Noach

1. Shabbat Shalom

2. The problem with the stories of Genesis are always that they seem to be stories for children: Adam and Eve with the “Apple”; the creation of the world, the Garden of Eden and the snake; they all point to cute stories with a moral at the end that can be used to help children understand the world. When we grow up, we think we are too mature for these kinds of fairy tales and we no longer pay very much attention to them. These stories of Genesis get filed away along with the stories of George Washington and the cherry tree, Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan.

3. I always like to remind my students that the reason these stories are in the Bible is NOT because they have something to tell our children, but because they have a deeper, maybe a darker meaning for adults. There are lots of stories of ancient mythology. Those stories were not included in the Torah. Stories in the Torah are about real human beings and the way we are supposed to live our lives. That is not to say that a Noah really lived and that someday we will find the remains of the Ark. I cannot say if this story is historically true or not. I can only say that there is a truth in this story and it is not kid stuff. We saw last week that the stories of creation can resonate deep within our souls. The story of Noah is no less important.

4. Rabbi Arthur Waskow summarizes the story of Noah like this: “The story recounts that violence, corruption, ruin were rampant on the earth. God, seeing that the human imagination was drawn toward evil, determined to destroy all life, except for one human family led by Noah, and one pair of every species. God rained death on every being except those who took refuge with Noah on the Ark. One year later, the waters subsided so that these refugees could emerge. And then God, though explicitly asserting once again that the human imagination is drawn toward evil, took an almost opposite tack: God promised that the cycles of life would never be destroyed again, insisted that new rules of behavior must govern human action in the future, and gave the Rainbow as a sign of this covenant.”

5. Who is this Noah? Is he a master ship builder? Is he known for his skill in handling animals? Is he a skilled weather forecaster? He is none of these things. His only skill is that he is a righteous person. What is God's role in all of this? Is God a punishing, vengeful deity?  I don't think so. God is only reacting to the activities of the human beings God created. Only when violence and immorality run rampant in the world is God forced to act. It is the human beings themselves that call down the disaster upon them and only the one man who is not part of the problem is shown a way to avoid the coming disaster.

6. What are we supposed to learn from this kind of a story? If the Torah teaches us one thing, it is that we human beings are responsible for our actions. The Midrash tells us that God said to the first human being, that he should take care of the earth because there is nobody who will come after you to fix it if you are not careful. In our Parsha, human beings have broken the world and God has to figure out what to do. There has to be consequences for human actions that do not build up the world. The build-up of violence can only lead to destruction.

7. So our first modern lesson of this story is that if we make a mess of this world, then we will have to suffer the consequences. It is not because God does not love us or that God does not care about is, but we are supposed to be the defenders and protectors of this planet and often we don't do a very good job. We abuse our environment in many ways. We allow cruelty and violence to increase in our land. What causes this violence? There is plenty of food in this country but somehow we can't manage to get it to those who are hungry. We spend precious money and fuel to transport our food great distances to get to our table, but we can't get the food to the homeless and hungry in our own city.

8. But that is only the beginning of how we abuse our world. There is a story of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the great sinful cities of the generation of Abraham. When a grain merchant came to town, the citizens of the city would come and take but one grain from his bin, but at the end of the day, all the grain was gone yet nobody was responsible since they had only taken one grain. So too, we think that our life is too small to make a difference to the planet. We only put on the lights that we need. We only drive where we need to go. We only buy groceries that we plan to eat. At the end of the day, when we look at the dumpster at the end of the street, we realize that perhaps we are not doing all that we can. How many of us are careful to recycle all the things we can and not just throw it all away as trash?

9. Our local power company offers a program to help reduce our energy costs. How many of us have taken advantage of that program? Commercials on television give us ideas as to how we can reduce our energy use but how many of us follow that advice. Do we turn off our ceiling fans when we leave the room? Do we fully shut off our electronics, our TV, stereo and computers at the end of the day? Do we unplug our rechargers for our phones? You see, even when they are not recharging our cell phone, they are still using electricity. Do we raise the temperature in our homes and apartments when we go away for the day? Why do we want to air condition or heat our home if we are not there? When we go away on a vacation, we are careful to turn off the lights before we leave, but why don't we unplug our hot water heater? Did you know that a refrigerator uses less electricity when it is full rather than empty? Will all these actions save our planet? Maybe not alone but if we all take the time to do our own little bit, we can have a really big impact.

10. Noah was not an expert in flood prevention and still he saved the world. We may not be environmental engineers but we too can save the world. Does one have to be an engineer to exchange regular light bulbs for fluorescent lights? Do we need advanced degrees from college to set up timers on our lights and thermostats to save power? Does it take a great deal of experience to separate paper, plastics and juice boxes from the rest of our trash? How difficult could it be to look for food that is locally grown rather than transported all over the country? We make a big deal over food that may be genetically engineered, but we don't even bother to complain about food that has in it so many preservatives that it doesn't even taste like food anymore.

11. Judaism, from the earliest chapters of the Torah is concerned with saving our planet from waste, from global warming and from human excess. Long before there was an Earth Day, Jews celebrated nature on Tu B'Shevat by planting trees and noting the renewal of the earth from its winter slumber. The Jewish National Fund notes that the State of Israel recycles almost 80 percent of the water that is used. Here in the USA, we recycle only 1 percent of our water.  At the end of our Parsha, the Rainbow is the sign of the promise that God will never again destroy the earth. If the earth is destroyed it will be because we cut down all the trees, because we refused to invest in renewable energy until it was too late. It will be because we waste so much of what we have and recycle so little.

12. Noah's Ark, drifting alone on the flooded earth, is a metaphor for this planet, this small ball of rock circling 93 million miles from the sun. Will our greed, our tendency for violence and our disregard for other human beings destroy all the beauty and color and life on this planet or will we make sure that clean air, water and land will eternally be able to combine to form, at the end of a storm, a beautiful rainbow? Will we sit back and let others destroy all that we value in life or will we speak up and do our part to save the great whales, the tiny snail darter and those strange and wonderful plants that could easily be the source of new discoveries that will help us end disease, regenerate life and help to provide food for those around the world who go to bed hungry every night?

13. We already know what will kill this planet. We can bomb ourselves into extinction. We can pollute ourselves to death or we can poison our atmosphere and water so our lives will become impossible. In a recent issue of Newsweek, Columnist George Will noted that eventually, after millions of years, this planet will cleanse its air, the pollutants will settle out of the water and all will be restored to the way it once was before. The only question I have is if we human beings will be around to see that day, or will we have ceded our place at the top of the food chain to the insects, who can tolerate greater changes in temperature, pollutants and famine then we can? I don't know about you, but I would hate to give this world over to the ants and the palmetto bugs.

14. We can argue the science but we can't argue the results. We know that we can't go on wasting resources and ignoring our effect on our world. It will not take millions of dollars or millions of years to make a difference. All it takes is for each one of us to care. Can you think of one thing that you can do this week to cut down your energy use or to conserve some part of our environment? Think of one thing and then, just do it. It may only make a small difference in your life, but the overall effect on the earth, could make all the difference in the world.

