Message from Our Rabbi

MEET THE FOCKERS

Entertaining? Yes. Enjoyable? Yes. Would I recommend it?  Yes.  Would I see it again?  Yes because I like to laugh.  So, what's troubling me about this movie when it has become so popular that it grossed close to 50 million dollars the first week it showed?  Robert DeNiro, Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman and Ben Stiller were all really good in this production.

  The parents of the bride, especially the father, felt it was of extreme importance to meet the parents of the groom as their character traits would impact and mold their son's life and he might be like them.  This way they would come to know their future son-in-law who would soon be married to their daughter, and it would help determine the suitability and compatibility of the couple.

  The young man and his family were Jewish and the young woman and her parents were not.  However, that was not a significant part of the research.  Even the Tallit was no longer being worn but was framed and hung on the wall as an adornment.  Who cares?  An intermarriage was to take place in the near future and no one, not the four parents or bride or groom was troubled in the least.  It wasn't even mentioned.

  But that is where our younger generation is headed.  Some parents are bothered by the prospect of their child intermarrying but the more important ingredient in the ideal marriage today is HAPPINESS.  Nothing much else seems to matter.  I am  afraid that if I say too much about the issue, I'll turn my child off and our relationship will no longer be loving, says the parent of today.

  Intermarriage which potentially can spell the demise of our uniqueness as Jews and  our sacred ideals which have nurtured us for centuries, has today become an acceptable part of our history and culture.  We cannot dare not take this matter lightly.  It is serious and needs to be discussed by our families until we cannot talk any more.  We have no alternative but to begin this education when our children start dating in their teenage years.

  SHEMA YISRAEL . . .HEAR O ISRAEL THE LORD IS OUR G-D, THE LORD IS ONE.  It is a privilege to be a Jew and to raise Jewish children committed unequivocally to ONE FAITH.