Rosh Hashanah Sermon 2015/5776: Jewish Unity is Critical

Rabbi Mendel Futerfas was imprisoned for years in a Siberian gulag for running Jewish religious schools in secret in the Soviet Union; he was there together with another prisoner who was a tightrope walker.

The Rabbi asked him what is the secret to his art – What does one need to master?  Balance?  Stamina?  Concentration?

The secret, he replied, is always keeping your destination in focus.  You have to keep you eyes on the other end of the rope.  But do you know what the hardest part is?

When you get to the middle?  The rabbi ventured.

No, it’s when you make the turn.  Because for a fraction of a second, you lose sight of your destination.  When you don’t have sight of your destination that is when you are most likely to fall.”

Our lives are a journey.  We don’t always know where that journey will lead.  On the way we feel like we are walking on a tightrope, balancing our needs, wants, and hopes and dreams with those of our loved ones and friends, searching for meaning and purpose.

For the Jewish people, we walk on this tightrope, each of us, and our communities, aware of threats that persist into the 21^st century:  Anti-Semitism, anti-Israel movements, and Muslim extremism.

We are meant to have our hands up to support each other, we are klal Yisrael, the nation of Israel, we strive live by the wisdom of the Rabbis, ‘Kol yisrael arevin ze bazeh’,  but tragically in the debate and discussion on issues and challenges over the centuries, including the recent and ongoing debate about the Iran deal,  there has been a breakdown and disrespect in Jewish communities around the country when we needed to support each other the most. 

As we stand here together seeking teshuvah, repentance and renewal of faith, faith in ourselves, in our community, faith in God, we want to mend our community to ensure that when we are in this position of debating crucial ideas and policy decisions that impact us we, as a people, will make healthier decisions.

We must not fall victim to taking our eyes off our destination, being divided in the way that oppressors and terrorists hope to divide us so that we will be weaker, and end up tragically, more open to the very threats that we are trying to prevent.  The response to the Iran deal was exactly what the regime wanted, exactly what anti-Semites want, as an example, the folly of headlines that 300 rabbis sign a petition to support the deal and 600 sign up to oppose the deal.  We must heal and close the painful divide between us, so that we can live in the spirit of eilu v’eilu, these and these are the words of the living God, our perspectives and theirs, though vastly different, deserve our attention.

As I said when I first visited WJC this past spring, and this summer as well, whether with Prime Minister Netanyahu or each of us, this issue is not political, it is an issue of a threat to our families.  Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother Yoni died trying to save Jews from terrorists in the airport at Entebbe.  We now look over to Israel at our family, whether we have relatives there or not they are part of our larger family.  We are concerned not so much about the details of an inspections regime as much as we are concerned about the safety, the peace of mind, and the security of our brothers and sisters who are continuing to create and promote democracy at home and abroad, who have provided health care to refugees from the fighting in Syria, who have treated senior PLO and Hamas officials in Israeli hospitals, who showed up in the Philippines, in Haiti, and in Nepal after the devastating earthquakes.  Flush with billions in petro dollars – do countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia reach out beyond their borders with help like this during humanitarian crises or do they continue to repress their populations and sponsor terrorism abroad along with advancing their own territorial ambitions?  Continue to segregate women and perform public executions, as in Saudi Arabia – executions for ‘crimes’ such as apostasy and sorcery. 

And still, despite Israel’s efforts, despite the efforts of Jewish in North America to speak up and speak out on behalf of those oppressed around the world, anti-Semitism rears its ugly head.  Our children on college campuses confront unprecedented vilification of Israel, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, and academics teaching anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism as part of the curriculum, often supporting student hate-groups and under the protection of tenure rules.

            Our teacher Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief Rabbi of England, urges us toward awareness, to see how anti-Zionism has become the new face of anti-Semitism, and he urges us also in response to never internalize the messages – to respond in pride of our identity, in strength, and solidarity to threats that have tragically materialized these past several years into unspeakable horrors, the murders of innocents at a Jewish day school in Toulouse, in Denmark, Belgium, in Paris, even here on American soil – we remember the murder of a security guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, the murders committed at the JCC of Greater Kansas City.

