CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. Todd Barnard on Flickr
2. pixy.com
3. Pusztella on Wikimedia Commons
Friday, October 23, 2020
Noach: Don’t Be A Nimrod
Ark Curtain & Table Cover Descriptions
Ohev Shalom Ark Curtain and Table Cover
Introduction
In 2016, our congregation completed a large mosaic art project in the Main Sanctuary. The side walls of this cavernous prayer space now feature mosaic panels, each representing one of the ancient Twelve Tribes of Israel. Two additional panels were also crafted, one symbolizing the Levitical priests that served in the Temple in Jerusalem, and one in honor of our patriarch, Jacob’s lone daughter, Dina. But something was missing.
In the Bible, Jacob allots a double-portion to one of his children, Joseph. Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, thus each become tribes of Israel, yet as a result, Joseph’s name doesn’t endure among the Israelite clans! Worse still, Joseph was not included in our mosaic project. Furthermore, our Main Sanctuary Ark curtain, a solid grey color, no longer matched the vivid, evocative imagery of the room. A change was needed.
Three years later, a well-known artist, Siona Benjamin, came to Ohev Shalom for a weekend-long artist-in-residence program. Towards the end of the weekend, Rabbi Gerber and Ms. Benjamin began discussing the possibility of a collaboration on an art installation that would add color to the Ark, finally bring Joseph into our “visual story,” and also leave the impression of Siona Benjamin’s incredible artistry on our congregation.
In September, 2020, just before the Jewish High Holidays, a new Ark curtain was installed, together with a table cover for the central prayer table; both crafted by Siona Benjamin. The following is a description of some of the imagery and symbolism captured within each of these two phenomenal new ritual objects (as told by Rabbi Gerber):
Ark Curtain (Parochet)
To begin with, Siona and I focused on the Biblical character of Joseph. A well-known image associated with him is the coat of many colors, gifted to him by his father, Jacob (Gen. 37:3). I liked using this as the main depiction, due to its many layers of meaning: It represents Joseph’s youth, the love of his father, but also the bitter jealousy of his brothers, and the very object that those same siblings would bring back to Jacob (drenched in lamb’s blood) to falsely claim he had been killed. Later, when Joseph became the grand-vizier of Egypt, he would again be wearing beautifully adorned clothing, this time, however, infused with genuine power… yet also deeper humility and wisdom after all he had been through.
Joseph himself is a complex character, first immature, bratty, and also naive, while later clever and plotting, yet benevolent. To represent this, the Ark curtain is a layered image. The outline is a coat, but then a tree is hiding within it, and a cup is hidden inside that, a bird lurks deeper still, and various other veiled symbols are embedded even further.
Here are some of the images specifically related to Joseph’s story:
The goblet inside the coat represents two important cups in Joseph’s life. First, he interprets a dream for Pharaoh’s cupbearer (chapter 40), who then eventually remembers Joseph’s assistance and tells Pharaoh. Later, when Joseph forms an elaborate plan to punish his brothers (or perhaps test their loyalty…), he hides his own chalice in his brother, Benjamin’s bag (44:2), in order to ensnare them. Both vessels changed the course of Joseph’s life.
Along the top of the Ark curtain are the sun, the moon, and eleven stars. These represent Joseph’s dream in his youth, about how his parents and brothers would one day bow down to him (37:9).
Hidden throughout the curtain are seven ears of grain and seven spectral cows, harkening back to Pharaoh’s “uninterpretable” dreams (41:2-7).
In addition, there are symbols representing God and Torah writ large:
The Hebrew letter “shin” - ש - is often used to represent God (through one of God’s names “Shaddai”), e.g. on the tefillin and on the mezuzah. In the rays of the sun on the curtain one might notice several instances of the letter shin. Additional shins emanate from the tree inside the coat as well. This symbolizes God’s Presence, sometimes evident and discernible, other times imperceptible and ephemeral.
The budding tree is a symbol of our Torah, as described in Proverbs, 3:18: “It is a tree of life to all who grasp onto it.” In Siona Benjamin’s stunning depiction, the tree sprouts beyond the bounds of the coat, even though it is meant to be part of its “design.” This symbolizes how the teachings of our Tradition cannot stay on the page, but rather insist on “breaking out” of their bounds, to impact our lives and our world… even to this day.
There is also a Star of David in the lower left corner, but it appears, perhaps, to be spinning and radiating color! This is meant to evoke an ancient rabbinic teaching from Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Ancestors: “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it” (5:22). This is a reminder that, whether it be art or religion, its potential for interpretation and meaning-making is limitless!
The Torah is also sometimes depicted as water, nourishing and refreshing us. Water features prominently on the Ark curtain, both with the flowing waves along the bottom (a signature of Siona Benjamin’s beautiful artwork), as well as the cascading waterfall behind the tree. The colors of the waterfall may also evoke the stripes of a tallit.
Just above the spinning star, one can also spot a bird’s head, peeking out from behind the tree. The bird is holding an olive branch, which is both a well-known symbol of peace, and a nod to the name of our beloved congregation, Ohev Shalom, “Lover of Peace.”
Table (Amud) Cover
Accompanying the Ark curtain is a new cover for our reader’s table, also called the Amud. This cover features two distinct sides; one visible to anyone standing and looking out at the congregation, and a second one, displayed for the congregation to enjoy from the pews. Each side has meaning, and each is also connected back to the Ark curtain:
Table Side:
When standing at the Amud, one looks down at branches sprouting out from a central point. These are meant to be extensions of the branches from the Ark curtain, as if to say that the Teaching found within the Ark extends out to the table, and then spreads yet further out to the congregation. It is also important to note that the observer is standing between the two artistic renderings; a reminder that we, the congregants, are a necessary partner in the dissemination of our heritage. Without us, it cannot emerge from the Ark or be read from the table!
