Parshat Hayye Sarah
Text:
יב וַיֹּאמַר ה אֱלֹהֵי אֲדֹנִי אַבְרָהָם הַקְרֵה-נָא לְפָנַי הַיּוֹם וַעֲשֵׂה-חֶסֶד עִם אֲדֹנִי אַבְרָהָם. יג הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי נִצָּב עַל-עֵין הַמָּיִם וּבְנוֹת אַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר יֹצְאֹת לִשְׁאֹב מָיִם. יד וְהָיָה הַנַּעֲרָ אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיהָ הַטִּי-נָא כַדֵּךְ וְאֶשְׁתֶּה וְאָמְרָה שְׁתֵה וְגַם-גְּמַלֶּיךָ אַשְׁקֶה אֹתָהּ הֹכַחְתָּ לְעַבְדְּךָ לְיִצְחָק וּבָהּ אֵדַע כִּי-עָשִׂיתָ חֶסֶד עִם-אֲדֹנִי.
And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, grant me good fortune this day and deal graciously with my master Abraham. Here I stand by the spring as the daughters of the townsmen come out to draw water; let the maiden to whom I say, ‘please, lower your jar that I may drink.’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’ let her be the one whom You have decreed for your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that you have dealt graciously with my master.”
Commentary:
A. Then Yonatan said, “behold we will pass over to these men, and we will reveal ourselves to them. If they say to us; ‘tarry until we come to you’ then we will stand still in this place and not go up to them. But if they say ‘Come up to us’ then we will go up for the Lord has delivered them into our hand. And this will be a sign for us. [I Samuel 14:8-10]
B. The plea of Eliezer, Abraham’s servant poses a problem. There is surely a self-contradiction in him praying to God to engineer a coincidence. This is the literal rendering of his plea which may be translated as “cause to chance before me today.” [N. Leibowitz, Studies in Bereshit/Genesis p.239]
C. He did not make this a sign whereby he might recognize Isaac’s destined wife, because that would be divination, rather he prayed that it might fall out so; and so it was with Jonathan the son of Saul …If the individual says it not as a prayer, but as divination, i.e. “If thus and thus happens then I shall do this” then he is guilty of divination. [Sforno on Gen. 24:14]
D. The Servant prays for success in his mission, thanks God when success seems imminent, but the motif-word that recurs rather strangely in his prayers is the word “hesed” (love). … The importance of what Rebecca will mean to the family is intimated here. For there is, after all, a tragic residue of the Akedah in Abraham’s family. The darkening of Sarah’s light is one manifestation. But even in Abraham’s case – what can it have meant to him to undergo the test, and then, simply, silently, have Isaac restored to him? … God says not a word to Abraham after the command to sacrifice his son. He restores his son but Abraham never knows the reason for his experience. … Implicit in the servant’s prayers is the need to see a manifest indication of God’s hesed to Abraham. His main criterion for the rightness of Rebecca’s election is that he will sense in her the hesed that, since the Akedah, has been lacking from his master’s experience. [A Zornberg, Genesis, The Beginning of Desire, p.140]
E. The test to determine what girl is the right one for Isaac was recognized by the rabbis long ago as being ghastly inappropriate. “What if the woman who watered the servant’s camels had been a slave or a prostitute?” they ask in horror. Yet the foolish servant blithely goes his merry way and is guarded by God against error. Further, the servant dangles images of riches before the eyes of the girl’s family, rather than the sterling qualities of character one might have hoped for. It makes me wonder about Isaac. [B. Visotzky, The Genesis of Ethics p.126]
Questions:
1. This is one of the longest narratives of the Torah. What are we being taught to do when faced with an important decision?
2. Is Rebecca chosen by character, fate, luck or divine will?
3. Is this story high drama or comedy? Why?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Teach your Children
Teach your Children
Sermon Parshat Vayera
2009
Shabbat Shalom
The singers, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, sing a song with these lyrics
You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well,Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
The struggle between Parents and Children is as old as the history of human beings. When our children are born we have such high hopes about who they will be and what they will accomplish. We want our children to have all that we did not have and to become all that we could not be. We want them to have the benefit of the wisdom we gained throughout our lives, from the trial and error and the hard won lessons we learned in life. This will be our legacy to our children.
But I don’t have to tell you that it doesn’t work that way. We find we can’t prevent our children from repeating the mistakes we made in our lives. The hard won lessons we discover they have to also learn for themselves. As they grow we discover that they don’t want the same things we want for them. They have a path to travel and we have to sometimes, stand aside and let them travel it alone. It is very hard to raise children; it is a task that never ends.
Abraham and Isaac set out on a similar journey. Abraham will take Isaac to the place that God has shown the father. And there, the son will become a sacrifice. Isaac carries the wood and the firestone. And, in what will turn out to be the last time the two of them have a conversation, Isaac asks where the lamb for the offering is. Abraham only gives him the vague answer, “God will provide the lamb”.
Modern commentators of the Bible can’t stand this story of the Binding of Isaac. How can a father raise a knife to his son? What was Abraham thinking? Why doesn’t he protest the command of God as he protested the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? What must Isaac be thinking, silent Isaac, as he draws near to the place of sacrifice and begins to realize that he, Isaac will be the lamb?
Abraham Joshua Heschel, as a young man cried when he read this story. His teacher asked, “Why are you crying? You know the angel will come and save Isaac.” The young scholar replied, “but what if the Angel had arrived a second too late? What would have happened to poor Isaac?” The rabbi comforted him and calmed him by telling him that an angel cannot come late.” Heschel replied, “An angel cannot be late, but a human, made of flesh and blood, may be.”
This story can only have a bad ending. Isaac may survive God’s test of Abraham, but both father and son must leave with an unsettled soul. Abraham shaking that he could have raised a knife to his son. Isaac doomed never to forget the image of his father raising the knife. Abraham comes down off the mountain. There is no mention of Isaac. Perhaps Isaac needed some time alone. Perhaps Isaac realized that he would now have to go his own way.
What is it we are supposed to learn from this story? That God does not want us to sacrifice our children? If so, then just tell the patriarch, don’t have him destroy his relationship with his son by raising the knife. We can even make the case that this not only causes a breach between Isaac and Abraham, but it will bring about the death of Sarah as well. To make a point, the entire family will be destroyed? Abraham will lose his son and his wife. No, there must be a different lesson for us here.
Abraham and Isaac have much that they must still teach each other. Abraham will have to go on in life, without his beloved Sarah, but will still have meaningful relationships and will play with his twin grandchildren. Isaac will teach his father that reconciliation is always possible and in the end, Abraham’s two children, Isaac and Ishmael, will mend the rift in the family and both will be there to bury their father.
We too sometimes carry our resentments about our children with us, letting them drive a wedge in our relationship. Our children don’t often seem to understand the sacrifices we make on their behalf. Just when we think they will appreciate all that we have done for them, they go off on their own, make, what we think are terrible mistakes in their lives and they never really understand who we are. We had dreams for them and they just don’t seem to care. We were prepared to sacrifice everything for them and they will not sacrifice one small part of their lives for us. Such ingratitude. In our anger and frustration we wall them out of our hearts.
If I were to ask the children, the story would be a different path to the same ending. It is not that they don’t appreciate parents, but that parents just can’t let them go so they can find their own way in the world. Everything they do is not enough for the parents. The child grows up but, then realizes that in his parent’s eyes, he will always be a little boy, in need of a parent to help him navigate the world. The child has dreams but the parent does not really seem to care. They work so hard so that parents will appreciate their accomplishments and be proud of the child. But there is only disappointment. “You could have done better, you could have chosen better, you could have been better if only you would have listened to me.” So in anger and frustration they wall their parents out of their hearts.
I stood at the grave of an elderly woman, whose three grown sons gave her just the bare minimum honor a child must do for a parent. The pain between mother and sons was just too great. They did only what a son should do for his mother and no more. They had nothing left in their hearts for her. But the grandson was different. He stayed behind after the funeral and talked to me. He was angry. How could his father be so cruel to a grandmother who was always there for her grandson? How could his father not love this wonderful woman? How could he not see how loving, caring and kind she was? It is not fair Rabbi, it is not fair!
I looked at this angry grandson and said. “ I do not know what pain divided your father from his mother. I don’t know what turned his heart cold to her. But this I do know. You need to have a talk with your father. You need to ask him why he and his brothers were so estranged from their mother. You need to know the answer and you need to know it now. Because if you don’t, someday you will do for your father what he did for his mother, and your children will stand by the grave after you leave and say to the Rabbi “It is not fair!!”
At the end of Abraham’s life, he sees his son married. He finds some happiness with another wife, who takes care of him in his old age. And he lives to see Isaac pass on the spiritual heritage that Abraham has worked so hard to build. Isaac will repeat some of the mistakes of his father. But, in next week’s parsha, when Isaac digs again the wells that Abraham first dug, Isaac will come to understand his father better, and he will forgive him.