And no matter what our stand on this deal or any foreign policy decision relating to Israel, or about Israel’s actions, it is critical that the American Jewish community become more united rather than less, that the Jewish community find ways to live up to the expectations of the Rabbis who teach us, machloket le’shem shamayim sofah lehitkayem, a disagreement with Heavenly intent will in the end find resolution.

This statement is difficult to translate – How can there be a conflict, a disagreement between people, that happens with heavenly intent?  Our disagreements pit one person against another, one ideology against another, one perspective on facts and realities against another? 

And what does it mean sofah lehitkayem?  That literally ‘in the end it will be upheld’.  Whose point of view will be upheld?  How can a disagreement itself be upheld if there is no resolution? 

Rabbenu Yonah helps us untangle this complicated, and as we will see, thoughtful statement.  He explains, there will always be disagreements amongst people, whether over one matter or another.  The teaching, the lesson is, that only in the case that the conflict is centered upon and concerning holy and meaningful ideas that only this type of conflict will have lasting positive influence on our lives and in fact will ‘add’ to the years of life.  If we have substantive disagreements, thoughtful debates, and we are willing to listen with empathy – then we will fulfill the Rabbi’s teaching. 

Conflict can engage us rather than divide us, sharpen our senses and our perspectives, motivate us to be more active, and also to come closer to rather than pull away from others. 

The Rabbis here also teach us that the righteous way to be is to say ‘What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours’.  We work best as human beings when we are willing to share, and also when we are willing to allow others to be who they are and to represent their views.

And we cannot then allow differences of opinion about Jewish issues of all kinds to push us away from our friends, our communities, and from God.  God is neither Republican nor Democrat, neither conservative with a small “c” or liberal.  It is dangerous when we begin to quote verses from the Torah that support one and only one point of view because, as a character in Chaim Potok’s ‘The Chosen’ once said, quoting an ancient teaching, the ‘Torah contains everything and its opposite.’  One prophet says “We should turn our swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks,” (Isaiah) and another prophet (Yo’el) says, “It’s time to turn our plowshares into swords and our pruning hooks into spears.”  This summer we read in the Torah about how the community should execute a stubborn and rebellious child, but we also know that our ancient Rabbis limited this legislation to such a degree that it would never be possible to carry out such a sentence.

We know of many religious groups that quote from their holy texts to support all types of horrible and inhuman agendas.  We know who ISIs is and who others like them are and what they have done in this world – slaughtering civilians, destroying ancient sites, expanding their territory with heavy weapons and bloodshed.  We’ve seen how their fight, and the fight within and between many nations in the Middle East persist precisely because groups within the Muslim world are fighting each other.  The Iran-Iraq war alone between 1980 and 1988 claimed 1 million lives of soldiers and civilians combined.

We reflect on these grisly stories and on the way the Middle East seems to be unraveling, and the way that there has been name-calling and other divisiveness within the Jewish community in recent debates, and we appreciate the way New York federal legislators wrote, in an open letter in August, “No matter where you stand on the Iran deal, comparisons to the Holocaust, the darkest chapter in human history; questioning the credentials of longstanding advocates for Israel; and accusations of dual loyalty are inappropriate.”

Back here, then, to welcoming in our New Year – a time of celebration, when our differences disappear, when we are all equal in God’s Presence.

A favorite prayer from our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services brings home just how central unity is for us at this time of year, unity within ourselves – repairing the broken places in our lives, unity in our community – making sure that we all feel welcome and have a seat at the table, and unity amongst our people.  After all, our prayers all call us to repent and seek forgiveness as a ‘we’ – Ashamnu, we have sinned, Al chet she’chatanu, for the wrongs we have committed, Avinu Malkenu chonenu va’anenu, Our Parent Our Sovereign, please have mercy and compassion on us.

And the boldest statement of them all, “Ve’ye’asu kulam agudah achat la’sot retzoncha bi’levav shalem,” Let us be united wholeheartedly to carry out Your will.

An ‘agudah achat’ is a binding, that we be bound together, all of us.