May God help us to find our way to better use and reuse God's gifts in this world and may we always give thanks for the beauty and majesty of nature as we say....

            AMEN AND SHABBAT SHALOM

Shemini Atzeret

1. Hag Sameach

2. My friend and colleague, Rabbi Robert Scheinberg in New Jersey, recently wrote about Anne Frank, the young girl who died in Auschwitz but left a moving diary of her feelings of hope and faith even during her most difficult days in hiding in Amsterdam. Her diary has been an inspiration to both young and old since its publication after the war. Many people of all faiths visit the house where she and her family hid. It is now a museum dedicated to all those who died in the Holocaust.

3. Visitors to the museum immediately notice a large chestnut tree that grows just outside the house. Anne Frank mentions this chestnut tree in her diary. During the long months of hiding, it was one of the few things she could see in the outside world. She recorded this in her diary: “From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for any sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.”  One of her last entries in her diary was about the chestnut tree being in full bloom.

4. That tree was over 100 years old when Anne Frank made her observations about it. Like the diary itself, the tree became a symbol of perseverance and hope. It represented not only the eternity and continuity of the world; it also stood for the pain that humans can sometimes inflict on others. Rabbi Scheinberg noted in his remarks, that the last 60 year, since the end of the war, the years have not been very kind to the chestnut tree. Inside, the tree it has been attacked by a fungus; outside, moths have eaten away at it. It had become so bad that the city of Amsterdam finally had to condemn the tree, it was unstable and in danger of falling. They scheduled it for removal.

5. He writes that it should not surprise anyone that there was an international uproar about plans to chop down the tree. This inspiring symbol just had to be saved. Money was raised. Tree scientists and naturalists from around the world came to Amsterdam to and each made their suggestions as to how the tree could be saved. In 2007, they finally agreed that it WAS possible to save the tree. They constructed a metal brace around the trunk that should have enabled it to survive for several more decades. The trees’ supporters were jubilant. The brace was put in place.

6. Just last month, in August of this year, during a heavy storm in the city, the chestnut tree was toppled by the wind. The huge tree crashed through gardens, fences and walls. Thank God nobody was hurt. It was now painfully clear that those who wished to save the tree had made a very serious mistake. If the wind of the storm had blown just a bit in a different direction, the Anne Frank house itself would have been demolished. The city came and removed the fallen tree and left behind only the stump. The story of Anne Frank's chestnut tree was over.

7. But just a couple of weeks ago, at the end of August, there was a great surprise. From the splintered trunk of the tree, a green shoot was seen growing. There was new life in the trunk of the old tree. The trunk will remain in its place and the next chapter in the life of the chestnut tree is now beginning.

8. Rabbi Scheinberg writes, “Why make such a big deal about it? It is just a tree. But for so many, the story of the tree seems symbolic of the story of the Shoah and the story of the Jewish people itself. Something that seemed to be eternal – that came perilously close to complete destruction. A symbol of hope that tragically became a source of danger. A somewhat sympathetic international community that reacted too late. A world that seems alternately capricious and terribly unfair and destructive. A living entity that managed to persevere against all odds gaining a new lease on life. [We say in our prayers] “Hashiveny adonai elecha ve-nashuva, hades  yemeinu ke-kedem”  “Return to us, Adonai, and we will return to you. Renew our days as of old. We can understand this in the conventional way, “renew our lives to the condition they were before: or we can understand this in a deeper and richer way by saying, “just as you renewed our lives in the past, helping us to persevere after crises, dislocations and traumas, so may you renew our lives today.”

9. I have been thinking of this story for weeks now. It is a story that I have been a part of many times. I have watched more times than I can remember, friends and neighbors, who lived wonderful lives, lives that were an inspiration to their families and to many others around them. People who we thought would live forever. But over time, the years were not always so good to them. Disease weakened their bodies from the inside, the trials and tribulations of life weakened them from the outside. My friends remained, for me, the symbol of a life well lived. And out of love for all they had done for us, we worked long and hard to give them as much life as we could.

10. It is never easy to make the decision to place someone we love so deeply into hospice. We know that the men and women who work in the hospice programs are caring and loving people; that they have dedicated their lives to bringing comfort to those in their final days and to helping them and their families say goodbye. Our problem is not with hospice, but with our own need to come to the realization that nothing is forever. That even those we love, and those who love us, will eventually die. We instinctively want to cling to them forever.  And yet, even when we know that the will to live is powerful and strong, we also know that continuing pain is worse than death and that sometimes death can be better than a life of illness. Sometimes we have to love someone enough to let them go. So we let them go, and we cry. We cry for what we have lost. We cry for the love that is no more. And we cry because all we have are memories of what we once had that is now gone forever.

11. Now we come to the hour of Yizkor. Yizkor means “May God Remember” and the name comes from the first word of the memorial prayer we recite today. We ask God to remember what we remember, the life, the lessons and the love that was once shared in life that is now gone. But is the love really gone? The life of those we loved may be over but the love still remains. It is the love that we once had that brings us to this service, and I think that it does a lot more for us than we can fully realize.

12. I like to compare love to the light of a candle. To be sure, a candle flame is not one of the most enduring images in life. The singer, Elton John, in his song, compares love to a candle in the wind. The image is that the flame is always in danger of being extinguished. The mere puff of wind can leave a wick cold and dark, where once stood the warm glow of a flame. Love is very perishable. If we don't care for the flame, anything can come along and put it out, and even if we do care for it carefully, soon the candle will burn up and the flame will, eventually sputter and die. That is the way it is with candles.

13. But I also like to remember that the flame of a candle can also be eternal. That from one flame many others may be lit, without reducing the original flame at all. Just like love, we can give love away every day we are alive and never will our capacity to love be diminished. And those other flames we light, can light other candles that can light other candles and soon the whole world is glowing with the light that started with just one flame. When we sit here, contemplating the love that we once had, we realize that the love we once shared still burns in our hearts and we can still share that love, share what we learned about life and meaning with others, who can share it with others, and so the flame of love will never really die.

14. From the stump of an old tree, grows new shoots. We rebuild our lives on the meaning and messages that our parents, our spouse, our siblings, and yes, even our children leave behind for us after they are gone. If we look at the stump, if we look only at the burned out wick that remains, then we will never notice the golden flame that burns still in our hearts, and we will never notice the new green shoots that are growing from what we once had that now is gone. If we only consider what we have lost, we will always be lost. If we realize what we have because of the love we once shared, we will never find ourselves groping in the dark.

15. “Hadesh Yemeinu Ke-kedem. Renew are days as of old.” No, this is not about going back to the good old days.  This is not about our vain attempts to make everything just the way it used to be. No matter how hard we try, what is in the past remains in the past. Our hope lies in carrying the memories, the lessons and the love into the future. We don't pine away for a light that once shined and now is gone, we are supposed to work harder today to insure that we pass on the flame to the generations that will follow ours.