We must never give up on our children. We must work hard not to close our hearts to them out of anger and frustration. Their path in life will be as hard and difficult as our path has been. From time to time they will come and ask us how we navigated some of the trickiest parts of life. Sometimes they will follow our advice and sometimes they will make their own mistakes, and learn about life the hard way. I often tell children to at least get advice from their parents as part of their decision making process. But I tell the parents that while we may give advice, we must not be angry if they choose a different path. It is not a rejection of the parent, but just another attempt to find their way through a rough spot in their lives.
So don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry. So just look at them and sigh. And just know that they love you.
May we always find room in our hearts to love our children no matter how they live their lives, and may they always find room in their hearts to know how much we love them. As we say….. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.
Sermon Parshat Vayera
2009
Shabbat Shalom
The singers, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, sing a song with these lyrics
You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well,Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
The struggle between Parents and Children is as old as the history of human beings. When our children are born we have such high hopes about who they will be and what they will accomplish. We want our children to have all that we did not have and to become all that we could not be. We want them to have the benefit of the wisdom we gained throughout our lives, from the trial and error and the hard won lessons we learned in life. This will be our legacy to our children.
But I don’t have to tell you that it doesn’t work that way. We find we can’t prevent our children from repeating the mistakes we made in our lives. The hard won lessons we discover they have to also learn for themselves. As they grow we discover that they don’t want the same things we want for them. They have a path to travel and we have to sometimes, stand aside and let them travel it alone. It is very hard to raise children; it is a task that never ends.
Abraham and Isaac set out on a similar journey. Abraham will take Isaac to the place that God has shown the father. And there, the son will become a sacrifice. Isaac carries the wood and the firestone. And, in what will turn out to be the last time the two of them have a conversation, Isaac asks where the lamb for the offering is. Abraham only gives him the vague answer, “God will provide the lamb”.
Modern commentators of the Bible can’t stand this story of the Binding of Isaac. How can a father raise a knife to his son? What was Abraham thinking? Why doesn’t he protest the command of God as he protested the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? What must Isaac be thinking, silent Isaac, as he draws near to the place of sacrifice and begins to realize that he, Isaac will be the lamb?
Abraham Joshua Heschel, as a young man cried when he read this story. His teacher asked, “Why are you crying? You know the angel will come and save Isaac.” The young scholar replied, “but what if the Angel had arrived a second too late? What would have happened to poor Isaac?” The rabbi comforted him and calmed him by telling him that an angel cannot come late.” Heschel replied, “An angel cannot be late, but a human, made of flesh and blood, may be.”
This story can only have a bad ending. Isaac may survive God’s test of Abraham, but both father and son must leave with an unsettled soul. Abraham shaking that he could have raised a knife to his son. Isaac doomed never to forget the image of his father raising the knife. Abraham comes down off the mountain. There is no mention of Isaac. Perhaps Isaac needed some time alone. Perhaps Isaac realized that he would now have to go his own way.
What is it we are supposed to learn from this story? That God does not want us to sacrifice our children? If so, then just tell the patriarch, don’t have him destroy his relationship with his son by raising the knife. We can even make the case that this not only causes a breach between Isaac and Abraham, but it will bring about the death of Sarah as well. To make a point, the entire family will be destroyed? Abraham will lose his son and his wife. No, there must be a different lesson for us here.
Abraham and Isaac have much that they must still teach each other. Abraham will have to go on in life, without his beloved Sarah, but will still have meaningful relationships and will play with his twin grandchildren. Isaac will teach his father that reconciliation is always possible and in the end, Abraham’s two children, Isaac and Ishmael, will mend the rift in the family and both will be there to bury their father.
We too sometimes carry our resentments about our children with us, letting them drive a wedge in our relationship. Our children don’t often seem to understand the sacrifices we make on their behalf. Just when we think they will appreciate all that we have done for them, they go off on their own, make, what we think are terrible mistakes in their lives and they never really understand who we are. We had dreams for them and they just don’t seem to care. We were prepared to sacrifice everything for them and they will not sacrifice one small part of their lives for us. Such ingratitude. In our anger and frustration we wall them out of our hearts.
If I were to ask the children, the story would be a different path to the same ending. It is not that they don’t appreciate parents, but that parents just can’t let them go so they can find their own way in the world. Everything they do is not enough for the parents. The child grows up but, then realizes that in his parent’s eyes, he will always be a little boy, in need of a parent to help him navigate the world. The child has dreams but the parent does not really seem to care. They work so hard so that parents will appreciate their accomplishments and be proud of the child. But there is only disappointment. “You could have done better, you could have chosen better, you could have been better if only you would have listened to me.” So in anger and frustration they wall their parents out of their hearts.
I stood at the grave of an elderly woman, whose three grown sons gave her just the bare minimum honor a child must do for a parent. The pain between mother and sons was just too great. They did only what a son should do for his mother and no more. They had nothing left in their hearts for her. But the grandson was different. He stayed behind after the funeral and talked to me. He was angry. How could his father be so cruel to a grandmother who was always there for her grandson? How could his father not love this wonderful woman? How could he not see how loving, caring and kind she was? It is not fair Rabbi, it is not fair!
I looked at this angry grandson and said. “ I do not know what pain divided your father from his mother. I don’t know what turned his heart cold to her. But this I do know. You need to have a talk with your father. You need to ask him why he and his brothers were so estranged from their mother. You need to know the answer and you need to know it now. Because if you don’t, someday you will do for your father what he did for his mother, and your children will stand by the grave after you leave and say to the Rabbi “It is not fair!!”
At the end of Abraham’s life, he sees his son married. He finds some happiness with another wife, who takes care of him in his old age. And he lives to see Isaac pass on the spiritual heritage that Abraham has worked so hard to build. Isaac will repeat some of the mistakes of his father. But, in next week’s parsha, when Isaac digs again the wells that Abraham first dug, Isaac will come to understand his father better, and he will forgive him.
We must never give up on our children. We must work hard not to close our hearts to them out of anger and frustration. Their path in life will be as hard and difficult as our path has been. From time to time they will come and ask us how we navigated some of the trickiest parts of life. Sometimes they will follow our advice and sometimes they will make their own mistakes, and learn about life the hard way. I often tell children to at least get advice from their parents as part of their decision making process. But I tell the parents that while we may give advice, we must not be angry if they choose a different path. It is not a rejection of the parent, but just another attempt to find their way through a rough spot in their lives.
So don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry. So just look at them and sigh. And just know that they love you.
May we always find room in our hearts to love our children no matter how they live their lives, and may they always find room in their hearts to know how much we love them. As we say….. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.
Friday, November 6, 2009
You are Everything and Everything is You
You are Everything and Everything is You
Parshat Noach
2009
Sermon
Shabbat Shalom
While the narrative of Noah and the flood takes up the larger part of our Parsha this week, there are another nine pasukim/verses that also get a fair amount of play in Judaism. The story of the Tower of Babel may be short, but it has long been the source of much interest. Not because it tries to explain why people speak different languages. Rather because of the way the people of Babel relate to God.
The story tells us that the reason the tower is to be built up to heaven is so the rest of the world will know just how great the people of Babel are. The Midrash goes on to tell us that they wanted to make their name great by using the tower to attack God in heaven. I think most of us are not surprised by this. We know all about this kind of thinking even today. The project starts out with a good intentions, but is co-opted by those who bring to the table their own personal agenda. Perhaps the people of Babel only wanted to build the tower to feel closer to God. But as the tower grows, so grows their pride and their egos. They come to believe that they don’t only want to be near God, they want to conquer God, they want to “BE” God.
Isn’t it just like human beings. We start off with lofty goals but soon our “human nature” takes over and we let our good intentions get hijacked by what is easier, and what makes us look better to others.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, Tells a story of a King who is a master of illusions. He loves his people very much and he wants them to love him as well. So he builds a great castle illusion. It is filled will illusory walls and room, with illusory doors and halls. The illusory castle is set up like a giant maze in which the people can wander for days. Then, in front of every door and in every corridor, the kind places illusory bags of treasure. Treasure like gold and money, Hawaiian vacations and beautiful bodies. Then the King declares in a proclamation that the people should come to the castle and seek to find the King.
The people all flock to the castle and begin to search high and low for the King. But the longer they search, the more they get distracted by the treasure. One by one the people take the illusory treasure and stop looking for the King. Finally the King’s daughter arrives and sees that it is all an illusion and the King is, in reality, sitting in a chair in the middle of an empty field.
This story sounds a little like the Tower of Babel story. All the good intentions are derailed by the illusory treasure. I like to think that the metaphor of both stories is the same. The Castle and the Tower are the world in which we live, The King is God who wants us to discover how close to us the divine can be. And we, the people get distracted by the illusory treasure of the world and fail to see what is real and right in front of our eyes. Is it any wonder God confuses the language of people to help them see how illusory their desires really are?