The branches of the tree on the Amud grow out into seven distinct “buds” that are also flames. Indeed, these shoots form a Menorah. The Menorah is an important Jewish ritual object and symbol. In addition, this same combination of tree/candelabra already existed in Ohev’s Main Sanctuary, in the form of a sculpture from the 1960s. The table cover thus offers an homage to Ohev Shalom’s vibrant history.
Interestingly, when I shared these descriptions on Facebook, a clergy colleague of mine pointed out how the tree/Menorah combo, at least in this particular instance, also greatly resembles the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2)! As one of the Torah’s first tangible symbols of God’s Presence, it is wonderfully fitting to depict this on our Reader’s Table… and I love that new interpretations are already emerging.
Painted water drops “trickle down” along the table cover, further representing how our Torah sustains us. In the center of this sprinkling, one can also see the word “Mayim” (מיים), which is the Hebrew word for “water.” It is, however, misspelled… sort of. Mayim is more often spelled with just one “yud” (מים). Using two “yud’s” adds two important Midrashim (commentary/interpretations): It now resembles the word “Chayim” (חיים), meaning “life,” reminding us yet again of the eternal value of our heritage, and also the enduring spirit of the Jewish people. Second, in numerology, the letters of “Mayim” using this spelling produce the number 100 (40+10+10+40), meant as a celebration of Ohev Shalom’s Centennial, during which these objects were dedicated.
One final note: Behind the branches of the Menorah, one can see the same shadings of deep blue and bright yellow, paralleling the colors behind the coat on the curtain.
Congregation Side:
The image facing the congregation continues the theme of the rippling waves from the Ark curtain. It is also the end-point of the drops of water that began in the curtain’s waterfall, then “splashed” onto the table cover, and now “spill” down further still. However, it is actually not an ending at all! The edge of the cloth has beautiful beads hanging down, as if to depict the drops of water emerging from the textile and become three-dimensional. Like the tree on the Ark curtain, this symbolizes how our heritage cannot remain on the parchment or in a book; it needs to pour forth, and water our day-to-day lives as well.
The central image on this side of the artwork is a blue lotus flower. It may evoke a connection to the Ner Tamid, the Eternal Light, located in a straight line above/behind the table. The light of the Ner Tamid, in a sense, becomes a flower that opens up and spreads beauty and joy all around. The lotus is also a representation of our incredible artist, Siona Benjamin, and her heritage as an Indian Jew. Despite growing up Jewish, she sometimes felt excluded from the “normative” Jewish community, especially in America. It reminds us of the centrality of diversity, unity, openness, and inclusion. All are welcome here, and all are part of our community!
(Updated 09-16-20)
Friday, October 16, 2020
Bereisheet: I Changed My Mind
CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. pixabay
2. Martin Rulsch on Wikimedia Commons
3. Mark Moz on Flickr
4. needpix.com
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Friday, October 2, 2020
Neilah (End of Yom Kippur) Sermon 5781/2020
Do you know what people DON’T want to talk about on Yom Kippur? Food. Drink. Everyone has that ONE friend or family member - or maybe YOU’RE that person - who insists on talking about their favorite foods, or perhaps more specifically what they plan on eating to break the fast. I know that the fasting is NOT the easiest part. And I certainly can agree that if the rabbis had allowed drinking - even just water - would that have been SO bad?
I also sometimes hear from people who say that it’s confusing why we fast. Are we mourning? Is this a sad fast? To which the answer is, no. We have sad observances also, and unfortunately, our Jewish history has warranted the institutions of new fasts or more reasons to abstain from food, from time to time. Fasting is indeed a way that we express communal grief and sadness. But Yom Kippur is not a sad day. Then, when I proceed to explain that today is about intentionality, focus, setting aside material needs to really commit ourselves to the introspective work of self-examination, asking and accepting forgiveness, and striving to be better in the year ahead… I get confused looks. Inevitably, someone will say (and I imagine they are expressing the sentiments of countless others): “I think I could focus better if I wasn’t so hungry.”
I get it. I FEEL it. Headaches, fatigue, discomfort, dry mouth, irritability; all the signs of hunger and thirst. I GET IT, OK??? STOP NAGGING ME!!! Sorry, just a little grouchy this evening; I apologize… But here’s the thing; if you had food, if you had water or juice, if you could soothe all these uncomfortable, annoying feelings right now… wouldn’t you be sooo tempted to just go back to regular life? To talk about the weather, the Phillies, the Eagles, the election, our families, and aaaaaaall the other things that take up everyday life. When you feel this hunger and fatigue… you almost CAN’T focus on anything else. The very thing that we spend Yom Kippur grumbling and complaining about IS the thing that keeps us present to the day.
And related to that, I also want to say that our culture is often one of instant-gratification, or - if we’re feeling generous and bountiful - we’re willing to accept a SLIGHT delay in our gratification. Just enough for that food order to arrive from GrubHub or DoorDash or UberEats. The truth is, we do NOT like to sit in uncomfortable emotions. And believe you me, this sermon - perhaps more than any others I’ve delivered these High Holidays - is being preached inward as well as outward. It is HARD to stay in the emotions of fear, anger, loneliness, frustration, sadness, embarrassment, and shame. Every fiber of our being may be screaming “RESOLVE THIS!!! For God’s Sake, someone tell a joke or play a happy song or bring me my takeout order! This. Is. Unbearable.”
Even just silence is sometimes hard to bear. When we have shiva services over zoom, I open up the floor to allow people to speak about the deceased. And sometimes no one wants to unmute and grab that microphone. 10 seconds of silence, with all of us just staring at one another, can feel like an absolute ETERNITY! And it’s happened a couple times throughout these holiday services as well.
If, however, we are serious about working on ourselves, on being better in the year to come, and genuinely wanting to be a healthier, more harmonious person emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically, we need to shift our goal. This is hard to do. This takes a lot of work. Luckily we still have another hour and a half in which to work on this... oh yeah, AND then we have opportunities into Sukkot… I guess then also New Year’s Resolutions we can make on January 1st, and then other opportunities to improve before we get to next Rosh Hashanah and start this all over again. We DO get more chances; the gate is not closing on God’s end. But maybe we’re all selling ourselves short? Closing the gate, and blocking ourselves from being more present, whole, and harmonious? Why are we willing to be unhappy, maladjusted, uncomfortable, and not-whole, when there IS an alternative? When we reject the chance to improve, to make our lives and indeed the whole world a better place, we are closing the gates on ourselves. No one is slamming it in our faces… we are.