16. God made our lives richer and more beautiful by allowing us to share our days with those who we remember today, those who were once an important part of our lives but who are now gone. We do not ask God to bring them back. We ask God to make sure that the love we once shared, in spite of the traumas, dislocations and crises in life, we ask God to make sure that we never lose the love we have, and that we never should miss an opportunity to pass it along.

17. May the memories and tears that this Yizkor service will evoke, inspire us to create the memories and love in the hearts of others, so that the love we remember today will never die but will serve as an inspiration to all those looking for the kind of love we once knew and which still burns inside of us.

May this be the blessing that always gives us strength in our hours of sorrow as we say, Amen and Hag Sameach.

1. Before we continue with Yizkor there is another tradition that we all must address. The tradition of remembering those we love with a pledge to make a contribution to our synagogue. For thousands of years, synagogues have relied on these contributions to pay for some of the most basic expenses that a shul must cover, electricity, water, repairs of the building and for the ritual items that we need to provide for the spiritual needs of our members. It is important that everyone consider what kind of a Yizkor pledge, what kind of a memorial contribution would be appropriate.

2. I don't want to drag out this appeal. There are many special ways to make a contribution in the name of our loved ones. If you have not dedicated a memorial plaque, this is a good time to make that kind of a contribution. If you would like to buy a leaf on our tree of life in the lobby, that too would be an appropriate way to honor those whom we remember this day. Our Siddurim are not even a year old, and dedicating a Siddur would be another way to remember with love, those who are no longer here. You have in your Yizkor books, a pledge card. If you can send a check after the holiday, you can use the envelope to return it by mail to the office. If you would prefer to send a check later, then return the pledge card so we will know your intentions when you send in your gift later.

3. Help us meet our day-to-day expenses with your memorial gift. Every dollar helps us serve our membership better. I thank you for your generosity and for your participation in this appeal. May God bless you with wonderful memories and the ability to make a difference with a contribution in their name. Thank you and Hag Sameach.

Sukkot

1. Hag Sameach

2. The Holidays are early this year. How many of us were thinking this as we gathered for Rosh Hashana just two weeks ago? I kept hearing all kinds of problems that were caused by the Holidays coming so early. I suppose that it would be nice to have Sukkot like Thanksgiving, always on the last Thursday of the month. I suppose that if the date of Sukkot was fixed on the secular calendar, we would have more people attending, after all, it would be easier to plan the holiday if we knew for certain when it would fall each year.

3.  I guess we have it easier than the Moslems do with the month of Ramadan. They also use the lunar calendar but they don't correct for the seasons. Ramadan falls one month earlier each year than the year before. Last year, Ramadan coincided with Tishrei. This year it fell during the month of Elul. Next year it will fall during Tammuz. We Jews might think it is ridiculous to have Sukkot fall in the middle of the summer (although it IS still summer here and in Australia, it is spring.)  We like our holidays to stay within the limits of the season. Sukkot is a harvest festival so it needs to be in the harvest season. This does not seem to be an issue with Islam and Ramadan. I guess they don't have real seasons in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

4.  I have a friend who reminds me each year that Jewish holidays never fall early or late. They fall exactly on time, according to the Jewish lunar Calendar. This is the month of Tishrei and Sukkot will always fall on the full moon of Tishrei. Just like Pesach always falls on the full moon of Nisan and Rosh Hashana always falls on the new moon of Tishrei. There is only one holiday that is measured on the solar calendar. That holiday is Shabbat. It comes every seven sunsets no matter what the moon is doing.

5. I once had a Hazzan who asked me if I could, as Rabbi, declare that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur fall later in the year so that he would have more time to prepare for the holidays. That would be a skill that I am sure a lot of people would like to have. When you are late for a deadline, you could just insert a day or two and still finish the project on time. Or better, if we have to take some awful medication for three weeks, why not just jump ahead and not have to struggle with the side effects? I am sure that my old Hazzan would have loved to just skip past the holidays and not have to worry about them for another year.

6. Imagine being able to skip through time. Think of all the money you could make. Skip ahead and see what stocks and bonds have done well, and then skip back and invest in them. Think of all the bets you could win in you knew in advance, who would win the World Series, the Super Bowl and the NBA playoffs!  Think of the donation you could give to Temple Emeth!  OK! OK!  It was only a fantasy. We can't skip ahead and the holidays come right when they are supposed to on the lunar calendar.

7. The fact is that we have very little control over time. It marches on, sixty seconds a minute, sixty minutes an hour, 24 hours and a day. We can not stop time, nor can we fast forward time. We have to live in time, in the present, contemplating the past and dreaming of the future. Animals in nature don't have to deal with time. They live only in the here and now. They eat when they are hungry, sleep when they are tired, play when they are bored and roll around in the mud if they think the weather is too hot. We human beings have “appointments” alongside our “appointed seasons”. 

8. We usually don't like to think about the changing seasons and the passing of time. There is so much to do and we are always so busy. We delay and procrastinate the really important things in our lives and fill our days with meaningless chatter. I often think about the final act in the play by Arthur Miller, “Our Town”. In the last act. Emily has died and wants to go back and relive a past day. The others in the graveyard tell her not to do it. That it is a very frustrating and sad thing to do. You get to relive the day, they say, but you also have to see it with eyes that are wise with years. Emily decides to prevent this sadness, she will go back to a happy day, one her birthdays when she was young. But it turns out that it is not a happy day for her to relive. Her parents go about their daily business, wishing her a happy birthday and not realizing the importance of the time that is going by. Emily leaves that day and takes her place in the graveyard. She will no longer wish to go back in time. It just is too sad that we waste all those precious moments.

9. Sukkot reminds us that the days are indeed getting shorter. Not just in terms of the hours of sunlight and darkness, but that winter is coming, a year has gone by. We find ourselves asking hard questions. What have I done with the time I was given last year? Did I use that time to grow? Did I take a class; spend quality time with people I love, try something new that I always wanted to try? There are some people here today who already bemoan a lost youth, where they failed to accomplish all they had wanted to do. Now we are too old. Now we are too slow. Now we are too weak. We are wiser, but some of us are physically unable to fulfill our dreams. The passing of another year makes us sad.

10. Who would want to look back on a year like that? It is better to close our eyes to the passing of time and spend the empty hours watching television as if it will make a difference in our lives and meeting with friends so we can talk about trivial things so we don't have to think about all the time we have wasted. We don't want to think about the passing days, the months, the years; we rush from place to place avoiding having to confront ourselves.

11. Sukkot tells us to slow down. It tells us to go outside and take in the world around us. Watch the sunset. Look at the sky at night through the open roof of the Sukkah. When we wave a lulav, it is as if we have become a tree and we can feel what it is like to be pushed around by the gentle breeze. We eat the fruits of the season, enjoying and savoring the flavor of a summer that is ending and we prepare for the winter that will come. Maybe our winters in Florida are not so cold, not so hard that we worry about the weather. Perhaps we treasure the cooler weather after the brutally hot summer. Our friends from up north come down. We wonder if they will be healthy enough to make the trip this year.