What we are after as a community is not being homogenous.  Unity does not mean giving up our firmly held beliefs – it does mean a willingness to stay in dialogue when a discussion or decision may not go our way. 

It does mean that we are willing to heal ourselves and help a community heal when there has been conflict and dissent, when there has been little communication or partnership, and systems have broken down – we see this in families, in business, on sports teams, in schools, everywhere.

The question is “Can we be builders?”  What is a builder?  Columnist David Brooks shared a story about the Woodiwiss family. The Woodiwiss family is one that experienced two serious traumas.  The first, Anna Woodiwiss died after being thrown from a horse – she had been working for a service organization in Afghanistan.  The second, five years later, younger sister Catherine was struck by a car while riding a bike to work.  She is enduring a series of operations and a slow recovery.  In reflecting on these traumas, and how we respond to crisis, she distinguishes between firefighters and builders.  Firefighters are those who show up at a moment’s notice at a crisis moment.  Builders are those who are there for the long haul, who walk alongside victims over time.

It is not better to be a firefighter rather than a builder and vice versa.  In our community, we have both and both are important.  The spirit of the builder though is critical whether in creating our community here on Long Island or in nurturing unity and strength amongst the Jewish people.

 When the dust settles from the current debate and crisis, we will still be facing forces like anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism that do not discriminate between J Street and Aipac or between Israeli Jews and Jews in North America or anywhere else.

Today we rededicate ourselves to be friends and ambassadors to our fellow Jews of all stripes.  Please join me this year as we create exciting and innovative collaborations with our fellow Jewish congregations, and with local faith and community groups, to help break down invisible walls that divide us and help us to strengthen each other.  Our best efforts may not change policy decisions at the highest levels, but right here in our neighborhoods, we have an extraordinary opportunity to make our synagogues, our Jewish community, the most positive presence, leading the way in teaching the lessons that come right out of these fall holy days – how to be a mensch, a thoughtful and engaged human being, unyielding in establishing communities who not only preach unity, but pursue it – exactly the way our brothers and sisters in Israel have been striving for 66 years to fulfill the teaching of our Rabbis in the Middle East, the most volatile region in the world, the teaching, in a place where there are not good people, set the example and be an Adam, a mensch.

The Shofar is a call to assemble, to come together, to move together into the New Year.

And it is my prayer that we make our disagreements to be in the name of Heaven, with Heavenly purpose, the purpose of keeping us together as a people both at times of crisis and times of relative peace. 

As we reach up and support one another on the tight rope into the New Year – may our feet guide us safely in these days of transition into what we hope will be a year of blessing.

L’shana Tovah.

  

Rosh Hashanah Sermon: A Vision for the Woodbury Jewish Center Community

This is my first day Rosh Hashanah sermon at Woodbury Jewish Center of 2015/5776- while the message is particular to setting a vision for the synagogue, the themes translate into the types of Jewish communities we all want to create.

Shana Tovah! I’m Rabbi Tow, the new Rabbi at Woodbury Jewish Center, and I’m excited to be here to welcome in the New Year with you.  I look out today at our congregation and I wonder how was it possible for a small group of founding families to come together and create a community, about 2 bar mitzvahs of years ago, that now numbers over 400 families? 

It takes courage.  It takes a willingness to invest all of ourselves into the project.  And a willingness to live with uncertainty and vulnerability of living without all the resources we need at any given time, as we build with creativity and compassion, with a deep faith in our potential.

Today I will lay out a vision for the Woodbury Jewish Center for the coming year, a vision informed by one on ones and parlor meetings over the summer, with inspiration from founding members I’ve had the privilege to meet, and past presidents, religious school students and families, nursery school students and families, seniors, and many more.

It is a vision rooted in the mission statement of our synagogue.  As mission statements go, it is well done…Woodbury Jewish Center is an egalitarian Conservative congregation that embraces the religious, spiritual, educational, & social needs of a diverse membership.  Through mutual respect for one another and a foundation built on traditional values, we guide our members towards a Jewish identity where worship, love of Israel, education, charity, and a commitment to family & community are integrated into our lives.