So if we want to stop hurting ourselves, we need to shift our goal. The objective is NOT to avoid feeling sad, unhappy, angry, offended, or ashamed. Those are human emotions, and we are MEANT to feel them like all the other ones. Yom Kippur is saying “Don’t eat your problems away. Don’t drink them away - with a stiff drink or a soft one - don’t self-medicate them away in the myriad ways that we all create coping mechanisms so as NOT to work on these issues. Just Be. Even when you’re feeling sad and alone; Just Be.
Throughout Yom Kippur, I’ve referenced the Still, Small Voice, the Kol Demama Daka, that we are meant to listen to. The voice of God, the voice of morality, the sound of kindness and compassion that is appealing to us at all times. But there is also a Kol Demama Daka inside each of us. Sometimes we’re too stressed, too busy, too preoccupied with family and friends, with games on our phones or scrolling through Social Media. Life. Is. Hectic. It is full of distractions and to-do lists of things that genuinely have to be done. And take up our time, energy, resources, and money. And yet, the Kol Demama Daka IS still there. There is always a voice telling us we COULD be more harmonious, more purposeful, kinder, more connected. Sometimes it’s just really, really faint. It’s hard to hear it, especially when we’re chewing, sipping, driving, exercising, scrolling, chatting, fixing, zooming. It can be so, so hard to hear it…
Hillel the Elder once wrote in Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Ancestors: “Do not say, ‘when I have leisure time I will study,’ for perhaps you will never have leisure time!” Or, as John Lennon is erroneously credited for having written in his song “Beautiful Boy”: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” (It was actually first attributed to a cartoonist, Allen Saunders, from 1957…) Either way, the points that Hillel and John-slash-Allen are making are one and the same: Do it NOW! There are a million reasons to wait, to postpone, to delay, to first get something to eat and drink - maybe some egg salad on a bagel, and a nice glass of cold apple juice - and THEN we’ll work on ourselves. Then we’ll take the time to study, to introspect, to consider, to delve, and to REALLY commit to making serious changes. But we don’t.
Is it really true that if we had something to eat and a glass of… whatever, that we would be more focused, attentive, awake… AND willing to spend time on this? No! We would want to move on to the next thing. Get ready for tomorrow’s to-do’s, plan next week, think about Halloween, the impending election, the environment. ALL these things would snap us back to reality. Oddly enough, the fasting DOES help us keep our own feet to the fire (at least, potentially…). It can force us to stay with ourselves, in that pew, in that chair in the corner of your dining room, facing that screen, thinking about what/how you want to change.
I wish I could invite you all to come and say a prayer before the open Ark. Our final service of Yom Kippur, called Neilah, is that most special of services where the Ark remains open for about an hour; the entire repetition of the Amidah. Many years ago, we began the tradition of inviting people to come up - whenever they’d like to - during this time to say a prayer of their own in front of the scrolls. Many synagogues do this; it has the potential to be quite powerful… Sadly, I can’t do that. But that also means we are all forced to remember that God is all around; God is no more here, in front of this particular (and suddenly much more colorful, vibrant, and beautiful) Ark, than any Ark in a shul anywhere in the world! It would be easy to use this as yet another excuse NOT to be present. “I would be focused, but I can’t approach the Ark.” Again, I get it.
There is a powerful reading in our Machzor that we won’t be doing out loud. It’s on page 3, at the very start of your prayer book. It’s called “Now is the Time for Turning.” And it would be easy to say “well ‘now’ could be anytime. Maybe it was actually last High Holidays, or last week, OR it’s coming up; in six months or 30 years into the future!” But “now” could also be… “now.” I can’t invite you to the Ark, I won’t be checking if you remain standing for Neilah, and I’ll never know if you used this time to listen for the Still, Small, Voice - the Kol Demama Daka - that is calling out to you,
because it is ALWAYS calling out to you. And I’m not going to read “Now is the Time for Turning” out loud. I simply invite you to all these things. I invite you to take this opportunity. To not worry about the egg salad and apple juice, to not make other plans, to not picture God somewhere else… ANYWHERE else. Be Here Now. Listen for the voice. Don’t close your gate. Be. Here. Now. (pg. 408)
Yom Kippur Sermon 5781/2020
G’mar Chatimah Tovah.
Ok, so WHAT is my fourth, and final, sermon in the series going to be about? What else is left, right? If the theme is Just Be, to Exist, to Be Present, and if the image I was using was Past, Present, and Future, in the form of the three Hebrew words Hayah, Hoveh, and Yihyeh, all variant forms of the root Lihyot, To Be, what remains for this morning? Soooo, bear with me for a second; this next sentence I’m about to say is probably not one you’d expect to hear from a rabbi in a Yom Kippur sermon: Are you familiar with Easter Eggs? I actually don’t mean those colorful, painted things that children search for on the (very Christian) holiday of Easter, in a ceremony and ritual that I still, for the life of me, CANNOT figure out, and have NO idea how it connects to the resurrection of Jesus. No, that’s NOT what I’m talking about. The term “Easter Egg” ALSO refers to something else.
In addition to your regular, Webster’s-type dictionary, one can also search online for what’s known as an “Urban Dictionary,” where all kinds of words and expressions get repurposed in some way that may have NOTHING (or very little) to do with the original meaning. In the “Urban Dictionary,” an Easter Egg is “a hidden item placed in a movie, television show, or otherwise visual media for close watchers.” So it can be ANYTHING really, that only insiders or devout fans spot, that most people might never see, but if you’re “in the know” or search YouTube or elsewhere to read about them, you can identify Easter Eggs in video games, films, shows, and sometimes in other arenas as well. Apparently, the Urban Dictionary version originated in the 1975 cult-classic movie, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Who knew?
