Sign In Forgot Password

Sermon: Kol Nidrei (Yom Kippur Evening), 10/8/19

10/10/2019 01:21:09 PM

Oct10

Rabbi Charlie

Gut Yuntiv! When you read through the Torah, it’s not hard to get the impression that God really doesn’t like us very much. Sure, we’re God’s chosen people, beloved, treasured, and all that. But there are dozens and dozens of times when God, Moses, or other prophets just tell us we’re terrible.

We’re defiant and stiffnecked – Just a quick word about, “stiffnecked.” I know, it’s a literal translation from the Hebrew, but they should probably just translate that as obstinate or stubborn. Spellcheck doesn’t think stiffnecked is a word, but most Bibles still translate it that way. Ok, back to how horrible we are: We’re a burden, we bicker, we go astray. We break our covenant. We’re wicked and do evil and have no faith. We sulked in our tents and were vexing. We provoked God again and again. We made God angry again and again. God threatened to destroy us on more than one occasion and punished us plenty of times.

And here’s the thing – the vast majority of time, it’s our fault. I’m not blaming the victim here… as our Bible tells it, almost every time we get yelled at or punished by God or Moses or our prophets, we deserved it. We can argue about how harsh the punishment was, but we probably did something – made a golden calf, lost faith, rebelled… you get the idea. Slavery – not our fault! We didn’t deserve it, at all. Most everything else… it’s probably on us.

And that brings us to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Year after year, we try. And year after year we’ve probably done something worth atoning for. We each have our own challenges in this regard and yet we come before God and we come before one another, together, as a CBI community. We’re not alone. On Rosh Hashanah I spoke about the importance of caring for our ourselves as individuals and caring for ourselves as a People. Tonight, I want to focus on the idea of caring for ourselves by caring for our local congregation. For so many of us, that’s our CBI community. We also have guests visiting from other congregations and communities. So no matter where you’re from, this relates to all of us.

When we say, “Shema Yisrael – Listen Israel,” we are calling to each other. The Shema is made up of three separate paragraphs from Torah. Our rabbis refer to the first paragraph as the Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, the second paragraph as the Yoke of the Commandments, and the third paragraph as the Section on the Fringes. The name for the Section on the Fringes is pretty self-explanatory. But why would they call the rest of the Shema a “yoke?”

First of all, the word is: Y-O-K-E – not the inside of an egg… Our rabbis are talking about the contraption that you put over two animals that will pull the plow or the cart. They are calling the first and second paragraphs of the Shema – the parts that include loving God, teaching our children, and doing mitzvot, doing sacred commandments – a yoke. Since we are so distant from an agricultural society, it seems surprising. It also makes sense when you think about it.

A yoke is a burden. It’s a burden that one can’t bear without help. I can’t do it alone. Together, it’s still a burden, but it’s a productive burden – a necessary burden. Because of the yoke, we can plow a field together. Because of the yoke, seeds can be planted and food can grow. Because of the yoke, we can be sustained. That’s the Shema. Understood this way, it’s hard not to see the beauty and power and honesty in the rabbinic metaphor. So when we say, “Shema Yisrael – Listen Israel,” we truly are calling to each other.

Individuals accepting the yoke of the Shema - loving God, teaching our children, and doing mitzvot – that’s been the heart and soul of Jewish communities for thousands of years. Being in community, supporting one another is an integral part of that yoke, that meaningful burden that sustains us as a People and as a congregation.

Numerous teachings throughout our long history drive this point home. Midrash (Devarim Rabbah 1:10) teaches that no one can bear the burden of a community alone – not even Moses. When Moses tries – he really gets frustrated… it turns out we could be quite stiffnecked…. And please know that this dynamic is not just something from Biblical times. In the more than thirteen years I’ve been with CBI, whenever our lay leadership has felt that they had to carry the burden alone, they also get pretty frustrated. And yes, I have found more than one opportunity to remind our lay leadership that we are still a stiffnecked People. Don’t let them get frustrated! Care for your community! When everyone shares a small portion of a big weight, it so much easier for everyone! This notion is eternal.

Hillel knew this. Hillel lived over two thousand years ago in the first century BCE. Life was very different. And yet… He was born in Babylon and moved all the way to Jerusalem. So he wasn’t living where he grew up. There were Pharasees and other Jewish sects; there were Gnostics and Romans and people from all different religious and cultural backgrounds. New religions were forming. There would have been a lot of different groups vying for the attention of individual Jews. It’s not the same as today, but it kinda sounds familiar…. Within this cosmopolitan reality he implores us (in Pirkei Avot 2:4):

אַל תִּפְרֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר

“Do not to separate yourself from the community.” Caring for our community starts with participating in our community. I teach this often and every time I mean it honestly and sincerely – your presence gives life to our congregation. Your presence matters every time you show up to a service or a speaker; every time you participate in Sisterhood or Brotherhood or Hazak or Chaverim or NETTY; every time you join us for a meal or plan an event or discuss a book or stay for a while and chat when your kids are in religious school. Every time, your presence matters.