12. Sukkot teaches us that there are no more excuses about getting in touch with our lives. All year long we condition the air in our home to make us more comfortable. We eat foods grown all over the world, no longer tied to seasons, rain and famine. Our electricity pushes back the darkness, powers our entertainment systems and cooks our delicious meals. Only when Sukkot comes do we remember what live was like before these modern conveniences. We say that we will live, for just a few days, as our ancestors did when they traveled through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. We pause to recall our ancestors, living of their land and thanking God for the bounty of the harvest and the certainty that there would be enough food for the winter and for the spring beyond.

 

13. After the introspection of our lives during the High Holy Days, we need this time to think about the passing of time and if we are passing on the right lessons to our children and grandchildren. Have we made them sensitive to filling each of their minutes with sixty seconds of worthy activities?  Have we showed them how to use the time they have wisely and to treasure every moment of every day.  All too soon tragedy can strike, so we have to take advantage of the good times while we can. I have discovered working with seniors over the years that age is only a limitation if we let it limit our lives. That it is never too late to learn something new. It is never too late to take a class, to teach a class or to see an old situation in a new light. Every June we find someone in their seventies or eighties who has finally receiving the college degree they always wanted. Scientists tell us that it is never too late to start lifting weights and exercising. Everyone can benefit from a healthy lifestyle, no matter what their age.

 

14. No matter if the holidays are early or late, now is the time to pay attention to the passing of time and to resolve again to use the time we have left to the best of our abilities. A legacy can be more than just money and property that we leave behind after we have died. A legacy can be learned by our children from watching how we use our time so they will see just how priceless time can be. These days of Sukkot help us to come to terms with our lives, to face the realities of our environment and ask the hard questions about who we are and where we going and if we are going in a direction that our loved ones approve and our God approves. 

15. We may not be able to control if our days are passing too quickly or if they are dragging forward painfully slow.  All we can do is live each moment as if it really counts. All we can do is to make the most of the time we have and not squander the gift of time that we have been given. As we sit in the Sukkah this year, let us face the future proudly and live each moment honorably and lovingly. 

May God help us use every minute wisely and may the passage of time always be for a blessing as we say, Amen and Hag Sameach

Yom Kippur

1. Gemar Hatima Tova – May we all be sealed for Life in the New Year.

2. My good friend Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt from the Washington DC area shared a note he recently received from someone asking a question. The person wrote, “Dear Rabbi, I am struggling with the issue of why should I repent, ask forgiveness and try and be a better person when everyone around me does not try to be a better person? When everyone else around me is full of evil thoughts, words and deeds? It is so hard to find it within myself to change and forswear bad behaviors when every day I am confronted with those who act badly against me.”

3. I thought to myself when I read this letter that here is a person in a great deal of pain and who is becoming very cynical about life and the nature of the world. I suppose if I were a psychologist or a social worker, I would find evidence of all kinds of issues in this letter. I am only a Rabbi and when I saw that letter I began to think about who this person might be and how I would pen my response to this letter.

4. Life would be so much easier if we did not have to worry about who we have hurt and if we have had our revenge on those who have hurt us. If we didn't have to be a better person each year, we could go on our merry way, happy with ourselves just the way we are and if anyone has a problem with that, well, that is their problem not ours.  If someone is mean and nasty to me well, I can show them that I can dish it out as well as I can take it. I am just as happy to give back to others what they have dished out to me.

5. These feelings of frustration are not unique to our age. In Psalm 28, King David says, “Do not count me with the wicked and evil-doers who profess goodwill toward their fellows while malice is in their heart. Pay them according to their deeds, their malicious acts; according to their handiwork, pay them and give them their desserts.”  Or see Psalm 27, the Psalm we recite during this penitential season, it reads, “When evil men assail me, to devour my flesh – it is they, my enemies who stumble and fall.” From ancient times, human beings have called upon God to punish their enemies and vindicate those who do good.

6. It is hard, going through life seeing wicked people prosper. For every Scott Rothstein and Bernie Madoff who get caught, we know that there are many others, just like them, who are too clever to come to the attention of those who would punish them. The CEO's who cut corners at the expense of those of us who rely on their products or who risk environmental catastrophe to insure investors have a decent return and if the worst happens, then they clean it up with the money they can recover from the profits of just one day. It does not matter if they are in the Gulf of Mexico or in suburban San Francisco, in corporate America, is easier and cheaper to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.

7. Rudyard Kipling knew this kind of frustration. In his poem, “If” where he gives advice to his son, he notes at the very beginning that life can be frustrating. He writes, “If you can keep your head when all about you, others are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” We have learned, from a very early age that honesty is the best policy and cheaters never prosper. But we look around us in life and find that these maxims are honored more in the breach than in reality. We might hope that bad and malicious people will get what is coming to them, and when they do we might even gloat. But most of the time, people full of evil thoughts, words and deeds seem to not only get away with their lies, but they seem to find their way faster up the ladder of success. Is it any wonder our letter writer is contemplating joining their ranks?

8. It is so hard to be the only one who does not cheat on our income taxes. It is so hard to be the only one who is stopping at the red light and driving at the posted speed limit. Don't we wish that our investments would benefit from insider trading? Why to I have to be the only one who, when there is a billing error in my favor, that I let them know that I really do owe them more money then they have calculated?

9. Clearly, Judaism wants us to be that one person. If necessary, the only person who is doing good when others are following the crowd to do evil. Remember Abraham, when he argued with God over the fate of Sodom and Gemorra? The number of good people that could save the cities became smaller and smaller until God agreed that if there were 10 good people in the entire city, God would spare Sodom its fate. Just ten good people in a city of tens of thousands. All it takes is ten good people and destruction could be averted. But there is only one in the city, and after he is removed, the city is destroyed.

10. This afternoon, we read a similar story. Jonah is sent to Nineveh, to preach to the city to get them to repent before God destroys them. Jonah tries to run away from this commission but he is returned to where he needs to be and he finally begins a three day trek through Nineveh to convince the people to repent. Jonah is so good at his job, that there are not just ten good people found to spare the city, the entire city, from the King on down repents their actions and so God spares them. Jonah is upset that he now feels like a fool, preaching destruction and now all is forgiven. God has to remind the prophet that sparing life, animal or human, is a mitzvah.

11. At first, there are not even ten good people in Nineveh. But by the end of the story, the entire city has repented of their evil and the destruction has been averted. This is a story of the power of repentance. We do not have to be perfectly good to save ourselves and our families in the New Year. We only have to be committed to doing better as the year begins.  If Teshuva, return, is our goal as the year begins, God will give us the chance to try again.