I don’t know, maybe the idea that the world is really just an illusion is unsettling to many people. We like to think that we know what is “really real” and what is just an illusion. Judaism teaches us that the world is not always what we think it is. In our faith a strong man is not one with bulging muscles, but one who can control his evil impulses. In our faith a rich woman is not one with lots of money, but the woman who is content with what she already has. In our religion, if you want to be honored, you make sure you honor everyone else and if you want to be wise, you have to learn from everyone else. Things in this world are not always what they seem.
But the real essence of the illusion is not that we chase after what is not real but in the fact that we can’t see what is real, that God is not far away, but close by, perhaps right in front of our face. We are created in the image of God. We are not separate from God, but we are filled with God. The only things that separate us from the divine are our own wants and desires. If we can channel what we want to reflect the divine within us, we can make the presence of God more real in the world.
The Tower of Babel teaches us that when we go out to fight against God, when we live our lives with the idea that every person acts only out of his or her own self interest, then we will create a babel of a society and do nothing to bring God into the world. On the other hand, if we act to make life better for others, to help unify humanity and promote peace between people and nations, we reveal the presence of God in the world.
This is why the story of the Tower of Babel is followed immediately by the genealogy that leads us to the birth of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is the son of the King in our story. The first Jew stands in for all Jews. We all have the potential to be the son of the King and see through the illusion. Abraham did it when he lived his life, not as he wanted to, but as God directed him. By following God’s directions we will see Abraham will win three great blessings. His family will be protected from Danger. He will become wealthy and he will be the founder of a great nation. By not fighting God, by following God’s call, Abraham gets all he wants and more.
And so can we. On Yom Kippur I put out a call for what I am calling the Heneni Initiative. That we need to rise above the illusions that surround us and see clearly how we can make a difference in the world. In this manner we can bring into focus the fact that God is in plain view, in all our daily actions. When we become a part of people helping other people in need. When we join other people in making a difference in the world. When we stand up with others for what is right and just. We are making visible the presence of God in the world.
We are hoping to initiate the Heneni Initiative with three important causes. First of all we are forming a group to advocate for Israel, our homeland and the center of Jewish life. God knows there seem to be an endless supply of people who are Israel detractors, and I am not referring to Jews who lovingly criticize Israel, but those who question Israel’s basic right to exist. When other nations of the world condemn Israel, we need to speak up on her behalf; to the American public, to American politicians and to the world. It is important work and we are looking for those who think that this will be their cause, and help us get the word out, to our community and to reasonable people everywhere.
The second group we are forming is on behalf of Darfur. The human cost of the war that keeps the people of Darfur hungry and the killing by terror and famine are a cause that should move all of us to end humanities latest example of Genocide. Small actions on our part can make a huge difference in easing the suffering of the people of the Darful region of Sudan. We are talking about medicine, solar stoves and basic supplies. A little bit can go a long way and much suffering can be eased, all we are looking for are a few caring souls to help us all find our way to honor God through our work with those who suffer.
And the third group we would like to organize is to help feed the hungry right here at home. That one of the richest, strongest nations in the world has people who go to bed hungry at night is one of the great stains on democracy. We already collect food for the hungry in our Lobby every day. Every time we place a sandwich into the hand of a hungry man or woman, we can see the face of God. It is really that simple. We are looking for people who will help us feed others and who will guide our community in this holy work.
These three projects are just the first that will make up this Heneni Initiative. What other projects can there be? That depends on each of us and what will motivate us to see beyond the illusions in our life and what will help us discover our connection to God. I can’t call everyone up and make a personal plea to get involved. We all have to take the initiative and be like Abraham who followed God’s call and like Isaiah, who said “Heneni”, “Here I am, send me!”
Life can seem like just a noisy babble when we all just go our own way and ignore the presence of God before us. But when we act together to strengthen each other and bring order to the world, we can sanctify our lives and build a more holy world. Abraham and Sarah did it and they changed the course of human history. We can too, and through our actions bring God into our lives.
May we find God, in our hearts, in our deeds and in a folding chair right in front of our eyes.
Amen and Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Noach
2009
Sermon
Shabbat Shalom
While the narrative of Noah and the flood takes up the larger part of our Parsha this week, there are another nine pasukim/verses that also get a fair amount of play in Judaism. The story of the Tower of Babel may be short, but it has long been the source of much interest. Not because it tries to explain why people speak different languages. Rather because of the way the people of Babel relate to God.
The story tells us that the reason the tower is to be built up to heaven is so the rest of the world will know just how great the people of Babel are. The Midrash goes on to tell us that they wanted to make their name great by using the tower to attack God in heaven. I think most of us are not surprised by this. We know all about this kind of thinking even today. The project starts out with a good intentions, but is co-opted by those who bring to the table their own personal agenda. Perhaps the people of Babel only wanted to build the tower to feel closer to God. But as the tower grows, so grows their pride and their egos. They come to believe that they don’t only want to be near God, they want to conquer God, they want to “BE” God.
Isn’t it just like human beings. We start off with lofty goals but soon our “human nature” takes over and we let our good intentions get hijacked by what is easier, and what makes us look better to others.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, Tells a story of a King who is a master of illusions. He loves his people very much and he wants them to love him as well. So he builds a great castle illusion. It is filled will illusory walls and room, with illusory doors and halls. The illusory castle is set up like a giant maze in which the people can wander for days. Then, in front of every door and in every corridor, the kind places illusory bags of treasure. Treasure like gold and money, Hawaiian vacations and beautiful bodies. Then the King declares in a proclamation that the people should come to the castle and seek to find the King.
The people all flock to the castle and begin to search high and low for the King. But the longer they search, the more they get distracted by the treasure. One by one the people take the illusory treasure and stop looking for the King. Finally the King’s daughter arrives and sees that it is all an illusion and the King is, in reality, sitting in a chair in the middle of an empty field.
This story sounds a little like the Tower of Babel story. All the good intentions are derailed by the illusory treasure. I like to think that the metaphor of both stories is the same. The Castle and the Tower are the world in which we live, The King is God who wants us to discover how close to us the divine can be. And we, the people get distracted by the illusory treasure of the world and fail to see what is real and right in front of our eyes. Is it any wonder God confuses the language of people to help them see how illusory their desires really are?
I don’t know, maybe the idea that the world is really just an illusion is unsettling to many people. We like to think that we know what is “really real” and what is just an illusion. Judaism teaches us that the world is not always what we think it is. In our faith a strong man is not one with bulging muscles, but one who can control his evil impulses. In our faith a rich woman is not one with lots of money, but the woman who is content with what she already has. In our religion, if you want to be honored, you make sure you honor everyone else and if you want to be wise, you have to learn from everyone else. Things in this world are not always what they seem.
But the real essence of the illusion is not that we chase after what is not real but in the fact that we can’t see what is real, that God is not far away, but close by, perhaps right in front of our face. We are created in the image of God. We are not separate from God, but we are filled with God. The only things that separate us from the divine are our own wants and desires. If we can channel what we want to reflect the divine within us, we can make the presence of God more real in the world.
The Tower of Babel teaches us that when we go out to fight against God, when we live our lives with the idea that every person acts only out of his or her own self interest, then we will create a babel of a society and do nothing to bring God into the world. On the other hand, if we act to make life better for others, to help unify humanity and promote peace between people and nations, we reveal the presence of God in the world.
This is why the story of the Tower of Babel is followed immediately by the genealogy that leads us to the birth of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is the son of the King in our story. The first Jew stands in for all Jews. We all have the potential to be the son of the King and see through the illusion. Abraham did it when he lived his life, not as he wanted to, but as God directed him. By following God’s directions we will see Abraham will win three great blessings. His family will be protected from Danger. He will become wealthy and he will be the founder of a great nation. By not fighting God, by following God’s call, Abraham gets all he wants and more.
And so can we. On Yom Kippur I put out a call for what I am calling the Heneni Initiative. That we need to rise above the illusions that surround us and see clearly how we can make a difference in the world. In this manner we can bring into focus the fact that God is in plain view, in all our daily actions. When we become a part of people helping other people in need. When we join other people in making a difference in the world. When we stand up with others for what is right and just. We are making visible the presence of God in the world.
We are hoping to initiate the Heneni Initiative with three important causes. First of all we are forming a group to advocate for Israel, our homeland and the center of Jewish life. God knows there seem to be an endless supply of people who are Israel detractors, and I am not referring to Jews who lovingly criticize Israel, but those who question Israel’s basic right to exist. When other nations of the world condemn Israel, we need to speak up on her behalf; to the American public, to American politicians and to the world. It is important work and we are looking for those who think that this will be their cause, and help us get the word out, to our community and to reasonable people everywhere.
The second group we are forming is on behalf of Darfur. The human cost of the war that keeps the people of Darfur hungry and the killing by terror and famine are a cause that should move all of us to end humanities latest example of Genocide. Small actions on our part can make a huge difference in easing the suffering of the people of the Darful region of Sudan. We are talking about medicine, solar stoves and basic supplies. A little bit can go a long way and much suffering can be eased, all we are looking for are a few caring souls to help us all find our way to honor God through our work with those who suffer.