I mention this pop culture concept, because I actually think the Tanach is FILLED with these hidden symbols, indications, winks, and allusions, but you have to know WHAT you’re looking for and WHERE to look, in order to find them. And I am also fully aware of the ridiculous sound-bite that YOU might take from this sermon, which is that Rabbi Gerber told us the Bible is full of Easter Eggs. ANYWAY, the point is, one such very, VERY powerful hidden image is part of the theme for my fourth sermon. To fully illustrate this point, I’m actually going to make extra use of our zoom-predicament, and have our wonderful tech support, Kevin, put up something for us on the screen. This is great, because if it were a “regular” year, and I held up a piece of paper on the bimah, probably more than 75% of the people present would have ZERO chance of seeing what I was showing you. So, we lean into zoom.
My first sermon was about Hayah, the word “Was” in Hebrew. You see how it’s spelled? Hey-Yud-Hey. Then, my second sermon was about the Present, the word Hoveh in Hebrew, which is spelled like this. And the reason I did it in these colors is so you can see that this word retains the first and last letters of the previous word, with just the middle Yud switching to a Vav. Then, my third sermon added “Will Be,” Yihyeh. And even though it sounds different, you see that it actually maintains the entire word for “Was,” Hayah, but adds a Yud at the beginning. Now don’t go to the fourth slide yet, Kevin; hang on. The hidden symbol comes when you overlap the three terms. If you lay them on top of one another, where they all keep the two letters Hey, and you add the Yud of “Will Be” and the “Vav” of “Present,” you get (Fourth slide): God.
Of course, we all SAY “Adonai” when we see these four letters, because our Tradition has taught us that we no longer know how to pronounce this word. It was only ever pronounced by ONE person (the High Priest), on ONE day (Yom Kippur), in ONE location (The Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the Ancient Temple in Jerusalem). One thing is for certain, it is NOT pronounced “Adonai”; you can clearly tell that’s a complete place-holder. In some scholarly circles, the name is written as I put it on that fourth slide, when they want to refer to the God of Israel, YHWH, or they say “Yahwe.” My point here isn’t so much about the pronunciation, but rather the concept of God as existing NOT only in the past, NOT only in the present, and NOT only in the future; but symbolically, metaphorically, conceptually, and as we now see in our hidden word, even embedded in the words of the Hebrew language; God permeates it all.
On the one hand, I kind of assumed everyone KNEW this, for some reason. It’s right there, in plain sight. We sing about it all the time. Are you familiar with Adon Olam? A prayer we use to conclude services EVERY Saturday morning? We sing “V’Acharei Kichlot Ha-Kol; Levado Yimloch Norah… v’Hoo Hayah, v’Hoo Hoveh, v’Hoo Yihyeh b’Tifarah.” But that’s the whole point of Easter Eggs, isn’t it? They’re not hard to SEE, to physically observe, but you have to know WHAT you are looking for, WHERE to look for it, and you have to WANT to find it to begin with. If God holds no meaning or interest to you, this insight may be totally pointless and uninteresting. Big news, everybody: The rabbi just told us God is in the Bible! Wow!!! And I couldn’t possibly MAKE someone find this fascinating or mystical; if it isn’t, it just isn’t. All I can do is tell you why something is meaningful to ME. I say the same thing about belief in God and the ludicrous notion that someone can or cannot prove to you the Existence of God. It doesn’t work like that. It’s like love, right? Or fear? If someone’s in love or feels afraid, you can’t just talk them out of it. Faith is deeply, deeply personal.
So the reason why I think this is interesting, is because God is hidden in so many places, often in plain sight. There are endless rabbinic stories about this, like when the Chasidic master, Menachem Mendel of Kotsk asked his students, “Where is God?” Some pointed up, others said “everywhere,” yet others said inside us. And the Kotzker Rebbe answered them, “God is wherever you let God in.” Any place can be TOTALLY absent of God. Even if someone waves a Bible around, standing in front of a holy place, there can be absolutely NO Divinity in that scenario, if God’s teachings are missing, and there is only corruption, misuse, hate, fear, and malicious intent.
And, of course, the reverse is true: If a person or an exchange or an idea is filled with the holiness of compassion, equality, kindness, and love, it does NOT matter what the outer packaging looks like; God is there. There are yet more heaps and heaps of rabbinic stories highlighting THIS idea: Like when a beggar at the back of the synagogue whispers a one-word prayer or plays a note on a beat-up old flute, and it opens the gates of heaven. A small child sings with all her might Alef, Bet, just the Hebrew alphabet, for that’s all she knows, but it’s SO heartfelt that the angels hear THAT prayer over any other.
I love when this maxim of humility sneaks its way into Hollywood and pop culture; again, kind of like Easter Eggs. In the movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” from 1989, starring Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, the climax of the movie takes place in a hidden cave that no one had accessed for centuries. Eternal Life is ONE SIP away for our heroes, but the bad guys have blackmailed them into bringing them along into the cave as well. There is a fountain of water before them, but the water is just… water. Anyone who wants to drink has to pick their vessel… their cup (point to curtain), but there are HUNDREDS to choose from. The bad guy, a Nazi even, selects the most beautiful cup he can find, covered in gold and jewels, and definitely fit for a king (well, a mortal king or some sort of business tycoon perhaps). Needless to say, that was NOT the Holy Grail they were looking for. Harrison Ford steps forward - and I’m sorry to ruin the end for you, but you’ve had 31 years to watch this movie, so… - he steps forward and finds, hidden behind other cups, a beat up, old, simple, wooden cup. Lo and behold, he found the Grail.
Here’s my question though: Was it an objective choice? Was that THE right cup, such that anyone, even the Nazi, could have selected it and he too would have been rewarded? Or perhaps the intention, the reason why each man was there, in that cave, was actually essential too. Do you see my point? If the Cantor at the front of the synagogue started belting out the Alef, Bet, like the little girl, I doubt it would have impressed even a single angel. It isn’t the action itself; it’s the intention, the meaning, the purpose. God exists WHEREVER you let God in.