12. Rabbi Shai Held, one of the great upcoming new scholars in the Jewish world, has taught recently that God wants us to find ourselves. But, he then notes that if this is God's goal, why is God always scripting our lives? How can we find ourselves if we have no real choice but to follow the Torah?  After all, the Torah teaches us that to follow Torah is life, to reject Torah is death and we must choose life. But what kind of a choice is that? Who, in their right mind anyway, would choose death? Rabbi Held goes on to say that the role of the Torah's script is to help us rise above all the other scripts that are given to us by the many other forces in society, forces like capitalism and our drive for power. The purpose of our faith is to free us from the false needs and wants that distract us from our goals with their allure and call. We all know that we need to do good, but the other forces in our lives, the need to earn a living, to get along with others and the seductive call  to celebrate today and don't worry about tomorrow, these all beckon to us to forget Torah and follow their lead.  The script of the Torah, of Judaism, helps us keep our focus on doing what is right and good and not let our other drives take control of our lives.

13.  We live in a time of great anger. In many ways, anger is the script that is most in use in our country today. We don't talk to each other, we yell at each other. We don't care about the point of view of someone else, we only care that everyone else should be as angry as we are. It has become fashionable to speak in superlatives. One mistake by a politician indicates a “hidden” agenda”. Rumors pass themselves off as news items. Fact checking is what you do on a slow news day. Something is not wrong as long as it is “partly” right, or at least could be correct given an unusual or rare set of circumstances. To get good ratings, you have to say outrageous things. Things that fuel the flames of anger higher. There is no such thing as compromise anymore, you are either with me or against me. The only good is that which is perfect and anything less then perfect is to be despised.

14. There are some who say that the script of Torah is no different. The Halacha, Jewish Law is immutable and unchanging. One can either keep the law, in every aspect or one is a complete sinner. Sometimes it seems that every day there are new ways to look at old laws. A Haredi Rabbi this past year suddenly announced that “Shabbat Elevators” which automatically stop at every floor on Shabbat, are no longer permitted on Shabbat. That suddenly, these elevators became an illegal form of riding on Shabbat. I don't know what prompted this change in Halacha after almost a century of elevator riding, but it stranded many observant Jews on the upper floors of very tall buildings for Shabbat. I don't really mind that there are some Jews who will not ride an elevator on Shabbat, but to insist that one is not Shabbat observant if you do ride them, seems to defy all logic.

15. In truth, the script that the Torah puts out for us is very different than the angry Torah that the Haredi Jews defend so mightily. We understand that religion is not a matter of pure right versus wrong, or a recipe for getting on God's good side. In my mind, anyone who presumes to know what God wants or what will make God “happy” is preaching a caricature of religion, but not a true faith. If we have learned anything in this multicultural nation in which we live, a nation founded on the principle of religious freedom, it is that there are as many ways to find God as there are people. What is important to faith is not how to get there, but the journey between selfishness and true freedom. The Torah is a very interesting book. While it begins with the creation of the world, the largest part of the text is devoted to a journey, the journey of the People of Israel as they travel from Egypt (The narrow place of slavery) to the land of promise, the land of milk and honey. What makes the Torah intriguing is that the People of Israel, like Moses himself, never get to the Promised Land. It takes 400 years to get out of Egypt and another 40 years to get Egypt out of the People. But the Torah never takes them across the Jordan River. Faith is not found in arriving, it is found it the Journey.

16. Many Rabbis use this story of the People of Israel as a metaphor for our journey through life. We leave the “narrow place” from where we are born, and life is a journey, but we do not know where we are going. Some say that where we are going depends on where the journey in life takes us. Others say that we decide where we want to end up and all of life is about how we direct ourselves to the goal.

17. I get asked all the time about what Jews believe happens after we die. This is certainly a big concern for Christianity and for Islam too. It is not such a big concern in Judaism. The Rabbis teach that we really don't know what the next world will bring. Nobody has ever come back to tell us what happens there. We can only believe that what is next is better than what we have here and that if we do good in this world, it will serve us well in whatever may come at the end of our journey.

18. There is a telling story, a Midrash, about a man who wanted so badly to know the difference between heaven and hell that he prayed incessantly to be given the chance to see both.  Finally, to get him to stop his nagging, an Angel appeared and told him that since live people could not enter either heaven or hell, the best that could be done is to show the man the first house inside heaven and the first house inside hell and he would have to be satisfied with that.

19. The first stop was in hell, the first house was a rather ordinary stone house with a thatch roof. There was a light shining from the window, and inside the man saw a large table filled with all kinds of delicious looking and delicious smelling food. All around the table, people were sitting, plates piled high with all kinds of good food and they were holding a knife and fork in each hand. But nobody was eating. Each person had his arms tied to a splint so that they could pick the food up off their plates, but could not get it into their mouths.  “OY” said the man, “This truly is hell!” The Angel then took him away.

20. Soon they came to the first house in Heaven. It was a rather ordinary stone house with a thatch roof. There was a light shining from the window, and inside the man saw a large table filled with all kinds of delicious looking and delicious smelling food. All around the table, people were sitting, plates piled high with all kinds of good food and they were holding a knife and fork in each hand. Just like in hell, each person had his arms tied to a splint so that they could pick the food up off their plates, but could not get it into their mouths. The difference in heaven was that around this table, the people were feeding each other.

21. The difference between heaven and hell is not something that is outside of ourselves; the difference is found inside. We decide if the circumstances of our lives are to be heaven or if they will be a living hell. There is nothing in hell that prevents the residents from feeding each other except for their own stubbornness and selfishness. Everyone at the table in hell could be well fed and happy but their inability to see and feel for each other keeps them hungry and unhappy. This is the story of our journey through life. Our happiness does not depend on others, we decide for ourselves if we will be concerned for each other or if we will only look out for ourselves. Either choice is possible but one will make us happy and well fed, the other choice leads to a constant hunger that gnaws at our belly.

22. The good people in our life tried to teach us this lesson. Our parents, our mentors, our teachers, all tried to show us that the script of Torah was a way of love, care, concern for each other, a way where we are instructed to lend a hand to those in need and  to depend on others in our own time of sickness and sorrow. What we give, we also receive. If we are mean, nasty miserable people, nobody will want to be our friend. If we decide, instead to be kind loving and caring people, everyone will want to be our friend. Maybe there are no guarantees in life that it will all work out this way, but you don't need a public opinion survey to see that, more often than not, this is the way of the world. And this is the way of Torah.

23. To be fair, I have to say that there is a downside to being kind, loving and caring. I once rushed to the hospital where a woman, 97 years old had just been told that she is dying, and did not have much longer to live. I found her in the emergency room, with her 65 year old daughter sitting by her side. The elderly woman looked at me and said, “Rabbi, I am 97 years old. I have led a really wonderful life. I have children I am proud of; I have accomplished all that I ever wanted to do. Life has been good to me and I am dying with no regrets at all. But Rabbi, I need you to do one favor for me. I am ready to die and I don't face it with any fear. So please tell my family that they don't have to mourn when I am gone, tell them not to cry, because I have been so happy with my life.”