Our mission statement though is a product of a vision that we inherited long ago from Abraham and Sarah the heroes of the Rosh Hashanah stories we chant today and tomorrow from the Torah.  The language of guiding our members puts us back into the story of Abraham and Sarah who in their journey from Haran toward the Holy Land were part of a new creation of the world!  “Vayomer Ado-nai el Avram Lech’Lecha!”  God said to Avram, ‘Go forth!’  The Bal HaTurim reminds us that God created the world this way in the first place, through speaking.

This is the same creation and renewal we are celebrating today! – The way our community guides and show the way is what inspires me, the stories of how the founders made phone calls, met one on one, held small group meetings to build a core, is what inspires me to carry forward the energy and excitement of special and defining moments, when the synagogue acquired this land to build, when Victor Hatami stood by the first brick of the building that he and Dolores sponsored.  This summer we celebrated the aufruf for a founding family, and the family said, ‘We built this place with the hope of celebrating occasions like these here.’

Inspired by the founders and their commitment, full of energy and enthusiasm meeting many of you already and looking forward to meeting everyone, thrilled by the sound of children’s voices filling up the hallways upstairs and downstairs now that school’s started, I want to share my vision for the days ahead and invite you to be partners with me in sharpening this vision and making it real.

After all, that’s the way Abram and Sara did it, they did not make their journey alone, they brought along many people with them.

We are going to infuse more joy and meaning into everything we do.  As Rebbe Nahman of Breslev taught us, mitzvah gedolah lihyot be’simcha tamid, it is a great mitzvah to always be joyful.  We are here to celebrate the miracle of the gift of life our ancestors gave to us – the words we sing, the people we join with to pray, to study, are all miracles.  Let’s celebrate them! 

We do not just want to be joyful, we want to spread and share it with others.  We will  reach out more to each other, to offer our help and support even when we do not know who the other person is whom we are preparing to support.  Rebbe Nahman also taught that if a group of people are happy and dancing, and they see someone nearby who is sad and blue, we are supposed to, even against their will, bring them into the circle to dance, and transform sadness to joy, or at least to create the possibility for joy.

We are also going to establish stronger community connections inside and out.  The story of Abraham and Sarah we read today tells of divisiveness, a family that is separated by jealousy between Sarah and Hagar.  When there is unnecessary division, when we are not in tune and in touch with our fellow Jews, our fellow Jewish congregations, and with other faith groups, the same division happens. 

Following the holidays, I will continue to reach out to my colleagues in the area, the Rabbis of all congregations, all movements, as well as to the clergy of other faiths.

Our ancient Rabbis in the Talmud taught us an important lesson, that we are to reach out to our fellow Jewish communities to be an ‘agudah achat’, as we pray in our high holiday prayers, one unit, bound together to bring the Torah’s vision of the world into being.  And we also hear their ancient wisdom – we are taught to support the needy of all faiths, to visit the sick of all faiths, and to help bury people of all faiths.  We will renew this call to action for us to be in contact and in active partnership with other faith communities this year.  We continue to be part of the partners in caring network, with the constant help available of social workers who can guide us through difficult times.

That’s the story of our work with people outside our community, what about right here inside the WJC family? 

We have many in our community who feel lonely.  If you would like to reach out and call someone, or visit someone, to schmooze and share time, call up our office and we will match you with someone to visit.  If you would like to cook a meal for someone in need, if you would like to help drive someone to services, let us know.  No one should be left out.  No one should feel left out. And  mitzvah goreret mitzvah, one mitzvah leads to another.  We will expand offerings for seniors and others who are around during the day and keep our building buzzing with activity.  A mitzvah is also a call for us to a new perspective – in that moment when we are helping someone, we are also giving a gift to ourselves, to keep reminding ourselves of what is most important.   