I hope, therefore, that you don’t just see my point about the Alef, Bet, the beat-up flute, or about Indiana Jones and his schlocky little toy cup. This is a moment, right here, right now. It is tempting to say, I’m no High Priest, I’m not in the Holy of Holies, but rather on my living room couch. But today IS Yom Kippur, and this is a pivotal moment; for me, for Rabbi Miller, for you. Yes, I’m talking to… YOU. We’ve already spoken about how our history grounds us, gives us the foundation upon which to build and grow. How much more rooted in our Jewish Tradition can you get, than sitting here singing ancient tunes, talking about Biblical characters, being in synagogue - virtually or in-person - with hundreds of others, the way we have done for centuries, if not millenia?
We then talked about being Present, about not putting off, and putting off, and putting off what we so desperately do NOT want to deal with RIGHT NOW. In my second day sermon, I tried to convey how we miscommunicate and talk past one another, and how even a small tweak, a willingness to be vulnerable and say “I don’t understand. Tell me your story, and let me tell you mine,” could change EVERYTHING. Last night, we added the importance of the future, BUT not letting ourselves get misled by the visions of what is to come, or dreams of tomorrow, but understanding that those prophecies are meant to wake you up to changes needed HERE!! Because if you wait until those prophecies are unfolding, you may definitely have waited too long. The correct cup will be gone, and we’ll all be stuck drinking contaminated, non-potable water.
The Easter Egg of this sermon is hiding in plain sight as well. If you - and I - can take in these messages of combining, overlaying Past, Present, and Future, not only can we find God hiding inside our actions, our behaviors, and our relationships, but we may find perhaps an even MORE coveted Easter Egg… ourselves. Because again, I’ve hidden my main message to you in plain sight; Just Be. When I’m done speaking, when we go back into our services, I encourage each and every one of us to do a mental and physical check: Am I here? Am I present to my tradition, the people around me, and to myself? Because the answer is sometimes, terrifyingly, “no.” And that’s where we have to have TONS of compassion for ourselves and say “it’s ok.” It’s hard to be Fully Present. I’ve got to take care of kids, I have to worry about a pandemic, I have to figure out how to stick my mail-in ballot inside a “secrecy envelope” (that’s not a joke; please look that up if you don’t know what I’m talking about! You literally need a “secrecy envelope” for your ballot in November!).
It is very, very hard to be fully present ALL. THE. TIME. Heck, why do you think the High Priest only went into that Holy of Holies ONE time a year, and only used God’s holiest, most powerful name for ONE prayer a year??? You think you can just throw YAHWE into your everyday interactions??? “Mmm, this halibut was good enough for YAHWE!” The High Priest in the Ancient Temple in Jerusalem needed a full year to gear up for this moment of TOTAL presence; I think you and I can be excused for not living every moment in total mindfulness. Interesting also, by the way, that just as the three Hebrew words need to be overlaid perfectly to see God’s true name, the specific priest, on the correct holiday, in the exact location of the inner sanctum had to converge, and THEN the holiest Name of God would become immensely powerful.
WE can get there too. But we have to challenge ourselves a bit. I’ve been telling you about this new Ark curtain throughout the holiday, and the theme of hiddenness and discovery is VERY present here as well. The central image is Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors, but I don’t think it takes the observer long to see it’s a layered image. The outline is a coat, but then a tree is hiding within it, and a cup is hidden inside that, a bird lurks deeper still, and various other veiled symbols are embedded even further. And just as God, YHWH, is constantly hiding inside these layered Hebrew words, God is camouflaged in the curtain as well. If you look closely at the sun, or at the bases of each branch of the tree, you can see the letter Shin, which represents God, just as it does on the tefillin or the mezuzah.
On the Amud, this table I’m standing at right now, the main image is a series of branches, meant as an extension of the tree on the Ark curtain. But there are seven branches, with a little bud at the end of each, that all look an awful lot like flames. This is a nod to our sanctuary sculpture, the very 1960s, sort of Tim Burton-esque tree that is also a menorah. The table ALSO depicts a combination of tree and menorah. It is the Tree of Life, made of wood, much like Indiana Jones’ Holy Grail. I’ve written up a description of all the imagery in these two, new ritual objects, but I also hope you’ll find your own meaning, and maybe things I haven’t seen yet, perhaps even symbols Siona Benjamin, the artist, didn’t intend.
But when you look at the curtain and the table cover, remember that not only is God hidden, often in plain sight, and the only way to find God is to WANT to seek, WANT to discover, and WANT to engage. Though I also hope you’ll remember that we ourselves are often hidden. The rabbis connect the name Yom Kippur to another holiday, saying the name is actually “Yom Ke-Purim,” and when we realize how hidden we all feel, how we wear masks (both the virus ones and others to cover up scarier things inside ourselves), the connection makes sense. It isn’t just about searching for God, but about searching for ourselves as well. Be Present, be in THIS moment, right now, and use it wisely.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah - May you not only be sealed in the Book of Life… but may you seal YOURSELF in your own Book of Life as well.
Yom Kippur Intro to Torah Reading 5781/2020
Last week, as if I needed another thing to occupy all my VAST amounts of free time, I was asked to speak to a group of High School students about the Jewish High Holidays. Some background: I was honored to give an invocation at the installation of new Delaware County Judges back in January, one of whom was Stephanie Klein, a member of our congregation. At that ceremony, I met a fellow clergy member, The Rev. Tim Gavin, who asked if I could come to a morning assembly at Episcopal Academy, to speak about Pesach. Well, I’m sure you’ve all COMPLETELY forgotten this by now, but back in March-April, this whole pandemic-thing broke out, and like everything else at that time, our plans were cancelled.