24. I looked at this serene woman and said to her, “I think you need to mind your own business.” She looked at me shocked but I went on, “It really doesn't matter that you lived the perfect life. The fact is, when you are gone, your children will miss you.  They will miss your love, your caring, your opinions and your advice. And when they miss you, they will cry. There is nothing you or I can do or even should do to stop it. If you had been a bad mother and friend, they would not care. No, you had to be loving, caring and considerate. Those tears are the price we pay for losing someone we love.”

25. We are approaching the hour of Yizkor. The time we allot in this most holy day to remember those who we loved, and who loved us. Today is one of the days we have to pay the price for all that love we shared for the all too short time they spent in this world with us. I attend daily minyan and I see, almost every day, people who brave the tears and the broken heart all over again just to be in shul and remember a father, a mother, a sister, a brother, a spouse or partner, or, God help them, to remember a child who is no longer in this world. Even 10, 20 or 40 years later, that love lives on in their hearts. For some of us here, we mourn family who died almost a half century ago. But the love we have for them is still strong in our hearts, and we remain grateful for the influence for good in our life that can never be erased. What more could we want from life but to be remembered for good, for love and for our compassion? What better memorial could we build?

26. There are people who will not repent on this Yom Kippur. There are those who say that there is no God, that what we do makes no difference to the universe. All that there is, is what we can see, anything else is just fantasy and fairy tale. The only force that forms the universe is gravity and that is all that is holding the cosmos together. It does not matter to the universe if we are good or bad, only that we survive; that is the source of ultimate meaning.

27. That is not the path of Torah, that is not the script that our Machzor, our faith, our Torah would have us follow in life. What we do does make a difference, perhaps not to the universe but to those who love us and to those we love. We can choose to ease the burden of another, to feed the hungry, care for the sick, console the mourner or we can look the other way and look out only for our self. That is the choice that the Torah places before us, and we are commanded to choose life, a life of kindness, not anger; a good life, and not an evil life; a life of acts of loving kindness, not bad behavior. Life may be easier if we give in to looking out only for ourselves, but life is richer, meaningful and deeply satisfying, when we repent of our mistakes and choose each year, to live a better and more holy life.

28. Rabbi Weinblatt wrote in his reply to the letter he received, “I believe, with all my heart, that being a good person makes us better people. It is not just a tautology, to not be a forgiving person, turns us into bitter people.” I might add that we are free to choose a sweet life or a bitter life. I have chosen the path of sweetness, love and harmony. In my life, that has made all the difference.

May we be blessed in the year ahead, with forgiveness, and with being forgiven. May we spread not hatred or anger, but love and compassion and may we, whenever it may be our time to die, may we leave behind warm memories, loving hearts and lots and lots of tears.  May we be sealed for life this year, a sweet life, a life of holiness and a life filled with love as we say … AMEN AND GEMAR TOV.

1.  Look around you for a second. What do you see? Hundreds of Jews gathering to remember loved ones who have died? If you were the county Fire Marshall, what would you see if you looked around you? Would you notice the state of the art fire prevention and alert system installed? What if you were a furniture sales representative? Would you see the chairs and pews people are sitting on? Would you see this as a sign that some good salesman was here before you or would you see that there is the making of a large order in this room? What if you were selling a Machzor? Would you see a need for newer books? Do you know that the new Machzorim sell for $27.00 each? There are 1300 people here, that amounts to $35,000 dollars just to replace what we have. Can you imagine our electric bill for these holidays? Plus the fact that we need a repair service and a plumber on call, it would not be a good thing if the Air Conditioner would go out or the rest rooms would flood.

2. Security is also an issue. To be sure we do not want to be a target of terrorists who would find so many Jews in one place an enticing target. But what about all the cars in the parking lot? We need to makes sure that nobody steals from our cars while we are praying inside. Cleanliness is also an issue, somebody has to come through this room, at the end of the service, to pick up the trash, to reset the seats and make sure that those who come later will have a book and a clean seat to sit in. The Rabbi and Cantor put in hourse to prepare for this day, as does our Administrator, our secretarial staff and a small army of volunteers.

3. I know that everyone bought a ticket to attend this morning, but I really don't need to tell you that the ticket prices do not come close to paying for all the expenses of Temple Emeth. Like all synagogues, we depend on donations to keep our doors open and to pay our most basic bills. It is the generous donations of others that made Temple Emeth possible, and if we are to continue to offer services here, and continue grow and expand what we have to offer, we will need your help.

4. If you are not a member of Temple Emeth, that is the first level of help. Your membership tells us that you care about what we do here and that you are willing to attach your name to all that we are trying to accomplish. When you join Temple Emeth, you have become part of a thriving Jewish community right here in Delray Beach. It can be the portal to connect you and your family to the greater Jewish world. Just call us or stop by after the holiday and our Membership office will be glad to help you become a valued part of our synagogue.

5. If you are already a member of Temple Emeth, Thank you for your care and your support. You already know that there are many ways your donations to our congregation help us meet the rising costs of the most basic necessities for a congregation. You already know that we offer far more that just Holiday services, that we offer educational programs, social programs and entertainment programs throughout the year. We have daily, Shabbat and Holidays services and we have them seven days a week, twice a day, 365 days a year. And we rely on the donations of members and guests to help us keep the doors open and to keep the quality of our programs high.
6.  As we remember those we love at Yizkor, we need to remember that every donation we make in their memory or in honor of the living goes a long way to improving Temple Emeth. This year, through the generosity of the Leopold family, we were able to upgrade and replace the Siddurim we use on Shabbat and at daily minyan. Now we need your help. Your Yizkor pledge can make a difference to someone who cannot afford, in these difficult economic times, to join a synagogue, so we don't have to turn anyone away. Your Yizkor pledge can help pay the ongoing bills that yes, even a synagogue has to pay. We make these holidays look so easy, but we can do it because we can rely on your support and your generosity.

7.  I know that, at your seat, you have a pledge card. We are not like a church, where we can pass a plate and take cash donations. We rely on the promises of those who pray with us to help us grow and flourish. I can tell you that every year there are those who think that someone else should be giving the money. That there are others, wealthier than I am, who should step up.  I just can't make a donation.

8. We are not asking today for large sums of money. If you can give it, great. If not, any amount will do. The cost of a dinner for two is $50. Since we are not eating today, can we ask for the cost of one meal to help Temple Emeth? To replace a Bible takes a donation of $100 dollars. We are also starting advanced dues categories for those who are able to give more. Advanced dues include not only membership but High Holiday tickets as well. We have many opportunities for larger gifts and multi year donations. In addition to the Machzorim, we are looking to replace our Humashim and we are looking for someone to sponsor our Scholar in Residence program and other aspects of our Yeshivat Emet program for Continuing Jewish Education.

9. Please take your pledge card, fold down the tab that you think could best help Temple Emeth and hold it up for the ushers to collect. As soon as we are finished, we will begin our Yizkor Service. I should call your attention to the addition this year of a prayer for those who still have a living parent. We invite everyone to join us, in just a few moments as we begin the prayers of Yizkor. 

