Why Be Jewish? |
At a time when Jews seem to be complacent and disconnected to Judaism and Jewish community, we need to strive to stress the importance of simply being Jewish.
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Yom Kippur 2014 / 5775
North Shore Synagogue, Syosset, NY
“Atem Nitzavim Hayom kulchem, lifnei Adonai Eloheichem.... You stand here this day, all of you, before your Eternal God – the heads of your tribes, your elders and officers, every one in Israel, men, women and children, and the strangers in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water – to enter into the sworn covenant which your eternal God makes with you this day, in order to establish you henceforth as the people whose only God is the Eternal, as you had been promised, and as God had sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”[1]
These exact words were chanted so beautifully this morning at the beginning of our Torah reading. Perhaps, if they were written today, they would read:
Atem Nitzavim Hayom kulchem, lifnei Adonai Eloheichem.... You stand here this day, all of you, before your Eternal God, all Jews alike; the president, executive committee members and board members, the twice a year Jews and Shabbat regulars, the learned and still learning, the member and the visitor, men, women and children, business heads, doctors, teachers and lawyers, dentists, artists, computer programmers and administrative workers, authors, psychologists and building managers, to enter into an agreement with your God, the same agreement your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, made with Me, your God, thousands of years ago.
And the text continues: “v’lo etchem l’vad-chem Anochi koreit et habrit ha-zot. And it is not with you alone that I make this sworn covenant: I make it with those who are standing here with us today before our God, and equally with all who are not here with us today.”[2]
Thousands of years ago, we stood at Sinai, all of us, and heard these words. God told us then, and God tells us today – the past, present and future of the Jewish people is in our hands.
And then God says at the end of this morning’s reading: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse; choose life, therefore that you and your descendants may live – by loving your God, listening to God’s voice, and holding fast to the One who is your life and the length of your days. Then you shall endure in the land which the Eternal One promised to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,”[3] and we add: to your mothers, to Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.
It is hard for us to imagine what it was like to stand there before God, to be handed the Torah, to be given choices. It is hard for us to imagine what it was like to have a slave mentality when leaving Egypt, and now to be free. It is especially difficult for us to understand what it means to make holy choices, and yet that is exactly what we are supposed to do on this day.
We, as a Jewish community, are invited today, no we are required today to make holy choices. We make holy choices each and every day of our lives. We choose what to say, and what not to say. We choose how to act, and how to misbehave. We choose how to bring blessing, and when to give punishment.
When individuals choose to convert to Judaism, we asked them to understand that they stood with us at Mount Sinai, thousands of years ago, when we received the Torah. Jews by choice contemplate that moment at a very critical juncture in the process of becoming Jewish. Jews by birth typically take for granted that we were there, at Sinai, with all other Jews, and that the course of Jewish history rests solidly on our shoulders.
For decades, the rabbi’s message on the high holy days was the importance of belonging to a synagogue, and to the Jewish community. That will always be an important message. But I believe, in some ways, we took for granted the notion that Jews feel the importance of belonging to the Jewish people.
Today, I stand before you, pleading with you, to feel an obligation to belong to the Jewish people; to be committed to the Jewish people; to be willing to fight for our rights as Jews here in the United States and across the world.
We should never take for granted our Judaism. We are the people of the book. We are Am Yisrael, the nation of Israel. We are the inheritors of our land and the students of Torah. We have fought throughout our history for the rite to be Jewish. We have been forced to embrace anti-Semitism, hatred, spitefulness and bigotry. These acts of contempt toward Jews should never be forgotten. The ultimate act of hatred, the Holocaust, reminds us never to forget. But most of us are not survivors of the Holocaust, and very few of us have even heard the stories of the survivors first hand. We take for granted our Jewish roots, our Jewish existence.
We take for granted, especially in New York and on Long Island, challot in every grocery store, school vacation on Jewish holidays, and Hebrew and Judaic classes in our children’s universities. We take for granted specialty stores in our neighborhoods that sell beautiful chanukiyot and mezuzot, pottery shops with Kiddush cups and Shabbat candlesticks to paint, and kippot available by the click of a finger on-line, with our names nicely printed inside. We take for granted Hillels on college campuses, JCC’s and many flights taking people of all backgrounds safely to Medinat Yisrael, to the State of Israel. We take for granted... Israel.