Building upon the age-old wisdom of Bartenura and Maimonides, Rabbi Joshua Kulp, who founded the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, teaches (in his English commentary on the Mishna) that we “should join the community for both its celebrations and for its trials and tribulations.” Because of your presence, our celebrations are more joyous. Because of your presence, we can say kaddish and help people get through the difficult times. And we’re not just talking about random people, here. Look around – right here in this room. These are the people who we celebrate with. These are the people who at some point have needed and will need support. And you yourself are a part of that. Don’t separate yourself from the community. Take care of your community. When you do, you’re also taking care of yourself.

That sense of connection is reflected in the words of our Talmud (Shevuot 39a)

כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה

“All of Israel is responsible or guarantors for one another.” This teaching is quoted throughout rabbinic literature. In the original context of the Talmud, the idea is that if one of us messes up, the rest of us feel it. It happens – think Bernie Madoff or Harvey Weinstein – those weren’t comfortable moments for us as a People and it didn’t help with the proliferation of Jewish stereotypes. So while I do see the relevance, when it comes to caring for our community, I’m drawn to a different interpretation. This comes from the Ritva, a 13th Century Spanish commentator who offers this understanding (commentary on Rosh Hashanah 29a): “Because even though the commandments are placed upon each individual, all Jews are guarantors of one another, and they are all a single body, and it is like a guarantor who repays the debt of his friend.”

I love this teaching for our small community. The idea that we are different parts of a body – some more visible, each of us filling different roles and responsibilities, all of us making a unique contribution to the whole. I see that year in, year out, on many different levels.

Just as powerful is the idea of a guarantor – that we say to one another – I’ve got your back. You need a ride to an event because you don’t drive at night? I’ve got your back. You need help on Sunday mornings to make sure the kids in our community receive a Jewish education? I’ve got your back. You’ll be in the hospital for a while and could use some visitors? I’ve got your back. You need connection? A community to belong to? I’ve got your back. You’re going to move into the Mid-cities, you’re new to Texas and you’re a little shocked by the evangelical nature of the area and you want a center for your Jewish life? Twenty-one years ago the founders of this congregation said loud and clear: We’ve got your back.

Being a guarantor is about understanding and appreciating what was done for us in the past, it’s about what we do for one another today and it’s about what we do for those who will come after us. Previous generations have always said, I’ve got your back. In our generation, we too need to say: We are the guarantors. We’ve got your back. Here at CBI, we are all responsible for one another. I know life is hectic. I know. And yet I’m still asking you to accept this yoke, to help plow the field so CBI – all of us – can be sustained.

There’s a passage in the Talmud that we study on many a Shabbat morning. It talks about several mitzvot where if we do them, the benefit remains with us forever. Many of them have to do with caring for our community. One of the mitzvot is to punctually attend the synagogue, morning and evening. Ok… you don’t have to be here every day. I’ll settle for regularly joining with your CBI Community. Come as often as you can. Bring a friend.  Set a goal – it would be great to see you participate at least once or twice a month with something CBI related. We need your presence.

There’s a group of mitzvot on the list that have to do with directly caring for our community – visiting the sick, showing hospitality, helping the needy bride. They all have to do with not only being present, but also having enough knowledge that we know that something’s going on. Taking an interest so that we can support one another. There are many ways to help out – from sponsoring an oneg – and we need that every week, to giving someone a ride to working with me to create a system where we can really take care of each other. The more people who give a little, the more people who help carry the burden, the more ways we can say: We’ve got your back.

One more mitzvah on this list is to bring peace between individuals. Every community needs that. Every community needs people to remind others to bring that sense of gratitude and forgiveness and civility because there will always be disputes and there will always be mistakes. I’ve heard we’re a stiffnecked people… Every community needs people to remind people that we’re all on the same team.

This is what taking care of our congregation looks like. Accepting that yoke, sharing the burden among all of us, not separating yourself - showing up, being present, feeling responsible for one another and taking action because of it. These teachings from our tradition – that’s where our mission and values came from. Ideals like:

  • transforming Jewish isolation through engagement, participation, and volunteerism
  • a sense of obligation as a foundation for our Jewish home
  • to nurture meaningful relationships and a profound sense of belonging

Taking care of our community means that we get closer to living those values. I am asking you to be a guarantor for CBI this year. By taking care of our congregation, all of us, together, we can make these aspirations a reality.

G’mar Chatima Tova – May we be sealed for a good and sweet year!

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784