A few months later, Tim reached out to me again, and asked if I could now speak to the High Schoolers about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, though this time over zoom. I agreed, and to be totally honest with you, kind of sketched out a plan in my mind but didn’t really write down what I wanted to say. Wednesday morning came around, five days ago, and I signed onto their zoom meeting. I see a group of students and a few teachers, and a zoom technician person. I thought there would be a few more students listening, but no big deal, 10-15 people is fine too. I gradually come to realize that the people I’m seeing are all doing some presentation or reading in the assembly, but more people will be joining imminently. Sure enough, at precisely 9:08, I see the attendance list shoot up from 10 to 50, 100, 125, 175, 230, 280, and ultimately settle around 375 zoom connections. Later, I found out that some of those videos were broadcasting to even more students, so by 9:08 and 30 seconds, just over 500 people were watching and listening. And I suddenly thought to myself, “Should I have written out more formal remarks?”
Ultimately, it went great. Thankfully, I’ve done this a few times now, led a few High Holiday services - here and there - and I got in what I wanted to say about our 4,000 year old Jewish tradition and our centuries of evolving Jewish tradition and meaning-making into my allotted 8 minutes. I’m telling you all this, because one of the things I focused on in speaking to that small gathering of teens was THIS morning’s Haftarah. Tim asked me to provide a reading to go with my remarks - you know, from the “Old” Testament… - and I automatically knew it would be from Isaiah, 58. (Read 1-10, 13-14)
I don’t know how to stress this reading more emphatically. I feel - wholeheartedly - that this text is to Yom Kippur what the Golden Rule is to the whole Torah. As Hillel the Elder said 2,000 years ago, it is the ENTIRE Torah; now go and study it. This text says everything you really need to know about Yom Kippur.
And it’s actually a two-fold statement. A very Jewish one, in my opinion, as opposed to a secular one, a social action one, or even a Christian message. Many years ago, I was speaking about Judaism at a church in North Carolina, and they asked me how I resolved texts like this one, from Isaiah. Their question was something like, “What does it mean to you when Isaiah - speaking for God - says ‘I do not want your sacrifices. I do not want your sabbaths. I do not want your fasting’ ?” And I was so grateful for this question; I had never seen it from their perspective before. To me, to us as Jews, Isaiah is calling out and saying “I do not want your sacrifices, sabbaths, fasting, or any other mitzvot… IF you simultaneously oppress the poor, the orphan, and widow!” But it had never occurred to me to read the text as God saying “I actually don’t want any of those things.” If that were the case, why write an entire Torah, then follow it up with prophetic writings and other texts, what we tend to call our Tanach, our Bible, full of laws that God then rejects completely? 613 Commandments, in fact!
No, no, no! That is not what Isaiah is saying. At the end of that quote, he says, “IF you honor my Shabbat, take care of my creatures and my creation, THEN you can seek the favor of Adonai.” But ONLY THEN!!!! So I have to say, when I hear about prosperity gospels, meaning churches that solicit and receive incredible amounts of donations, because if the church and its clergy members are wealthy, that must mean God is showing them favor, and that will trickle down to all of you. Or when I visit European towns where everyone lived in a one-room hovel, and I see that EVERY town has a giant, beautiful church, that surely cost the impoverished citizens ridiculous amounts of money they didn’t have. Or the main feeling I had when I visited the Vatican, and saw marble sculptures and golden artifacts. And honestly, it is a similar sense of queasiness that I feel in the state-of-the-art JCC buildings around the US. Or when I hear about synagogues that charge for High Holiday tickets or to give someone an honor. Look, Ohev isn’t perfect. We have to solicit throughout the year and raise money like everyone else. And I’m sure it sounds VERY odd coming from me, the most expensive line-item on Ohev’s budget.
But I’d like to think we’re good stewards of the resources people invest in us. And I know synagogues and churches and mosques and temples are ALSO doing great work. This is the challenge of Isaiah’s prophecy! It isn’t all about nefarious deeds and corruption. Sometimes the intentions are good, and some good is being done for the people being served as well. And yet, there is something particularly cringeworthy about charging a congregant any amount of money for the privilege and honor of reading THIS PARTICULAR Haftarah on Yom Kippur morning. Because when donations are tied to ritual participation, it DOES create status and hierarchy, and this whole text - for goodness sake - is about THE OPPOSITE of that!!
Another major challenge to all this, is that we’re so tempted to say, “no one can point this out, unless they are blameless and innocent; otherwise it’s hypocrisy.” But I’m not suggesting we’re perfect, or that I, personally, would be able to avoid Isaiah’s (or God’s…) scrutiny and sharp tongue. But that’s ok. The alternative is that no one says anything, and we never make efforts to change our society. Our Torah reading this morning explains all the practices of Yom Kippur that were essential to the institution of sacrifice in the ancient temple. And then the Haftarah tears all that down and says none of that matters… IF, IF, IF, IF, IF you don’t also care for the vulnerable and defenseless in society. I love that the ancient rabbis chose this text as our Haftarah for today; I absolutely adore them for it. And it was also why I wanted 500+ students at Episcopal to know how central this message is to us as Jews, and as human beings. And that’s also why I wanted to reiterate that message to you all this morning. But this time, I was much more prepared to speak in front of a large crowd! :-)
Our Torah reading begins on page 278 in the High Holiday Machzor.
Kol Nidrei Sermon 5781/2020
KN 5781 - Sermon
Shanah Tovah!
The Bible just CANNOT make up its mind about prophecy. It’s really quite intriguing. What the heck are the prophets all about? What is their role, who appoints them, how do you know when you’ve found a good one, what are the criteria, and what’s it like to have direct access to God Almighty? (Let me offer a quick spoiler alert: It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Being an ancient prophet - much of the time - stinks.) Yet, the Bible seems to love the institution of prophecy, certainly a lot more than kings and queens, and perhaps even more than High Priests or judges. God’s chatting with proto-prophetic figures like Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Joseph, then “official” prophets, such as Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, and lesser-known ones like Habakkuk, Nachum, Haggai, and Joel. SO many prophets!