Kol Nidre

1. Tzom Kal, I wish everyone an easy fast. A Rabbi once told me that we should not ask for an easy fast because it is the hunger on Yom Kippur that makes our Teshuva so urgent. Maybe. But I don't believe in unnecessary suffering so I still wish everyone an easy fast.

2. We live in a world of crisis.  There is the crisis in Afghanistan, the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, the crisis in Haiti, the economic crisis etc. etc. There are so many crises in the world that it is even affecting President Obama, who many claim has a leadership crisis in the White House.  I don't want to belittle any of these issues. Some of them have global consequences and some of these crises affect the way we live our lives. I will leave it to the political pundits on Fox News and MSNBC to analyze the implications of these and other crises, but there is one crisis that I do need comment on.  It is the crisis in Conservative Judaism.

3. Conservative Judaism has been in crisis for many years. Ever since the 1970's our movement has been in a slow decline. Membership is falling in all Conservative congregations. There has been much discussion about if we need a Conservative Movement at all. Some of our members have become more traditional and find themselves drawn to Modern Orthodox congregations. Some feel we are not liberal enough and have found their way to Reform Congregations. In a world where there is only a left and a right, is there a place for a movement in the middle?

4. There is also the problem that young people don't really pay any attention to denominations and labels anymore. Young Jews today want a traditional congregation that is also egalitarian. They live in a world where there are thousands of choices as to what they should believe, so they don't make any decision at all unless they absolutely have to. Jews today want to know what our movement stands for, what do we believe in, who represents our interests on the world stage? These are important questions and Conservative Judaism, for the past four decades, didn't have any answer to give.

5. It is not just a problem for young Jews. All Jews find themselves wondering why they belong to a Conservative congregation. What do we get for our dues? Is the only reason we join so we can have a Rabbi at our funeral? How will my life be different or better because I am a member? How will my membership change the world? I am sure that all of you, who have been members of congregations all of your lives, I am sure that you have asked these questions yourself at one time or another and may even have discovered some answers that speak to the way your life has unfolded. But does our personal example translate into a reason others should join?

6. Over the years, Rabbis have gathered to discuss and debate what we should be doing to save our movement. Our Synagogue organization, United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism (USCJ) is going through a strategic planning process to better serve the congregations that are in need of help. It will take most of next year to begin to see the effects of those changes; in fact, it will be later this fall until we will even know what changes they are looking to make.

7. Two of the most respected Rabbis in our movement, Rabbi Harold Kushner, who is a best selling author and well known lecturer, and Rabbi David Wolpe, an author and Spiritual Leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, one of the few congregations that seem to be doing the right things, got together and spoke about why our movement is in so much trouble and what we should do about it.

8. Rabbi Kushner remarked that Conservative Judaism does not have a coherent message. The problem is that there are two different Conservative Judaisms fighting with each other. There is the Academic Conservative Judaism of the Rabbis and Scholars, who see our philosophy as one of great complexity and our laws as being very intricate. These Rabbis think that Judaism is just fine the way it is and if we leave it alone, its fundamental goodness will eventually shine through and all will be attracted to it. That is how Judaism has always been. On the other side is the Conservative Judaism of the pews, of the laypeople in our movement. They don't know who the great Rabbis and scholars are (Think about it? Have you ever heard of the great scholars of our movement? Louis Ginzberg, Simon Greenberg, Robert Gordis, Soloman Schechter, and two I mentioned on Rosh Hashana, Louis Finkelstein and Abraham Joshua Heschel? Do you know anything at all about what they taught and why they are OUR scholars and not part of any other movement?)  The Conservative Judaism of the pews demands from our movement the ability to be BOTH proud Americans and proud Jews. We want our Judaism to be able to coexist with our American way of life.

 

9. Our friends on the Right in Judaism might say to us, “No, you can't have both.  American life will “contaminate” Judaism and water it down until we will not be able to recognize it anymore.”  Our friends on the Left in Judaism might say to us, “Why do we need these medieval laws anymore? They prevent us from experiencing the sublime aspects of American life.” Rabbi Kushner said that the role of our movement is to help our members have the best of both experiences.

10. Rabbi Wolpe explained that when he was in Rabbinical School, he was taught that the role of the Rabbi was to explain American life to the Jewish people. Wolpe objected saying that the new problem was to explain Judaism to the American people. Jews in America didn't need anyone to tell them about American life, they needed someone to explain why their Judaism was important.

11. Wolpe called these Americans, “immigrants” to our services.  I have enough members here to understand that metaphor. How many here remember what it is like to be called a “greenhorn”? When you are an immigrant, you don't know the culture, you don't know the customs and you make a lot of embarrassing mistakes. Do you remember your first baseball game or first Independence Day celebration? Perhaps you will understand then, how someone feels when they find themselves in our service, trying to figure it all out and someone says, “you are sitting in my seat”. You might as well call them “greenhorn”, it is that embarrassing.

12. In the early days of our movement, we used to say that we were the movement of “Tradition and Change”. We believed in tradition and also understood that change was necessary. That only works when the Jews are traditional and need to learn about change. When Jews come to shul without any knowledge of tradition, how are we supposed to help them understand why it is so important? They have lived without it so long that they often don't see how it can make a difference in their lives.

13. At the end of his remarks, Rabbi Wolpe said that what Conservative Judaism needed was a “bumper sticker” a short phrase that would sum up what we believe so that everyone will be able to relate to the movement. Rabbi Wolpe, who is from California, wanted to reduce our understanding of Judaism to an expression 4-6 words long. (I guess they have short attention spans in California) but the idea is really not so far fetched as we might think. The great Sage Hillel, in the Talmud summed up all of Judaism as “That which is hateful to you, do not do to others, the rest is commentary, go out and study it.”  That may be a bit long, but we all remember it. Rabbi Akiva summed up Judaism with the biblical quote, “Love your Neighbor as Yourself”.

14. This is not about reducing our faith to a simplistic phrase. A slogan can represent much that is complex and difficult. For example, the proverb, “Man does not live by bread alone” is a simple way of saying that human life is very complex. There are many things that are as important to us as eating. So it is with our movement. We need a slogan that will express all that Conservative Judaism has to offer. 

15. When Rabbi Kushner, who is older and has more congregational experience than Rabbi Wolpe (although both are giants in our movement), was asked what he thought of Rabbi Wolpe's suggestion, he said that the first thing that came to his mind as a slogan for  Conservative Judaism was: “Asher Kiddeshanu B'Mitzvotav”. It was his introduction to a longer reaction to Rabbi Wolpe and most people didn't pay much attention to it. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the slogan. In the months since the lecture, there have been all kinds of discussions among rabbis and non-rabbis as to what our movement stands for. I find myself coming back to Rabbi Kushner, intrigued by the implications of his slogan.

16. Many Rabbis want Conservative Judaism to be a Halachic movement. That is, it should be guided by Jewish Law and the rules that govern how the law should grow and change. They are not happy when Rabbis and our movement's leadership make decisions about how we practice Judaism decisions that do not depend on traditional ways of interpreting at Jewish Law.  I compare them to Supreme Court Justices who make rulings on American Law looking only to the Constitution as their guide as to what the law should be.