And the third group we would like to organize is to help feed the hungry right here at home. That one of the richest, strongest nations in the world has people who go to bed hungry at night is one of the great stains on democracy. We already collect food for the hungry in our Lobby every day. Every time we place a sandwich into the hand of a hungry man or woman, we can see the face of God. It is really that simple. We are looking for people who will help us feed others and who will guide our community in this holy work.
These three projects are just the first that will make up this Heneni Initiative. What other projects can there be? That depends on each of us and what will motivate us to see beyond the illusions in our life and what will help us discover our connection to God. I can’t call everyone up and make a personal plea to get involved. We all have to take the initiative and be like Abraham who followed God’s call and like Isaiah, who said “Heneni”, “Here I am, send me!”
Life can seem like just a noisy babble when we all just go our own way and ignore the presence of God before us. But when we act together to strengthen each other and bring order to the world, we can sanctify our lives and build a more holy world. Abraham and Sarah did it and they changed the course of human history. We can too, and through our actions bring God into our lives.
May we find God, in our hearts, in our deeds and in a folding chair right in front of our eyes.
Amen and Shabbat Shalom
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Yump a Dum
Parshat Berayshit
Text:
א( בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
When God began to create the Heaven and the Earth
Commentary:
A. For the passage does not come to teach us the order of the acts of creation, to say that heaven and earth came first... You must admit (based on his extensive language comparison of similar texts) that Scripture does not teach us anything about the order of the earlier or later acts of creation. [Rashi on Gen. 1:1 ]
B. Why are et and v’et needed? Nachum Ish Gamzu expounded: “If shemayim v’aretz alone were stated I might have said that shamayim and v’aretz were the names of the Holy One blessed be He, but et hashamayim v’et haaretz indicates that each is a created entity in itself. [Torah Temimah on Gen. 1:1]
C. The opening chapters of Genesis are not a scientific account of the origins of the universe. The Torah is a book of morality not cosmology. Its overriding concern, from the first verse to the last is our relationship to God, truth about life rather than scientific truths. It describes the world God fashioned as “good,” a statement no scientific account can make. [Harold Kushner, commentary on Genesis in Etz Hayim p.3]
D. As Rambam notes, even after reading how the world and its central character, Man, came into being, we still do not understand the secret or even the process of Creation. Rather, the work of Creation is a deep mystery that can be comprehended only through the tradition transmitted by God to Moses, and those who are privileged to be entrusted with this hidden knowledge are not permitted to reveal it. [The Humash, The Stone Edition, commentary on Genesis Chapter 1 p.2]
E. Smoothly, powerfully, and seamlessly, the text … produces several theological meanings: that Elohim alone, “at the beginning” created a good ordered world; that He “separated” and hierarchically ordered the primordial mass into a “good” pattern; that the created world of nature is, as a result, a harmony; and that Elohim is omnipotent and without rival. The clarity of this account … seems to leave no room for the existential sense of “mystery in general” … and yet, Rashi, … begins … with the words, “This text is nothing if not mysterious” … what emerges from Rashi’s provocative statement is a sense of the gaps, the unexplained, the need to examine and reexamine the apparently lucid text, with its account of a harmonious, coherent cosmology. There is a tension between the benevolent clarity and power of the narrative and the acknowledgment of mystery that inheres in the very first word and that develops as the implications of the beginning are realized. [Aviva Zornberg, Genesis, the Beginning of Desire p.3]
Questions:
1. Is the Torah’s account of Creation true?
2. Why does the Torah begin with the account of creation? Where else could it have started? What is the creation text trying to teach us?
3. Some say that we should translate all that God creates as proper nouns, names, not of things in nature, but the names of Pagan gods. How would this change the way we understand this text? What would be the reason for the creation story?
4. What does the text teach us about evolution and the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe? Is there a literal translation of this text that really does contradict science, or are the “creationists” misreading the text? Is this a deliberate misreading or is there some other reason for their interpretation?
Text:
א( בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
When God began to create the Heaven and the Earth
Commentary:
A. For the passage does not come to teach us the order of the acts of creation, to say that heaven and earth came first... You must admit (based on his extensive language comparison of similar texts) that Scripture does not teach us anything about the order of the earlier or later acts of creation. [Rashi on Gen. 1:1 ]
B. Why are et and v’et needed? Nachum Ish Gamzu expounded: “If shemayim v’aretz alone were stated I might have said that shamayim and v’aretz were the names of the Holy One blessed be He, but et hashamayim v’et haaretz indicates that each is a created entity in itself. [Torah Temimah on Gen. 1:1]
C. The opening chapters of Genesis are not a scientific account of the origins of the universe. The Torah is a book of morality not cosmology. Its overriding concern, from the first verse to the last is our relationship to God, truth about life rather than scientific truths. It describes the world God fashioned as “good,” a statement no scientific account can make. [Harold Kushner, commentary on Genesis in Etz Hayim p.3]
D. As Rambam notes, even after reading how the world and its central character, Man, came into being, we still do not understand the secret or even the process of Creation. Rather, the work of Creation is a deep mystery that can be comprehended only through the tradition transmitted by God to Moses, and those who are privileged to be entrusted with this hidden knowledge are not permitted to reveal it. [The Humash, The Stone Edition, commentary on Genesis Chapter 1 p.2]
E. Smoothly, powerfully, and seamlessly, the text … produces several theological meanings: that Elohim alone, “at the beginning” created a good ordered world; that He “separated” and hierarchically ordered the primordial mass into a “good” pattern; that the created world of nature is, as a result, a harmony; and that Elohim is omnipotent and without rival. The clarity of this account … seems to leave no room for the existential sense of “mystery in general” … and yet, Rashi, … begins … with the words, “This text is nothing if not mysterious” … what emerges from Rashi’s provocative statement is a sense of the gaps, the unexplained, the need to examine and reexamine the apparently lucid text, with its account of a harmonious, coherent cosmology. There is a tension between the benevolent clarity and power of the narrative and the acknowledgment of mystery that inheres in the very first word and that develops as the implications of the beginning are realized. [Aviva Zornberg, Genesis, the Beginning of Desire p.3]
Questions:
1. Is the Torah’s account of Creation true?
2. Why does the Torah begin with the account of creation? Where else could it have started? What is the creation text trying to teach us?
3. Some say that we should translate all that God creates as proper nouns, names, not of things in nature, but the names of Pagan gods. How would this change the way we understand this text? What would be the reason for the creation story?
4. What does the text teach us about evolution and the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe? Is there a literal translation of this text that really does contradict science, or are the “creationists” misreading the text? Is this a deliberate misreading or is there some other reason for their interpretation?
Monday, October 19, 2009
Only The Beginning
Installation speech
I do want to begin by thanking some very special people. I first of all, want to thank Bernie Morwitz and the installation committee, as well as the hospitality committee for making this day so special. I also need to thank the officers, board members and staff of Temple Emeth for their warm welcome and their ongoing advice and support. And most of all I want to thank all of you, the members of Temple Emeth for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful family.
It is necessary to mention how interconnected we all are to the larger Jewish World. The road that brought me here began with two very special teachers, Rabbi Mark Loeb of Baltimore, who passed away suddenly just last week, and Professor Richard Freedman of the University of GA in Athens. They took the time to teach a group of USYers at Camp Blue Star and I was honored to be in that group. That week of learning with them began a line of thinking that led me to Rabbinical School and ultimately to this congregation. I am proud to be an alumnus of Florida Atlantic University as well as the University of Judaism (now American Jewish University) and the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York. My teachers and Rabbis at these institutions gave me the tools that I use every day as a Conservative Rabbi. I want to thank also those congregations where I have served in the past. Beth Torah of North Miami Beach, Beth David in Palm Beach Gardens, The Sunrise Jewish Center, Temple Sinai in Hollywood, Florida and Temple of Aaron in St. Paul, MN. I was their teacher, but they also taught me valuable lessons that helped my Rabbinate mature. I also thank my colleagues at the Rabbinical Assembly for helping me each day as a Rabbi, for connecting me to my colleagues all over the world, and for their assistance in the search that brought me to Delray Beach.
We are beginning a new era in the history of Temple Emeth. As we all know, beginnings are hard. According to the laws of Physics, things at rest tend to remain at rest until acted on by another force. There are those who say that Conservative Judaism has been at rest for far too long. We were once the largest Jewish denomination in this country, now, the demographers tell us we are shrinking and aging. If this is true, then it is not because we no longer have anything important to say to the American Jewish community. There is a great deal that is important in our Movement and though it may seem to require a great force to get us moving, together, we can create a meaningful religious experience that will have a profound effect on each of us, our community, our country and on the Jewish People.
I have to tell you, it has been most impressive to me what Temple Emeth accomplishes every day. Our building is a hub of activity from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. The planning of events, classes, and activities is only exceeded by those who are working hard to make these programs happen. We cook, set up, advertise, sell tickets and arrange seating before the event even begins. Our parking lot is often full with members and guests arriving for programs and seminars, dances and shows. We truly are one of the important centers here in Delray Beach.