[1] From Deuteronomy 29:9-12
[2] From Deuteronomy 29:13-14
[3] From Deuteronomy 30:19-2
For the rest of this sermon, please download below.
North Shore Synagogue, Syosset, NY
“Atem Nitzavim Hayom kulchem, lifnei Adonai Eloheichem.... You stand here this day, all of you, before your Eternal God – the heads of your tribes, your elders and officers, every one in Israel, men, women and children, and the strangers in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water – to enter into the sworn covenant which your eternal God makes with you this day, in order to establish you henceforth as the people whose only God is the Eternal, as you had been promised, and as God had sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”[1]
These exact words were chanted so beautifully this morning at the beginning of our Torah reading. Perhaps, if they were written today, they would read:
Atem Nitzavim Hayom kulchem, lifnei Adonai Eloheichem.... You stand here this day, all of you, before your Eternal God, all Jews alike; the president, executive committee members and board members, the twice a year Jews and Shabbat regulars, the learned and still learning, the member and the visitor, men, women and children, business heads, doctors, teachers and lawyers, dentists, artists, computer programmers and administrative workers, authors, psychologists and building managers, to enter into an agreement with your God, the same agreement your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, made with Me, your God, thousands of years ago.
And the text continues: “v’lo etchem l’vad-chem Anochi koreit et habrit ha-zot. And it is not with you alone that I make this sworn covenant: I make it with those who are standing here with us today before our God, and equally with all who are not here with us today.”[2]
Thousands of years ago, we stood at Sinai, all of us, and heard these words. God told us then, and God tells us today – the past, present and future of the Jewish people is in our hands.
And then God says at the end of this morning’s reading: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse; choose life, therefore that you and your descendants may live – by loving your God, listening to God’s voice, and holding fast to the One who is your life and the length of your days. Then you shall endure in the land which the Eternal One promised to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,”[3] and we add: to your mothers, to Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.
It is hard for us to imagine what it was like to stand there before God, to be handed the Torah, to be given choices. It is hard for us to imagine what it was like to have a slave mentality when leaving Egypt, and now to be free. It is especially difficult for us to understand what it means to make holy choices, and yet that is exactly what we are supposed to do on this day.
We, as a Jewish community, are invited today, no we are required today to make holy choices. We make holy choices each and every day of our lives. We choose what to say, and what not to say. We choose how to act, and how to misbehave. We choose how to bring blessing, and when to give punishment.
When individuals choose to convert to Judaism, we asked them to understand that they stood with us at Mount Sinai, thousands of years ago, when we received the Torah. Jews by choice contemplate that moment at a very critical juncture in the process of becoming Jewish. Jews by birth typically take for granted that we were there, at Sinai, with all other Jews, and that the course of Jewish history rests solidly on our shoulders.
For decades, the rabbi’s message on the high holy days was the importance of belonging to a synagogue, and to the Jewish community. That will always be an important message. But I believe, in some ways, we took for granted the notion that Jews feel the importance of belonging to the Jewish people.
Today, I stand before you, pleading with you, to feel an obligation to belong to the Jewish people; to be committed to the Jewish people; to be willing to fight for our rights as Jews here in the United States and across the world.
We should never take for granted our Judaism. We are the people of the book. We are Am Yisrael, the nation of Israel. We are the inheritors of our land and the students of Torah. We have fought throughout our history for the rite to be Jewish. We have been forced to embrace anti-Semitism, hatred, spitefulness and bigotry. These acts of contempt toward Jews should never be forgotten. The ultimate act of hatred, the Holocaust, reminds us never to forget. But most of us are not survivors of the Holocaust, and very few of us have even heard the stories of the survivors first hand. We take for granted our Jewish roots, our Jewish existence.
We take for granted, especially in New York and on Long Island, challot in every grocery store, school vacation on Jewish holidays, and Hebrew and Judaic classes in our children’s universities. We take for granted specialty stores in our neighborhoods that sell beautiful chanukiyot and mezuzot, pottery shops with Kiddush cups and Shabbat candlesticks to paint, and kippot available by the click of a finger on-line, with our names nicely printed inside. We take for granted Hillels on college campuses, JCC’s and many flights taking people of all backgrounds safely to Medinat Yisrael, to the State of Israel. We take for granted... Israel.
[1] From Deuteronomy 29:9-12
[2] From Deuteronomy 29:13-14
[3] From Deuteronomy 30:19-2
For the rest of this sermon, please download below.
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