A few years ago, I was counseling a congregant who had just lost his father.  He had never experienced a shivah where members of the community, outside of a familiar group of family and friends, would come into his house, let alone pray together and support him.  The first night, he welcomed at least a dozen members of the community into his house he had never met before to offer him comfort, and at the end of the service he said, “I never could have imagined how powerful and comforting it would be to open my house to everyone.”  The following Shabbat, he kept repeating how touched he was that all these people he really did not know, people he now saw again at synagogue during services, had come for him

It was a watershed moment, a moment of enlightenment, for him, just as Rosh Hashanah is for us.  Maimonides/Rambam teaches us the sound of the Shofar is meant to do the same for us, to raise our awareness, to bind us together, to call to spark in us the energy to look beyond the enormous and consuming routines and schedules we have – all of us doing good things, work, school, activities, sports and more.  A call to reach out to one another.

I also recognize that just joining the community can be a challenge.  Newer members may find it hard to establish new friendships.  If this is your first time in this room, with so many people, and the TV screens, it can feel a little overwhelming.  And these Rosh Hashanah days and Yom Kippur, with our room full, can be difficult to feel close to each other – literally, this is a big space, and we can join our voices together, but we don’t have much time for developing relationships, really getting to know one another today.

So this year, we will be working to bring our families together for Shabbat meals, matching families to open up our homes, opening up chances to bring Shabbat into our lives in a meaningful and fun way.  Shabbat Shalom – Shabbat Shalom Hey!...

Another goal is to celebrate education here, early childhood, religious school, adult education, and educating out in the community.  This year, each month, we’ll welcome families for Shabbat Yachad, age appropriate prayers, songs, and stories, then Shabbat blessings and Shabbat dinner yachad, together.  Even as soon as today, we’re rolling out the Very Happy Rosh Hashanah Service, that will both open up high holidays in a new and fun way for families, and also be a part of our outreach as we welcome in members of the larger community from far and wide, those who are unaffiliated, and to give them a place to be to get a special taste of the holidays.  This is the work both of education and of keruv, of bringing people closer, closer by opening up the doors of our synagogue wider, as we grow by welcoming and sharing our knowledge and expertise with each other.

Please help us to strengthen the foundation of our early childhood and religious school programs even if your children have finished these programs – greet families and students when they arrive, attend confirmation and graduation, get to know these families that are the future of our synagogue – share with them your own stories and listen to theirs.

And we will strive to fulfill the mitzvah of hoda’ah, the mitzvah of gratitude. 

Our tradition places such a high value on gratitude that the final third of every Amidah we recite, the central prayer of every service, is the theme of gratitude, Modim anachnu lach – We thank you God for everything…for the miracles large and small with us everyday…Miracle happen here all the time, miracles like the way we put together these services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  Our ritual committee leaders Paul Chaskes and Ellen Feit, and ritual members, put significant work, countless hours, into making these holiday services run smoothly.  There are many more people to thank – including all of you!  Thank you for being here today, whether sitting right up front or in the back – I look forward to greeting each of you today, and I hope to see you all at our house for the Havdalah and Sukkah party on Saturday evening October 3.

 Joy and meaning, stronger community connections inside and out, new heights in Jewish education, and a spirit of gratitude all around.  I hope this is a vision that catches your attention and gets you as inspired and energized as I feel today to get to work and make the vision into a reality. 

I’ll share with you a story of the Jews of spain, in the late 14^th century, a time of persecution, a story of a group who could not wait to make vision into reality.

A young Jewish boy was imprisoned with others in a dark dungeon.  Somehow he found a charcoal to draw a picture on the wall.  Whatever he drew suddenly started to come to fruition.  They were hungry and thirsty, he drew food and drink and miraculously he and his fellow prisoners had full bellies.  He always drew to take care of their needs.  One day there was a rumor circulating that all the prisoners would be executed.  The young boy was despondent – he would never become an adult – never have the chance to get married or to have children.  One of the other prisoners suggested he draw a way out of the prison.  The boy doubted whether he could.  He had only drawn little things.  He was too sad to draw.  All of the prisoners began to implore him, please draw so that you can save yourself and all of us.  A man put chalk in his hand.  He drew a boat on the sea, and suddenly they felt a breeze as they had never felt, and they were all free.