But the Sun Sentinel, just a couple of weeks ago, in a front page story, reveals how our community is changing. Jews, who once came to South Florida to live in the vast condominium complexes here, now choose to live in single family homes in large gated communities. Jews who once came to synagogue for social and communal events now center their social activities around a vast array of entertainment centers. At any given moment there are hundreds of restaurants, dozens of movies and a variety of shows all over South Palm Beach County. But why leave home? The internet brings us movies, education and information with the click of a mouse. Cable Television has hundreds of channels addressing every imaginable interest a person may have. All of us remember when Jews were excluded from communal life. Today, there is hardly a place that would turn any paying customer away.
That leaves us, Temple Emeth, and all synagogues, as quaint vestiges of a past life, when shul was the place to meet friends, make business contacts, and learn about the many facets of Jewish life. I know that there are many here at Temple Emeth who are put off by computers and the internet. But I suspect that there are far more technologically savvy seniors in our congregation who use the internet to stay in touch with children and grandchildren, reading their email, seeing their faces on Skype and sharing pictures on Facebook. Like it or not, computers and instant messages are the way the world communicates.
My grandparents lived in a small apartment where we grandchildren could visit and enjoy the best Jewish cooking and hear stories of how they came to this country. Most of my friends here at Temple Emeth prefer to eat out for dinner, work out at the clubhouse gym and go out bargain hunting at the Flea Market and Mall. It is a very active life my grandparents would not recognize. But today’s new seniors are even more active. Forget golf and tennis, they go skiing in Colorado, they fly to New York to visit their grandchildren, book their own travel on their computers and stay in touch with the family with cell phones and Facebook. When they go on a cruise, it is not to sit on the deck and watch the scenery; they are kayaking down rivers, climbing through mountain caves and diving on tropical coral reefs. I have yet to see a Synagogue sponsor a dive trip either to the Florida Keys or to the magnificent coral reefs of Israel and the Red Sea.
And that tells us how far we have to go. We need a strong presence on the Internet, both with a website to show how much fun we have here at Temple Emeth, and on Facebook where we can stay in touch with our members and reach out to the larger community. I know, there is a lot of garbage on the Internet, but we need to have a presence that stands up and above the rest of the noise. As my daughter often says, “If we don’t have a web presence, we don’t really exist.” Last week our IT committee met and we began to chart a new course in the frontier of cyberspace.
Our programming is top notch when it comes to seniors over the age of 70. Our activities are the envy of synagogues across the country. But when it comes to those under 70, the newly retired and the empty nesters, our calendar of activities are all but empty. We hardly address their concerns about retirement investing, finding spiritual meaning in life and providing entrances into serious Jewish learning. At a time when their life is changing rapidly, their children have moved out, they have a successful business and are at the top of their field; we find them asking questions about the meaning of their life and how they can make a difference in the world. Many 50 and 60 year olds today have spiritual questions and they look to their Judaism to help them find the answers. We will need to address these needs.
Behind them are the 40 year olds. They are not looking forward yet to retirement. Believe it or not, they are the parents of pre-school children! They will not be empty nesters when they are in their 50’s. They will be taking their teenagers to football practice and to driving lessons. They will be paying for College and Graduate school in their 60’s and only thinking about retirement as they approach 70! Temple Emeth has many seniors over 70 who have been retired now 20 years. Imagine if you were just starting retirement now! For a synagogue, looking to its future, the next 30 years are going to be unlike anything we have ever seen.
In just 30 years, Judaism will enter the year 5800. What will life be like 30 years from now? If I knew, I would be telling you which stocks to pick to make yourself rich. I only know for sure that the world is still changing, and that Judaism, as an island of tradition and a force for meaning, will still be here. I know that because we at Temple Emeth will enter that future prepared to give it our best.
It has been the long range vision of the leadership here at Temple Emeth that has brought these issues forward to debate and to ponder the future of our congregation. It is also the vision that has brought me to this community. To reinforce the extraordinary programs we continue to offer, and to create new ways to reach the next generation of Jews. I don’t know if the future will be easy or difficult, I only know that together we will face that future so that the Judaism that we know and love will be the faith that future generations will know and love as well. We enjoy this building, our services and our classes because those who came before us built Temple Emeth on a sure foundation of Jewish tradition and modern sensibilities. It will be here for future generations if we take the time to build for them as our ancestors built for us. Synagogues should not be dying, Jews should be clamoring to join. The future should not be about or fear of change, but we should look to the future as a place where our accomplishments will be the foundation upon which the next generation will build a Judaism for the 21st century and beyond.
So let me conclude with one final thank you. I want to make sure that before this program ends, I thank God, who has kept me in this life, educated and sustained me, and brought me to this extraordinary community called Temple Emeth. Shehechiyanu, Amen
I do want to begin by thanking some very special people. I first of all, want to thank Bernie Morwitz and the installation committee, as well as the hospitality committee for making this day so special. I also need to thank the officers, board members and staff of Temple Emeth for their warm welcome and their ongoing advice and support. And most of all I want to thank all of you, the members of Temple Emeth for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful family.
It is necessary to mention how interconnected we all are to the larger Jewish World. The road that brought me here began with two very special teachers, Rabbi Mark Loeb of Baltimore, who passed away suddenly just last week, and Professor Richard Freedman of the University of GA in Athens. They took the time to teach a group of USYers at Camp Blue Star and I was honored to be in that group. That week of learning with them began a line of thinking that led me to Rabbinical School and ultimately to this congregation. I am proud to be an alumnus of Florida Atlantic University as well as the University of Judaism (now American Jewish University) and the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York. My teachers and Rabbis at these institutions gave me the tools that I use every day as a Conservative Rabbi. I want to thank also those congregations where I have served in the past. Beth Torah of North Miami Beach, Beth David in Palm Beach Gardens, The Sunrise Jewish Center, Temple Sinai in Hollywood, Florida and Temple of Aaron in St. Paul, MN. I was their teacher, but they also taught me valuable lessons that helped my Rabbinate mature. I also thank my colleagues at the Rabbinical Assembly for helping me each day as a Rabbi, for connecting me to my colleagues all over the world, and for their assistance in the search that brought me to Delray Beach.
We are beginning a new era in the history of Temple Emeth. As we all know, beginnings are hard. According to the laws of Physics, things at rest tend to remain at rest until acted on by another force. There are those who say that Conservative Judaism has been at rest for far too long. We were once the largest Jewish denomination in this country, now, the demographers tell us we are shrinking and aging. If this is true, then it is not because we no longer have anything important to say to the American Jewish community. There is a great deal that is important in our Movement and though it may seem to require a great force to get us moving, together, we can create a meaningful religious experience that will have a profound effect on each of us, our community, our country and on the Jewish People.
I have to tell you, it has been most impressive to me what Temple Emeth accomplishes every day. Our building is a hub of activity from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. The planning of events, classes, and activities is only exceeded by those who are working hard to make these programs happen. We cook, set up, advertise, sell tickets and arrange seating before the event even begins. Our parking lot is often full with members and guests arriving for programs and seminars, dances and shows. We truly are one of the important centers here in Delray Beach.
But the Sun Sentinel, just a couple of weeks ago, in a front page story, reveals how our community is changing. Jews, who once came to South Florida to live in the vast condominium complexes here, now choose to live in single family homes in large gated communities. Jews who once came to synagogue for social and communal events now center their social activities around a vast array of entertainment centers. At any given moment there are hundreds of restaurants, dozens of movies and a variety of shows all over South Palm Beach County. But why leave home? The internet brings us movies, education and information with the click of a mouse. Cable Television has hundreds of channels addressing every imaginable interest a person may have. All of us remember when Jews were excluded from communal life. Today, there is hardly a place that would turn any paying customer away.
That leaves us, Temple Emeth, and all synagogues, as quaint vestiges of a past life, when shul was the place to meet friends, make business contacts, and learn about the many facets of Jewish life. I know that there are many here at Temple Emeth who are put off by computers and the internet. But I suspect that there are far more technologically savvy seniors in our congregation who use the internet to stay in touch with children and grandchildren, reading their email, seeing their faces on Skype and sharing pictures on Facebook. Like it or not, computers and instant messages are the way the world communicates.
My grandparents lived in a small apartment where we grandchildren could visit and enjoy the best Jewish cooking and hear stories of how they came to this country. Most of my friends here at Temple Emeth prefer to eat out for dinner, work out at the clubhouse gym and go out bargain hunting at the Flea Market and Mall. It is a very active life my grandparents would not recognize. But today’s new seniors are even more active. Forget golf and tennis, they go skiing in Colorado, they fly to New York to visit their grandchildren, book their own travel on their computers and stay in touch with the family with cell phones and Facebook. When they go on a cruise, it is not to sit on the deck and watch the scenery; they are kayaking down rivers, climbing through mountain caves and diving on tropical coral reefs. I have yet to see a Synagogue sponsor a dive trip either to the Florida Keys or to the magnificent coral reefs of Israel and the Red Sea.