17. Another way of seeing Halacha is to understand what the law is trying to accomplish and then changing the law so that it can better do what it was designed to do. This is like the Supreme Court Justices who rule based on “commons sense” rules and “How do other countries handle these problems, and will that solution work in our country?” When Halacha is in conflict with moral or other laws, we may need to let the law lapse so that Halacha, the rest of Jewish Law will not become immoral and unethical.

18. This is the beauty of Rabbi Kushner's slogan. Asher Kiddishanu B'Mitzvotav, taken from the formula for blessings in Judaism, is an amazing statement of how Conservative Judaism looks at Judaism and why it should appeal to all American Jews.  It speaks directly to the issue of what Judaism is all about from our point of view and why it should be so important in our lives.

19. We translate the slogan as “Who has sanctified us with Commandments” or perhaps we could paraphrase it as, “Who makes us Holy through Mitzvot” it has a number of elements that are important for Conservative Jews to think about and understand.

20. First of all, What do we mean when we say “Who”? (sounds like an Abbot and Costello routine: “What throws the ball to Who”) Who is the one making us holy? Who is the source of the Commandments? The answer, of course, is God. God is the power; God is the force behind everything that we do as Jews. We live with faith in God. We express, in prayer, our love for God. And most important of all, we believe that God loves us. The late Rabbi Sydney Greenberg, once wrote, “A loving parent does not show genuine love by telling a child, “Do whatever you want.” That would not indicate love, but lack of concern and abdication of responsibility. The truly loving parent says to the child, “I care very much about you, and although I cannot live your life for you, I want you to have the benefit of my experience.”

21. God is our divine parent. God loves us enough not to leave us alone in the world, but God gives us Torah and Mitzvot as guides to living a moral and meaningful life. We may rebel against the commandments of the Torah from time to time, but once we realize that Mitzvot are not evidence of God throwing divine weight around in our lives, that Mitzvot are the evidence that God cares very much about us and our welfare, that is the moment when we accept God's words, God's commands, and God's love into our lives.

22. So what are Commandments, What are Mitzvot that they are so important? They are not mere suggestions that God shared with us, nor is God telling us that keeping Mitzvot is a “good idea”. In the United States, laws are made by human beings and subject to change and amendment all the time. Even morality that seems to have absolute lines between right and wrong has those lines move as times change. Commandments are God's way of telling us that there are some things we need to do and there are some things that we must not do. We live better lives when we know what God wants and when we live each day according to God's command.

23. And here is the problem. What exactly are these “Commandments”? I don't mean, what is the list of things we are supposed to do or not to do, but what is the reason, what is the purpose behind the system of Mitzvot? Are they required actions in our life, or do they point to a better way of living? For example, is keeping Kosher about how long we need to wait between eating Milk and Meat, or is Kashrut about kindness to animals and paying attention to the things that go into our mouths? Is Kashrut only about a painless way to slaughter animals or does it extend to the way the animal should be treated before it is slaughtered and does it extend also to the way the workers at the slaughterhouse are treated?

24. The key here is the third word, “Kiddishanu” “Sanctification”. “Holiness.”  God's commandments must be for the purpose of bringing holiness into our lives. When we find a commandment that no longer achieves this purpose, we have to abrogate it for others which do fulfill that purpose. In Conservative Judaism, when the prohibition of driving on Shabbat began to keep Jews out of synagogue because of suburban sprawl, attending services became more important than the prohibition of driving a car. While it still may be preferable to walk instead of driving on Shabbat, since Shabbat is about more than just synagogue and services, still this change emphasized the importance of davening as a community. When the role of women in society changed so that it was no longer considered an insult to have a woman lead a service, the law was changed to give women a greater role in synagogue life. To do less would no longer be ethical, it would be an example of sexism and bias.

25. The Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Daniel Nevins, has written, “Halakah should be understood as the practice of walking with God.  God's commands give structure to the walk but so do God's values as they are portrayed in the sacred literature. If God is said to be (in Psalms) “good to all, God's mercy is upon all God's works,”  then our imitation of God had better be good and merciful.” …  “ Halakah” is often understood as a noun, as an established body of law. But this definition is inaccurate. Halakah is a dynamic system, not a code. Even the Halachic codes composed by Joseph Karo and Maimonides are surrounded by commentary, like a garden path bordered by plants. Halacha is a living, changing system, not a fixed and limited object.”

26. Commandments must make our lives more holy. We often were trained as children to see Mitzvot as rules that make our lives harder. Mitzvot limit the things we can do and sometimes, the details of the Halacha seem petty and irrelevant. Perhaps holiness means that we see Jewish law differently, that one violation does not constitute a “gotcha” moment that establishes all of our Halachic decisions to be untrustworthy. This is what we mean when we say that Mitzvot must make us Holy. That we place value in the spirit of the law, rather than in the extended letter of the law. This is not to say that pious people are not holy. But how we Conservative Jews choose to live by the Mitzvot is more important than the Mitzvot themselves.

27. Rabbi David Hartman, the philosopher and founder of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, writes, “Maimonides guides us toward the knowledge of God's ethical attributes, God's desire to do justice in the world, to pursue kindness. That is what Maimonides understood as the ultimate knowledge of God. To know God is to become a person who lives in an ethical dimension. Ethics is not separated from faith or ritual but rather it becomes the embodiment of the God seeker.” If we seek to bring God into the world, we best remember what the Prophet Micah said, “What is required is to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” Asher Kiddishanu B'Mitzvotav, teaches us to keep our eye on the holy and not sweat the details.

28.  There is, I believe another value that comes from using the Hebrew phrase “Asher Kidishanu B'Mitzvotav” more than its English translation. The phrase in Hebrew is readily understood and most Jews are well practiced in saying these words. We say them on Shabbat, Holidays and Hanukah when we light candles. It is part of the Kiddush. We recite these words whenever we are about to perform a Mitzvah, like shaking a Lulav or blowing the Shofar. These words tie us to the words of Torah through the Mitzvot and to God who gave us these commandments. They teach us that there are some ideas that don't translate well from the sacred language of Hebrew into the more secular English. In Hebrew these words carry a symbolic value that is lost in translation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

29.  If our movement can just focus on this, Asher Kidishanu B'Mitzvotav, if Conservative Judaism would only focus on how our commitment to Mitzvot will add holiness to our lives, our members will become more confident in who we are and our movement will only grow stronger. When somebody should ask us, “What do Conservative Jews believe?” we can say that we believe that what is most important in our understanding of Judaism is “Asher Kiddishanu B'Mitzvotav” that God loves us so much that we are given Mitzvot which will add holiness into our lives. All the rest is commentary. We should go out and study it.

May God help us live a Judaism in the year ahead which is kind, meaningful and a Judaism that will lift up our souls in holiness as we say.....

AMEN AND GEMAR TOV.