Like our Ancestors Abraham and Sarah, and like the founding families here in Woodbury, all of us are carrying forward the spark that we light today, as we set out like the former captives toward new horizons together, striving to be free from anything, any assumptions or notions that hold us back -- on Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of a New Year, the beginning of our work together, along with Cantor Cohen, Cindy Common, Dr. Meisel, Linda and Silvia in the office, Arnie and his staff and with all the lay leaders. 

One final story, Rabbenu Yonah in his classic work on repentance, tells a wonderful story, similar in its context to the story from Spain.  A story about how we cannot wait to move forward, to set a course toward making the vision for our lives for our community into reality.  Two convicts are in a jail.  They dig a tunnel that opens to the outside.  They crawl through the tunnel and the first leaps out and runs.  The second holds back, sits inside the tunnel unable to move.  All of a sudden, whack!, the warden comes up behind him and hits him with his warden’s staff.  The convict, white with fear, turns around --- and what does the warden say?  He says, “Hey you, how come you didn’t continue and escape?  What are you waiting for?  Himalet al nafshecha!  Get going!”

May we have the courage to envision, to dream, and to step forward together to bring these to life.

Shana Tovah!

Parshat Ki Tavo: Half full or half empty? --- Better to put the glass down!

Ki Tavo 2015/5775

When did we last think of the image of the glass with water in it to the halfway point?

I happened on a new insight about this age old question of perspectives, half-full or half-empty, or the perspective of Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson who drew a person looking at the cup saying, “Hey, I ordered something else!”

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

Remember to put the glass down.

From what has happened this past year, what we’ve done, what we haven’t done, what we don’t know that we’ve done or not done; we are carrying a load, a load that we lug through every day except for the moments when we’re thinking about other things, when we’re at work or on the way our minds tend to lighten us up while we focus on the task at hand.  For that period of time, we put the glass down.

When God takes us out of Egypt, we put down the glass of slavery and oppression, and, at the same time, we pick up both the new privileges and responsibilities of being God’s people.  The joy we feel after escaping from the Egyptians at the Sea is a moment of blessing and the confirmation of our new status as free people. 

This week God asks us to continue to hear the Holy Voice from heaven and to receive blessings for acting on that voice.  But we are not in that moment of original freedom and celebration anymore, now, at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we’re celebrating the possibility of renewal, the hope for it, our plans to renew ourselves in the year that’s about to start.

We have seen many people, thousands upon thousands, fleeing from oppressive countries, risking their lives and the lives of their families to travel on rickety boats and unsafe vehicles to get from places like Syria, Eritrea, and Afghanistan to Europe where they want to start new lives.  Tragically, we have seen how these dangerous journeys can end.  They cannot put the glass down as easily as we can – in their travels they do not have the leisure to step out of the life altering journey. 

We may feel this way too, but our situation is less critical, for the most part, not a situation of life and death in the physical sense.  We extend our prayers to those who are in these dangerous transits from slavery to freedom and opportunity, and compel ourselves to feel at this time of year a sense of urgency.

A sense of urgency is critical at this time of year.  The Rebbe of Ger teaches that when we feel an openness in our hearts, a lightening of our load at the moment when we let go of our stresses and worries, that is good but only a remez only a hint from God that we are moving in the right direction. 

The reality is that it’s tough to put the glass down, for some reason we hold onto stress, worry, conflict and pain, magnify it bigger than it is, we hold grudges so long that we may never be able to know what life could be like with and after potential reconciliation, we even think about and possibly seek out people who have wronged us when we know that we’d do better to move on and stay away from their influences.  We may hold the glass in order to receive sympathy as the victim rather than taking back the initiative and deciding that we define who we are rather than our circumstances. 

I’ve had the privilege of meeting many people over the years who in the end succumbed to diseases like cancer, ALS, and others.  Many people like one woman I know with ALS who continue to live and work through the most painful transitions possible in this life, when the body breaks down around the mind and we have to rely on loved ones and others to help take care of even the most personal and basic tasks and needs that we tend to do without even thinking about them.  She maintains a position in town leadership, travels to see her daughter on the other side of the country, and smiles through it all.

She is an expert at putting the glass down.

May she inspire us to do the same.

Shabbat Shalom.