And that tells us how far we have to go. We need a strong presence on the Internet, both with a website to show how much fun we have here at Temple Emeth, and on Facebook where we can stay in touch with our members and reach out to the larger community. I know, there is a lot of garbage on the Internet, but we need to have a presence that stands up and above the rest of the noise. As my daughter often says, “If we don’t have a web presence, we don’t really exist.” Last week our IT committee met and we began to chart a new course in the frontier of cyberspace.
Our programming is top notch when it comes to seniors over the age of 70. Our activities are the envy of synagogues across the country. But when it comes to those under 70, the newly retired and the empty nesters, our calendar of activities are all but empty. We hardly address their concerns about retirement investing, finding spiritual meaning in life and providing entrances into serious Jewish learning. At a time when their life is changing rapidly, their children have moved out, they have a successful business and are at the top of their field; we find them asking questions about the meaning of their life and how they can make a difference in the world. Many 50 and 60 year olds today have spiritual questions and they look to their Judaism to help them find the answers. We will need to address these needs.
Behind them are the 40 year olds. They are not looking forward yet to retirement. Believe it or not, they are the parents of pre-school children! They will not be empty nesters when they are in their 50’s. They will be taking their teenagers to football practice and to driving lessons. They will be paying for College and Graduate school in their 60’s and only thinking about retirement as they approach 70! Temple Emeth has many seniors over 70 who have been retired now 20 years. Imagine if you were just starting retirement now! For a synagogue, looking to its future, the next 30 years are going to be unlike anything we have ever seen.
In just 30 years, Judaism will enter the year 5800. What will life be like 30 years from now? If I knew, I would be telling you which stocks to pick to make yourself rich. I only know for sure that the world is still changing, and that Judaism, as an island of tradition and a force for meaning, will still be here. I know that because we at Temple Emeth will enter that future prepared to give it our best.
It has been the long range vision of the leadership here at Temple Emeth that has brought these issues forward to debate and to ponder the future of our congregation. It is also the vision that has brought me to this community. To reinforce the extraordinary programs we continue to offer, and to create new ways to reach the next generation of Jews. I don’t know if the future will be easy or difficult, I only know that together we will face that future so that the Judaism that we know and love will be the faith that future generations will know and love as well. We enjoy this building, our services and our classes because those who came before us built Temple Emeth on a sure foundation of Jewish tradition and modern sensibilities. It will be here for future generations if we take the time to build for them as our ancestors built for us. Synagogues should not be dying, Jews should be clamoring to join. The future should not be about or fear of change, but we should look to the future as a place where our accomplishments will be the foundation upon which the next generation will build a Judaism for the 21st century and beyond.
So let me conclude with one final thank you. I want to make sure that before this program ends, I thank God, who has kept me in this life, educated and sustained me, and brought me to this extraordinary community called Temple Emeth. Shehechiyanu, Amen
Monday, October 12, 2009
School Days
Shemini Atzeret 2009
Hag Sameach
Do you know what a “master class” is? It is not a college course for an advanced degree. It is a seminar, or a series of seminars that are designed for those who are already at the top of their field; artists or musicians, doctors or lawyers, teachers or businessmen and women. A master class is for all those who have excelled in their field and want to expand their knowledge beyond the conventional.
Teachers from the pinnacle of the field, the most innovative and respected; offer these master classes to those who would wish to follow in their footsteps. The assumption of the class is that all the students have already mastered the basics of their field. They have already succeeded in the normal sense of the word. A master class will not go over the basics, proficiency in the topic is assumed by all who are in the class. The teacher will show the students how to raise their skills even higher; to become artists in one’s chosen field, with all the creative and innovative talent implied.
Rabbi Bradley Artson, the Dean of the Rabbinical School at American Jewish University, recently wrote that we all should think about our life as a master class. This does not mean that we are exempt from the basics. In Judaism, this means we need to learn Torah and History, Hebrew and philosophy, Prayer and Mitzvot. These are the basics that are assumed in our master class. If we need work in these basic areas, we should not let the year go by without finding the proper seminars to help us gain proficiency in the areas that make up the foundation of our religion and our faith.
But if we are already beyond the basics, there are still important lessons to be learned. The first lesson is that real learning comes not from just reading or hearing the words of a teacher, but in encountering and engaging our teacher. To hear the passion in the voice, the authenticity in the lessons and to open our hearts to the truth that underlies the lessons. The deepest lessons in life do not come from following in the footsteps of a master teacher, but in creating new lessons from the experiences in your own life. What is it that we can bring into our life that no one else can bring? We can not be clones of our teacher, but we use their wisdom to make our lives a life without precedent. My teachers would constantly remind us that we should not despair that the great teachers of Torah and Talmud lived in previous generations. We should not be concerned that compared to their genius, they were giants and we are but dwarfs. My teachers in rabbinical school taught us that there is a way for a dwarf to see beyond the vision of a giant. The dwarf need only stand on the giant’s shoulders. So too we who do not see ourselves as intellectual equals of the Sages of long ago, we can see beyond their horizon if we but stand on their shoulders and build our vision upon theirs.
The next level, in the master class of life, teaches us that with learning and living comes great responsibility. We can’t live our lives only for ourselves; we need to open our hearts to others. Will we stand in prayer and only pray that God forgives our sins? Or will we also pray fervently for God to forgive the sins of others who are in need of forgiveness? There is a story of Rabbi Meir who was being harassed by a gang of hoodlums. He prayed that they should die. It didn’t help. His wife, who was so much wiser said, “Pray instead that they should repent.” Rabbi Meir did pray on their behalf and they did repent. We need to rise beyond our own needs and pray for the welfare of others. Our future is always tied to the future of others. We don’t label the “others” in life; we do all we can do to help to bring their lives to a higher level with us.
Finally, we live in an age where it seems that religious people are being asked to submit to the will of God. We are told that true religious people negate their own needs and submit to what they think God is asking of them. Every detail of the law is exceedingly important. Anyone who violates a single precept is an infidel, an apostate or worse. Obedience is the prime directive. But those who aspire to a deeper understanding of life know that life is fluid and opportunity is everywhere. We use our Judaism to paint with a multicolored pallet so that all the majesty and splendor of life will become apparent. There are passages in the Torah and in the Bible that do not make us proud. We like to think of the Torah as a document of love and understanding. Sometimes, however, Torah is not so loving. It has passages that tell us to hate people, and to kill those who do not agree with us. Are we required to teach such verses because they are in the Torah or are we prepared to refuse to teach them, to refuse to further spread their message of hate and intolerance? We must not justify what is hateful just because we think this is the word of God. We must use every tool we can find to turn that hatred into new ways to love each other.
The theory of life as a Master Class is beautiful and inspiring. But who will be the teacher who can give us such gifts? I would venture to say that we already know such teachers in our lives. They are the ones who came before us and gave us, through their words and deeds the very essence of who we are today. These are the people who we remember this day, at this hour of Yizkor.
Perhaps some of us here today are here out of a sense of duty. That after all, these were our parents, our loved ones, and we carry the Jewish obligation to pray at Yizkor in their memory. I understand that sense of duty and I share with you your devotion to the performance of this sacred responsibility. But there are other important reasons to be here this morning, at this hour of memory. This day can be our testimony, our monument, to the faith and meaning our loved ones brought into our lives. Through the lessons we learned at their sides, as well as the lessons we learned when we examined their lives, our lives are richer, deeper and better.
We have a choice at this junction in our lives. We can remember what we have lost and be sad, or we can recall what we have learned and be grateful and maybe even a little happy that the ones we remember today passed through this life and were our mentors and master teachers.
Poet David Harkins in his poem “Remember Me” penned these words:
You can shed tears that he is gone, or you can smile because he has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back, or you can open our eyes and see all that she has left.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see him, or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live for yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she’s gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back, or you can do what he’d want, smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
Life is a Master Class and some of our greatest teachers were those who shared with us precious time from the short number of years we are all allotted. Maybe we now have new teachers who continue to guide us through the many shoals of life. But it is those we remember today who are the teachers that first took us beyond the level of basics and fundamentals. They showed us how to really use the sacred time of life so that we could not only live a life of blessing but showed us how we can pass those blessings on to those who will remain when it is our time to go.
This is the ultimate honor we can give our beloved dead. Not to merely pass on the lessons we learned at their side, but to take those lessons and, with an artist’s loving hand, embellish it, color it and beautify it through our own life experiences so that our lives too will testify to a life lived with love of self, love of others and love of God.
May the examples of those we remember today be a blessing to us. May their lives serve as an example in our own lives. May our examination of their lives help us to examine and refine our own lives. And may their teachings serve as the foundation to the Torah that we are writing with the deeds we perform each day. May the memories we honor today help lead us to serve, as they served, our God with faith and with Love.
Amen and Hag Sameach.
