region’s Jewish community to:

• Advocate for social justice with our state senators and representatives
• Meet in small groups with our legislators to ask questions and learn their priorities
• Urge our legislators to co-sponsor and lead on critical bills impacting climate change,
  economic and food justice, racial equity, and more
  The greater our numbers, the greater our impact as a united Jewish voice calling for justice.
  We look forward to seeing you there!
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  SPECIAL GUESTS:
  Senator Jo Comerford
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  Senator Jake Oliveira
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  Rep. Natalie Blais
  Rep. Dan Carey
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  Rep. Patricia Duffy
  Rep. Aaron Saunders
  Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa
  Rep. Susannah Whipps

This is my last year here at Temple Israel. I want to make sure you are aware of the benefits of membership which accrue to members – some of which involve me. I’d love to serve you in these ways in my last months here.

Everyone gets 6 hours of rabbinic consultation: That can take the form of planning a life cycle ritual together, finding a Hebrew name, and simple good listening, in the form of pastoral care. I have recently been asked to read palms, which also can be part of your 6 hour of personal access to your rabbi.

Also for members, I offer a discounted “family rate” at my home, which has a lovely, roomy second floor with 3 bedrooms, a full (private) bathroom and a kitchenette. Ideal for family members visiting you for short or longer term stays.

Members are also offered discounts for private rentals of the temple facility and many classes and events.

Warm regards to all and a very happy Hanukkah to all

🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯

Rabbi Andrea

There are several denominations of Judaism, as you know, Reform, Orthodox and so on. But many of the people in my congregation belong to a new branch called: “I Just Try to be a Good Person.”

People who belong to this denomination often express ambivalence or a generally spiritual orientation to the question of God. Many of these Jews also call themselves “cultural” or secular Jews. Many of these congregants mention to me, their rabbi, that they are bad Jews.

I beg to differ.

The path of Judaism addresses practice and belief as well as actions, values and emotional well-being. Jewish guidance on many practical and important problems is usually wise and useful.

Jewish laws around speech, for example, overlaps with good mental health advise. There are rules about lies, gossip, nicknames and confrontation. When you use your words to reconcile and to speak truly and fairly, you are practicing a high degree of Jewish observance.

There are rules about creating safety in your built environment. When you shovel your walk, or tighten your hand-rail, you are being a good Jew! When you reuse and recycle, you are observing a Torah commandment from the book of Deuteronomy.

There are practices in our arsenal that teach us how to cultivate appreciation, patience, equanimity and so on.

What my Good Person congregants might mean is something closer to “I don’t do the big identity markers that make us different. I don’t go to services. I don’t keep kosher,” stuff like that. But the laws and rules and values that we share with other religions and other schools of thought (public health, environmental policy, mental health, education) are part of our path too, our Jewish “tool kit” as my Teacher Reb Zalman, OBM used to say.

The Hebrew root for the word “Hebrew” is Gratefulness and the root of “Yisrael” means Seeker or Noble Struggle.

Are you cultivating Gratefulness? Are you a Seeker? Welcome to the club

Love

Rabbi Andrea

During this glorious summer of sunny days, we perceive again the glory and the complexity and the illumination of our life on this planet. And during the too sunny days, days on end without the blessing of “rain in its season” (Lev 26:4 and others) we are aware of the imbalances we humans are foisting upon creation.  The water cycle is a sign of the connection between heaven and earth as evaporation and rain. The bible remarks on the differences between Egypt which is irrigated by simple foot operated levers which feed irrigation channels and the climate of Israel, where the farmer must raise their eyes to the heavens and constantly seek the right balance of self-concerns and generosity. The implication is that when we are in a generous flow, receiving freely and passing on the gifts we accumulate, heaven and earth are in that same flow – rain falls down and our seeds are blessed.

The theme of our fall holidays include this self-evaluation: How are we expending our blessings? And the theme of interdependence: We are reliant on forces beyond our control. And the theme of vulnerability: The fragile, temporary sukkah is like us – fragile and temporary.

It is not easy to live at the edge of these truths. But when we know them, when we realize them, we evaluate ourselves in a truer light. We measure what is important. We feel a better relationship between our “heaven and earth;” our aspirations and our common, mundane needs.

I wish for you and me and all of us the blessings of interdependence and vulnerability.  

L’shana tova

Love

Rabbi Andrea

Dear Ones,

In this year of shmita, the Earth Sabbatical Year, I plan to to write about the practical wisdom derived from this practice. Last month, I outlined the centrality of 7 in the cycle of Jewish holidays, ranging from the weekly sabbath and going on up to the cycle of 7×7 years, the Jubilee, the 50^th year, arriving after 7 shmita cycles, for a once in a life-time experience.

When we practice a pulse of work and rest, we support our re-generativity and the re-generativity of the soil and the life that depends on it.

Conversely, the cycle of 7’s appears in the Torah’s description of what happens when we turn our backs (Leviticus 26:14 and following) on this life supporting guidance: “God will do the same to you…” The consequences mentioned here include anxiety, depression and despair, poor harvest and domination by our enemies. And then: “If you still do not listen to Me, I will increase the penalty of your crimes sevenfold. The harms this time include acid rain, and exhaustion of the people and the land. And sevenfold again, resulting in child mortality and depopulation, plague and wild animals. Four times this curse is expanded sevenfold, resulting in exile and ruin. The Torah’s explanation is: “The land will have her sabbaths” (26:34). She will be desolate according to the number of years she was abused and denied her rest.

This is not a vision of God-In-The-Sky throwing thunderbolts at errant humans. This is natural law, giving us feedback when we violate the terms and conditions of use. These horrors are consequences, not punishments. And many of them among us already.

Jewish philosophy holds that God is good and nature is generous.  The living systems of earth are the stage upon which human actions are played out. We support and continue the good and generous model in which we are created. Or we stand in the way of abundance and flow that gives life to us and all.  Our greed, selfishness and over consumption create waste and corruption of the natural order.

There is a very real possibility that some of you reading this today will live to see an irredeemable shift in earth’s climate that will have unpredictable and catastrophic consequences for all life. Indeed, it is underway. Perhaps we can let ourselves feel the collective suffering already underway and the suffering that may yet be unavoidable. Perhaps that apprehension can motivate to realign ourselves with generosity, simplicity and appreciation.

“When their stubborn spirit is broken, I will forgive their sins…the land will have enjoyed its sabbath while it lay in desolation without them…” (26:41 and following).

It is natural for us to feel grief at corruption and waste. And it is natural for us to want to repair and rebalance harms. There is joy in our aligning with the natural order and its generosity. This is not a call to obey the God-In-The-Sky. It is a call to heed the higher and more sensitive in ourselves, so that we live joyfully and generously.

I know many of us in the valley bear the natural grief and remorse at the conditions we have collectively created. We are a sharing and generous community. May we see the blessings of our good impulses increase, for all of us and for all.