Again: the Tanach - our Jewish Bible - BIG fan of prophecy. But then they all seem so miserable, and the Bible wants us to see that. Jeremiah lives a tortured and abused life, Jonah - in our service later this afternoon - desperately tries to run away from God so he won’t have to do his job, and Moses beseeches God repeatedly: “Please, PLEASE!! Pick someone else!!!” Then, to help you and me, who might be surrounded by people claiming to be prophets, determine who is a “true” Mouthpiece of the Divine, the Bible offers this nugget of wisdom, from Deuteronomy 18:18, 20-22: “I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself [Moses]. I will put My words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him… But any prophet who presumes to speak in My name an oracle that i did NOT command, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And should you ask yourselves ‘How can we know that the oracle was not spoken by Adonai?’ If the prophet speaks in the Name of Adonai and the oracle does not come true, that oracle was not spoken by Adonai.” In other words, you’ll know which prophet to follow because their prophecy comes to pass. Wow, that is STUPENDOUSLY unhelpful!
So, here’s the thing. Those of you who were here last week, on Rosh Hashanah, do you remember how I talked about the importance of humor in the Bible? Even satire. Well, let me tell you something a bit edgy. I think the Torah is mocking us. Weird, right? What an odd thing for a rabbi to say, especially on Kol Nidrei. But I guess I should say it is mocking us if-and-when we refuse to see the plain truth in front of our faces. So, when it comes to prophecy, the Bible suggests this terrible litmus test. Absolutely impossible to implement beforehand. It’s like a joke! I believe it is poking and prodding us to ask ourselves what a TRUE prophet is actually about.
Do they merely perform parlor tricks? Fantastic. Turning a stick into a snake, or getting water to flow from a stone; impressive, to be sure, but does that feel central and essential to the institution of prophecy?
The Bible then also puts some humor-filled, ridiculous examples before us as well, as a test. Elisha, in the Books of Kings, clearly holds the Power of God. It’s incredible, it’s amazing. Oil pours endlessly out of a jug, he resurrects someone from the dead, and feeds crowds with just a loaf of bread. Impressive, right? But then the Bible turns up the heat. In 2 Kings, chapter 2, some young people mock Elisha for being bald, and he summons bears out of the forest to maul them. Gruesome, sure, but impressive, right? Doesn’t that seem like a great use of Divine power? How about when he goes down to a lake and a man chopping wood drops his axe in the lake. The man cries out to Elisha, “It was a borrowed axe!! Please help!” And Elisha uses his prophetic powers to make the axe head float to the surface. Folks, let me spell this out for you: The text is PLAYING WITH US. It cannot possibly be a good use of the Power of God, having access to any miracle front the Almighty you could ever want, and use it to make metal float, or bears attack teenagers. No, NONE of these things are the REAL roles of the prophets, and these stories are there to challenge, needle, and push us; making us really FOCUS on what matters and what we need in society today.
I told you last week that my sermon series over the High Holidays is about “Being.” Existing, being present, being mindful. Just Be. And actually using this Hebrew word, Lihyot, To Be, as part of the central theme. We started with Hayah, meaning “was,” and talked about the importance of history to help ground you in today. Then we talked about Hoveh, “the present,” and the need to dedicate ourselves to what we can change and what we can do RIGHT NOW. This third installment is about Yihyeh, “what will be,” but even that is kind of a red herring; I’ll admit that to you right now. Because the prophets are these oracles, right? Gazing into the future, telling us what will be. Even Joseph on this beautiful new Ark curtain behind me, is famous for his dream-interpretations. The sun, moon, and eleven stars at the top of the curtain represent a dream in his youth, where he saw his father, mother, and all his brothers bowing down to him in this celestial incarnation.
We also have the cup, embedded in the middle, referencing Joseph’s interpretation in prison of Pharaoh’s cupbearer’s dream, which would ultimately come true AND lead to his own salvation. There are seven hidden cows throughout the Ark curtain, as well as seven ears of grain, symbolic of Pharaoh’s dreams that Joseph was able to interpret as well, and which helped him know what the future would hold for Egypt. So clearly a main feature of prophecy is future-telling, right?
No!! Still not. The purpose of these prognostications is actually meant to tell you something about the HERE and NOW! Joseph’s family was already revolving around him, even before his dream. His kindness to the cupbearer IN THAT MOMENT was essential, and the whole point of Pharaoh’s dreams was to say do something NOW to avert the coming disaster! I suppose one could look at those scary forecasts and say “Eh, I don’t believe them.” I’ll wait until I see evidence of famine; THEN I’ll start saving grain. I’ll wait until sweeping-plague is clearly upon us, THEN I’ll enact these measures to protect our society. But that is the fundamental message of prophecy, and the one that is so hard to hear: You have to change NOW. If you wait to see rain falling from the sky before starting to build your ark, or crops destroyed before saving grain, or fallout upon fallout from climate change before you’ll consider amending your behavior and reducing your carbon footprint - IT IS SIMPLY TOO LATE. Your window of opportunity will be gone. The change MUST come first.
The question remains though, doesn’t it? How do you know a true prophet? Especially when I just said you CANNOT follow the Bible’s advice, because if you wait to see whether it comes true or not, it will ALWAYS be too late to do anything about it. Again, I think, the Bible taunts us. Because the answer is really quite plain. It’s not the parlor tricks, the dream-interpretation or future-telling, and it’s not even impressive speaking ability or charisma. The answer is staring us in the face. Humility. When Moses begs not to have this job, or Jonah runs the other way, those are actually the very signs that they are the right individuals for the job.
The opposite is also painfully, painfully true. Someone who says “I alone can fix this,” or “I am the best at x or y,” is showing you a terrifying sign. Now, that doesn’t mean we all have to be self-effacing all the time. There’s a spectrum. It’s not about putting yourself down… however, someone who puts themselves above all others is immediately self-disqualifying. Think about despotic leaders throughout history, who sought world domination and seemingly endless power. Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tze Tung, or Vladimir Putin today. Or you can even look to America, to examples of cults-of-personality, like David Koresh, Jim Jones, and Charles Manson. When it surrounds an individual, and it reeks of the exact opposite of humility, it is - by definition - a problem. A horrific, nightmarish problem.