Hag Sameach
Do you know what a “master class” is? It is not a college course for an advanced degree. It is a seminar, or a series of seminars that are designed for those who are already at the top of their field; artists or musicians, doctors or lawyers, teachers or businessmen and women. A master class is for all those who have excelled in their field and want to expand their knowledge beyond the conventional.
Teachers from the pinnacle of the field, the most innovative and respected; offer these master classes to those who would wish to follow in their footsteps. The assumption of the class is that all the students have already mastered the basics of their field. They have already succeeded in the normal sense of the word. A master class will not go over the basics, proficiency in the topic is assumed by all who are in the class. The teacher will show the students how to raise their skills even higher; to become artists in one’s chosen field, with all the creative and innovative talent implied.
Rabbi Bradley Artson, the Dean of the Rabbinical School at American Jewish University, recently wrote that we all should think about our life as a master class. This does not mean that we are exempt from the basics. In Judaism, this means we need to learn Torah and History, Hebrew and philosophy, Prayer and Mitzvot. These are the basics that are assumed in our master class. If we need work in these basic areas, we should not let the year go by without finding the proper seminars to help us gain proficiency in the areas that make up the foundation of our religion and our faith.
But if we are already beyond the basics, there are still important lessons to be learned. The first lesson is that real learning comes not from just reading or hearing the words of a teacher, but in encountering and engaging our teacher. To hear the passion in the voice, the authenticity in the lessons and to open our hearts to the truth that underlies the lessons. The deepest lessons in life do not come from following in the footsteps of a master teacher, but in creating new lessons from the experiences in your own life. What is it that we can bring into our life that no one else can bring? We can not be clones of our teacher, but we use their wisdom to make our lives a life without precedent. My teachers would constantly remind us that we should not despair that the great teachers of Torah and Talmud lived in previous generations. We should not be concerned that compared to their genius, they were giants and we are but dwarfs. My teachers in rabbinical school taught us that there is a way for a dwarf to see beyond the vision of a giant. The dwarf need only stand on the giant’s shoulders. So too we who do not see ourselves as intellectual equals of the Sages of long ago, we can see beyond their horizon if we but stand on their shoulders and build our vision upon theirs.
The next level, in the master class of life, teaches us that with learning and living comes great responsibility. We can’t live our lives only for ourselves; we need to open our hearts to others. Will we stand in prayer and only pray that God forgives our sins? Or will we also pray fervently for God to forgive the sins of others who are in need of forgiveness? There is a story of Rabbi Meir who was being harassed by a gang of hoodlums. He prayed that they should die. It didn’t help. His wife, who was so much wiser said, “Pray instead that they should repent.” Rabbi Meir did pray on their behalf and they did repent. We need to rise beyond our own needs and pray for the welfare of others. Our future is always tied to the future of others. We don’t label the “others” in life; we do all we can do to help to bring their lives to a higher level with us.
Finally, we live in an age where it seems that religious people are being asked to submit to the will of God. We are told that true religious people negate their own needs and submit to what they think God is asking of them. Every detail of the law is exceedingly important. Anyone who violates a single precept is an infidel, an apostate or worse. Obedience is the prime directive. But those who aspire to a deeper understanding of life know that life is fluid and opportunity is everywhere. We use our Judaism to paint with a multicolored pallet so that all the majesty and splendor of life will become apparent. There are passages in the Torah and in the Bible that do not make us proud. We like to think of the Torah as a document of love and understanding. Sometimes, however, Torah is not so loving. It has passages that tell us to hate people, and to kill those who do not agree with us. Are we required to teach such verses because they are in the Torah or are we prepared to refuse to teach them, to refuse to further spread their message of hate and intolerance? We must not justify what is hateful just because we think this is the word of God. We must use every tool we can find to turn that hatred into new ways to love each other.
The theory of life as a Master Class is beautiful and inspiring. But who will be the teacher who can give us such gifts? I would venture to say that we already know such teachers in our lives. They are the ones who came before us and gave us, through their words and deeds the very essence of who we are today. These are the people who we remember this day, at this hour of Yizkor.
Perhaps some of us here today are here out of a sense of duty. That after all, these were our parents, our loved ones, and we carry the Jewish obligation to pray at Yizkor in their memory. I understand that sense of duty and I share with you your devotion to the performance of this sacred responsibility. But there are other important reasons to be here this morning, at this hour of memory. This day can be our testimony, our monument, to the faith and meaning our loved ones brought into our lives. Through the lessons we learned at their sides, as well as the lessons we learned when we examined their lives, our lives are richer, deeper and better.
We have a choice at this junction in our lives. We can remember what we have lost and be sad, or we can recall what we have learned and be grateful and maybe even a little happy that the ones we remember today passed through this life and were our mentors and master teachers.
Poet David Harkins in his poem “Remember Me” penned these words:
You can shed tears that he is gone, or you can smile because he has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back, or you can open our eyes and see all that she has left.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see him, or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live for yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she’s gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back, or you can do what he’d want, smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
Life is a Master Class and some of our greatest teachers were those who shared with us precious time from the short number of years we are all allotted. Maybe we now have new teachers who continue to guide us through the many shoals of life. But it is those we remember today who are the teachers that first took us beyond the level of basics and fundamentals. They showed us how to really use the sacred time of life so that we could not only live a life of blessing but showed us how we can pass those blessings on to those who will remain when it is our time to go.
This is the ultimate honor we can give our beloved dead. Not to merely pass on the lessons we learned at their side, but to take those lessons and, with an artist’s loving hand, embellish it, color it and beautify it through our own life experiences so that our lives too will testify to a life lived with love of self, love of others and love of God.
May the examples of those we remember today be a blessing to us. May their lives serve as an example in our own lives. May our examination of their lives help us to examine and refine our own lives. And may their teachings serve as the foundation to the Torah that we are writing with the deeds we perform each day. May the memories we honor today help lead us to serve, as they served, our God with faith and with Love.
Amen and Hag Sameach.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
In the Still of the Night
Second Day of Sukkot
2009
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach
My family never had a Sukkah when I was a child. It never occurred to my father or my grandfather to have a Sukkah at our home. We ate our meals, as usual, in the dining room. We were not in school on Sukkot. We were in synagogue on the first days of the holiday. We waved the lulav and etrog with the congregation, but we never had a Sukkah in our home.
Even when we were at the synagogue, we would have some cake and juice in the community Sukkah but we had lunch at home. When I was in the Boy Scouts, we built a Sukkah for the synagogue without using nails. We cut down trees ourselves and lashed them together. It was a work of art. When I was in USY, we got together again to build the Sukkah for the synagogue. That Sukkah was not a work of art, I felt good that it didn’t fall down but it came close a couple of times. But I never built a Sukkah at my home.
For my third year of Rabbinical School, I spent the year in Israel. I lived in student housing and we had a big Sukkah where all of us studentswould eat our meals. The weather was perfect in Israel for eating in a Sukkah. Not too cold and not too hot. Not too many bugs and the perfect atmosphere to sit and study and have a conversation after a meal.
While I was in Israel that year, we went on a tour of the farmland that surrounds Jerusalem. We were looking for Shomriot. A shomriah is a hut that is a temporary home for a family during the harvest season. It is usually a stone building with a flat roof. It is often under a huge shade tree. On hot nights, the family might sleep on the roof, going inside only if there is rain. Around the hut was a cleared area where the family could leave grapes in the sun to become raisins and to dry dates and figs. There was a cistern for water and a cooking area where dinner could be prepared. During the harvest, the family would move in so they could get an early start on the harvest each day. When the harvest was finished, they loaded up the produce, the raisins, figs and dates and moved back home. The shomriah would be empty again until the next harvest.
The Talmud notes that when most families were moving out of their Shomriot, Jews were moving into their Sukkot. A Sukkah was also meant to be a temporary home. But it was not for the purpose of bringing in the harvest. It could only be used once the harvest was over. A Sukkah could not be built under a tree, but had to be under the open sky. A Sukkah could not have a roof, it was only meant to be a shady spot, where there was more sun than shade inside by day, and one could look up and see stars by night.
All of this works fine in Israel, but not in the rest of the world. In Poland and Russia, it is already close to freezing at night and there can be terrible rainstorms at this season of the year. Here in Florida, it will not cool off for another two months and it can rain every day. In Minnesota it would snow on our Sukkah. In Australia, it is not even fall; it is right in the middle of spring. When hurricane Wilma threatened South Florida, we had to take our Sukkah down. Who knows how they will someday celebrate Sukkot on the moon or in space.
Sukkot is Israel’s holiday. Anyone can build a Sukkah in their yard or courtyard. Every major building has one on the side or on the roof. Ever restaurant has a Sukkah for patrons to eat in if they wish. One can buy a lulav and etrog almost everywhere and they are fresh, not delivered by some overnight carrier. People in Israel are happy to be in a Sukkah and they spend long hours into the night enjoying the cool night air. Sukkot is one of the best times to visit Israel.
A little girl was out walking one evening with her father. As they came to the top of the hill, the girl asked, “Daddy, how far can you see?” the father looked out to the horizon and said, “I guess I can see a couple of miles.” The girl said, “I can see millions and millions of miles.” Her father smiled and said, “Gee honey, how can you see so far?” The little girl pointed at the sky, I can see the stars and they are millions of miles away, look up Daddy and you can see them too!”
This is one of the lessons of the Sukkah. All year we live inside the four walls of our homes. We shut ourselves in and we shut out all of nature that we don’t want invading our homes. We tint our windows; install blinds to keep the sun out. We put locks on our doors for security. We make sure that rain cannot leak in our roof. All year long we can only look out our windows at the little bit of nature in our back yard or across the street.
On Sukkot, we learn to lift our vision higher. We look up through the roof and take in the stars. We can once again see for millions and millions of miles. We once again are a part of nature, not separate from it. We stop viewing the world that we have created for ourselves and we start seeing our place in the natural world again. Instead of seeing only what we have bought for ourselves, we can set our gaze up to the heavens and once again dare to dream of the stars. No matter how discouraged or closed in we may feel, if we can lift our eyes to the stars, we can let ourselves become inspired again.
On Sukkot we invite God to join us in our Sukkah, to make it a sukkat shalom, a Sukkah of peace. There is an ancient tradition that each night of Sukkot, we invite heavenly guests to join our earthly guests in the Sukkah. We invite Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David into our Sukkot. Each one blesses us with their presence. These heavenly guests make our Sukkah a holy space. One that reminds us of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary that our ancestors built in the wilderness. It was there that our ancestors contemplated God. We should do no less when we are in our Sukkah as well.
How do we respond to the holiness of the Sukkah, to the wonder and beauty of nature and to the grandeur of the stars? What are we supposed to say when we leave the comfort of our homes to once again become a part of nature? How do we show our gratitude to God for wonders of this world in which we live? In Judaism, to show appreciation, we recite a blessing.
On Sukkot we have the blessing of the lulav and etrog that we recite each day as we take them up to wave them in the synagogue. There is the blessing for sitting in the Sukkah. It is not enough to just pass through a Sukkah; we have to sit and spend some time contemplating our surroundings, and then say a blessing for sitting. We can say a blessing over the foods that we eat in the Sukkah. Some say that there is a special merit of saying the blessing for lulav and etrog in the Sukkah, bringing these two important symbols of the holiday together.
But in my mind, the most important blessing we can say in the Sukkah is the blessing that we have come again to this season of the year, that winter may be coming soon, but we are grateful and thankful that we are blessed with food, clothing and shelter to protect us from any force of nature. We recite on Sukkot the Shehechiyanu, the prayer that thanks God for giving us another year to dwell in the Sukkah and contemplate again, our place in the universe. Thank you God for keeping us alive, sustaining us and bringing us again in peace to your sukkat shalom, your Sukkah of peace.
May there be peace in our homes, peace in our land and peace in Israel, our homeland and may each of us dwell in our own Sukkot with no one to make us afraid.
Amen and Hag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom
2009
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach
My family never had a Sukkah when I was a child. It never occurred to my father or my grandfather to have a Sukkah at our home. We ate our meals, as usual, in the dining room. We were not in school on Sukkot. We were in synagogue on the first days of the holiday. We waved the lulav and etrog with the congregation, but we never had a Sukkah in our home.
Even when we were at the synagogue, we would have some cake and juice in the community Sukkah but we had lunch at home. When I was in the Boy Scouts, we built a Sukkah for the synagogue without using nails. We cut down trees ourselves and lashed them together. It was a work of art. When I was in USY, we got together again to build the Sukkah for the synagogue. That Sukkah was not a work of art, I felt good that it didn’t fall down but it came close a couple of times. But I never built a Sukkah at my home.
For my third year of Rabbinical School, I spent the year in Israel. I lived in student housing and we had a big Sukkah where all of us studentswould eat our meals. The weather was perfect in Israel for eating in a Sukkah. Not too cold and not too hot. Not too many bugs and the perfect atmosphere to sit and study and have a conversation after a meal.
While I was in Israel that year, we went on a tour of the farmland that surrounds Jerusalem. We were looking for Shomriot. A shomriah is a hut that is a temporary home for a family during the harvest season. It is usually a stone building with a flat roof. It is often under a huge shade tree. On hot nights, the family might sleep on the roof, going inside only if there is rain. Around the hut was a cleared area where the family could leave grapes in the sun to become raisins and to dry dates and figs. There was a cistern for water and a cooking area where dinner could be prepared. During the harvest, the family would move in so they could get an early start on the harvest each day. When the harvest was finished, they loaded up the produce, the raisins, figs and dates and moved back home. The shomriah would be empty again until the next harvest.
The Talmud notes that when most families were moving out of their Shomriot, Jews were moving into their Sukkot. A Sukkah was also meant to be a temporary home. But it was not for the purpose of bringing in the harvest. It could only be used once the harvest was over. A Sukkah could not be built under a tree, but had to be under the open sky. A Sukkah could not have a roof, it was only meant to be a shady spot, where there was more sun than shade inside by day, and one could look up and see stars by night.
All of this works fine in Israel, but not in the rest of the world. In Poland and Russia, it is already close to freezing at night and there can be terrible rainstorms at this season of the year. Here in Florida, it will not cool off for another two months and it can rain every day. In Minnesota it would snow on our Sukkah. In Australia, it is not even fall; it is right in the middle of spring. When hurricane Wilma threatened South Florida, we had to take our Sukkah down. Who knows how they will someday celebrate Sukkot on the moon or in space.
Sukkot is Israel’s holiday. Anyone can build a Sukkah in their yard or courtyard. Every major building has one on the side or on the roof. Ever restaurant has a Sukkah for patrons to eat in if they wish. One can buy a lulav and etrog almost everywhere and they are fresh, not delivered by some overnight carrier. People in Israel are happy to be in a Sukkah and they spend long hours into the night enjoying the cool night air. Sukkot is one of the best times to visit Israel.
A little girl was out walking one evening with her father. As they came to the top of the hill, the girl asked, “Daddy, how far can you see?” the father looked out to the horizon and said, “I guess I can see a couple of miles.” The girl said, “I can see millions and millions of miles.” Her father smiled and said, “Gee honey, how can you see so far?” The little girl pointed at the sky, I can see the stars and they are millions of miles away, look up Daddy and you can see them too!”
This is one of the lessons of the Sukkah. All year we live inside the four walls of our homes. We shut ourselves in and we shut out all of nature that we don’t want invading our homes. We tint our windows; install blinds to keep the sun out. We put locks on our doors for security. We make sure that rain cannot leak in our roof. All year long we can only look out our windows at the little bit of nature in our back yard or across the street.
On Sukkot, we learn to lift our vision higher. We look up through the roof and take in the stars. We can once again see for millions and millions of miles. We once again are a part of nature, not separate from it. We stop viewing the world that we have created for ourselves and we start seeing our place in the natural world again. Instead of seeing only what we have bought for ourselves, we can set our gaze up to the heavens and once again dare to dream of the stars. No matter how discouraged or closed in we may feel, if we can lift our eyes to the stars, we can let ourselves become inspired again.
On Sukkot we invite God to join us in our Sukkah, to make it a sukkat shalom, a Sukkah of peace. There is an ancient tradition that each night of Sukkot, we invite heavenly guests to join our earthly guests in the Sukkah. We invite Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David into our Sukkot. Each one blesses us with their presence. These heavenly guests make our Sukkah a holy space. One that reminds us of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary that our ancestors built in the wilderness. It was there that our ancestors contemplated God. We should do no less when we are in our Sukkah as well.
How do we respond to the holiness of the Sukkah, to the wonder and beauty of nature and to the grandeur of the stars? What are we supposed to say when we leave the comfort of our homes to once again become a part of nature? How do we show our gratitude to God for wonders of this world in which we live? In Judaism, to show appreciation, we recite a blessing.
On Sukkot we have the blessing of the lulav and etrog that we recite each day as we take them up to wave them in the synagogue. There is the blessing for sitting in the Sukkah. It is not enough to just pass through a Sukkah; we have to sit and spend some time contemplating our surroundings, and then say a blessing for sitting. We can say a blessing over the foods that we eat in the Sukkah. Some say that there is a special merit of saying the blessing for lulav and etrog in the Sukkah, bringing these two important symbols of the holiday together.
But in my mind, the most important blessing we can say in the Sukkah is the blessing that we have come again to this season of the year, that winter may be coming soon, but we are grateful and thankful that we are blessed with food, clothing and shelter to protect us from any force of nature. We recite on Sukkot the Shehechiyanu, the prayer that thanks God for giving us another year to dwell in the Sukkah and contemplate again, our place in the universe. Thank you God for keeping us alive, sustaining us and bringing us again in peace to your sukkat shalom, your Sukkah of peace.
May there be peace in our homes, peace in our land and peace in Israel, our homeland and may each of us dwell in our own Sukkot with no one to make us afraid.
Amen and Hag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom
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