So where should we look for prophecy? Because we desperately need it; no question there. But it’s such a daunting term! And I just told you anyone seeking to be a prophet should already be viewed with MASSIVE suspicion. Worse still, we are all so quick to censor one another. We say, or convey: “who the heck do you think YOU are, calling yourself a prophet?
Or lecturing to someone else?? You want to teach me something? You want to impart some aspect of your experience??? Well, first I gotta know: 1) What are your credentials? 2) How long have you been working on this message? 3) Have you vetted it with others first? 4) What if you’re wrong? 5) What if someone else has – or will – say it better? 6) What if I have my own way of doing things, and I like that better? 7) If I reject what you say, will you be mad? I don’t like that. 8) And you’re not going to tell me to CHANGE?? Not really, right? Or ask me to give up something I don’t want to let go of? I sure hope not… hahaha! So, instead, no one says anything…
But really, there is prophecy all around us. Wake-up calls, moments of beauty, inspiration, kindness, faith, hope. We SAY we’re waiting for it to happen… just in the future. It will Yihyeh, it WILL be. But not now. The fact is, we need to stop trying to discredit messages of truth, change, and most importantly of humility and compassion, and we all need to do the hard work of SEEKING it in the world all around us. TODAY! We’re eager for someone to be overt, explicit, and obvious about being a prophet… when really we should be listening for the “Kol Demama Daka,” “the still, small voice.” That is a term expressed by the prophet Elijah, who heard thunder, mighty wind, and fire PRECEDING God, but God was not in those things, God was in the “Kol Demama Daka,” “the still, small voice.” (I recently spoke at the funeral of a beloved Minyanaire, and referred to that person as the embodiment of a Kol Demama Daka. I won’t mention their name, because I know it would have made them cringe. If you disagree, please see my points above about humility…
In Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Ancestors, 4:1, a rabbi named Ben-Zoma declared: “Eizehu Chacham? (Who is wise?) Ha-Lomed mi-KOL adam. (One who learns from all people)” KOL Adam! ALL people have something to teach us. What prevents us from learning is our own lack of humility and preconceived notions about who can teach and who can’t. We need to STOP trying to select from whom we are willing to learn! EVERYONE can teach you something.
Listen for the still, small voice. Listen for quality, substance, kindness, and equality. If you don’t hear it, you may be following a false prophet. I want to mention a couple of prophets before I conclude this sermon, but then I also intend to share more examples before tomorrow’s Torah reading. I will tell a story about a prophet in our Family Service; I’ll talk about it again during Mincha, and I’ll connect back to it at Neilah. But most don’t have the title “prophet.” My whole point is; there is actually prophecy all around us. A prophetic voice that passed away last week, on Rosh Hashanah, was Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. And you might be thinking, “well, of course SHE was!” Maybe it’s obvious. But I also worry it gets too hyperbolic, and we won’t actually stop to HEAR her teachings, both the ones taught in her powerful legal decisions or dissents, and then also the teachings conveyed throughout her life, just by being who she was.
An obvious example, perhaps, was her friendship with fellow Justice Antonin Skalia. Could such a friendship across a political divide exist today? Seemingly no. It feels impossible. But reminding ourselves again and again of their friendship may help us pursue something essential, which is mutual respect, cordiality, and a willingness to dialogue. She also wrote incredibly powerful statements, like after the repeal of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, when her still, small, but mighty voice declared: “throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet!” What’s prophetic to me about that is, not just the care for the discriminated and oppressed, but the realization that laws NOW need to protect against what MIGHT BE! That same understanding - that focusing on the Yihyeh, the future - is about working to improve TODAY, to affect what may be up ahead.
Ruth Bader-Ginsburg’s prophetic prowess was also deployed in 1975, as a lawyer arguing before an all-male Supreme Court. In the landmark case, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, she defended a widower - a man - who was being treated unfairly, because he couldn’t collect Social Security benefits from his deceased wife who was the lower wage-earner. So she was advocating for a man, to gain the court’s sympathy, to ultimately highlight how women were ubiquitously the lower wage-earners and were treated unfairly in society. And it worked! Moses, Jeremiah, and Jonah would have been so proud.
In her 80s, Bader-Ginsburg became a pop culture icon, with the nickname “Notorious RBG,” after a rapper named “Notorious BIG.” She joked with Stephen Colbert, cameoed in operas, and was immortalized in Kate McKinnon’s fabulous imitation on SNL! In true prophetic fashion, Bader-Ginsburg LOVED it, and told interviewers: “She saw it as an opportunity to spread her message, her ideas about our Constitution, about equal rights, about the 14th Amendment… Here was a way to spread that message to a lot of people who really don't pay much attention to what's going on in the Supreme Court.” Just as the Bible can make fun of its own prophets, and never portrayed what they did as glamorous, so too Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg let people in to see her life, know about her friendships and interests, because it made them more likely to receive and internalize her message.
We need prophecy. Not to make axes float or fill endless jugs with EVOO, Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And definitely not so we can create new idols and follow their self-proclaimed, self-worshipping, overblown egos into the abyss. We need to stop looking for people who write “prophet” on their business cards, and instead look for the still, small, humble, compassionate voices. But they can also be loud, forceful, aggressive even, in your face, and filled with impassioned calls to action… IF, IF, IF they also seek equality, benevolence, generosity, and the betterment of society. We cannot hear those voices if we are constantly afraid, furious, indignant, or even apathetic. We need to Be Present. To take deep breaths and listen to those voices within ourselves that tell us which way to go. THEN we can look to the future. THEN we can plan for better, more, together, and yes, even the most elusive of blessings, peace. Then, and only then, when we are moving in the right direction, can we look forward to a brighter future; one that fulfills the prophetic hopes and prayers, that our world will Yihyeh Tov. Some day, it will be good. Kein Yehi Ratzon - so may it be one day soon. Amen.
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