Shannah Tovah. Gut
Yontif.
A few weeks ago, our
seven-year-old son, Leo, asked his father a question. He walked into the living
room and said, “Hey dad. Why are we
here?”
“Because we love it
here!,” my husband, Chuck, answered enthusiastically. “What’s not to love about
the North Shore? All these great little historic towns right next to the ocean
-- and Boston just down the road! I wish we had more of a music scene and maybe
a minor league baseball team, but –”
“No, no, no” Leo interrupted. “I mean, why are we here?” [Pause]
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” said Chuck, “You mean, why are we here
on earth? What is our existential purpose, so to speak?”
I don’t know why Chuck talks to Leo that way, but he
does.
Leo nodded his head patiently. “I think that’s what I mean, daddy, yeah.”
Chuck became very solemn and knelt down next to our son.
“Leo, that is a fantastic question
and I’m very proud of you for asking it. I’m also happy to tell you that the
answer is surprisingly simple. [pause] And if you run along now and ask
your mother,
she’ll tell you what it is!”
And so… Leo walked into
the kitchen and asked me his question – “Mom, why are we here?” – in a calm,
almost intellectual tone that suggested to me that, no matter what I said, he would
ultimately be making up his own mind.
My answer, though not nearly as simple as his father had
deviously led him to expect, was not hard to give. I started making him a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich and said that part of the reason we are here is
to celebrate and give thanks for this beautiful world that God has created. And
another is to care for everyone and everything that make this world beautiful and to fix the things in it that are broken. And finally, I said, every
single person has their own unique role to play in mending God’s world and in
making it beautiful.
This answer seemed to hit home, because when I went to
the table where he was sitting to give him his PB&J, he was looking at me
with rapt attention.
“You know what, mom?” he said as I put his plate in front
of him and sat down next to him.
“What, honey,” I asked, feeling proud that, on this
occasion, I had done my dual jobs of mother and rabbi with equal skill.
“You cut my sandwich in squares!” he squawked. “You were supposed to cut it in triangles!”
Being a parent can be humbling,
can’t it? And I think nothing is more humbling than the responsibility of
trying to acquaint children with the mysterious nature of life and help them to
understand that the values we choose to live by are the ones that will make us
who we are. At seven, Leo already understands the Golden Rule – “treat others
the way you want to be treated,” as he puts it. Though of course, he needs
reminders of it, from time to time.
And, so do we all need reminders, to be true to
the guiding values that we know reflect our best selves. And we need these
reminders, both as individuals, and as communities. The Commonwealth of
Massachusetts needs to be reminded from time-to-time; and so does the United
States of America – urgently and desperately so! Providing such moral and spiritual reminders
is one of the most important roles that a spiritual community like Temple B’nai
Abraham can play in people’s lives.
It is also one of the fundamental
purposes of Yom Kippur: To gather
together in this sanctuary to recommit ourselves to our purpose and to our most
cherished values. We do this by a process we call Teshuvah – a process of
turning, and re-turning to the values
we hold most dear, in the deepest recesses of our spiritual selves.
But Leo’s question
also served as a reminder to me of where those values come from: Study and lifelong learning are the
starting point of the Jewish way of life. That’s why we’ve placed learning in
our new logo, at the start of our new tagline: To learn, to love. To life! On
Rosh Hashanah we discussed love, and tomorrow will contemplate the meaning of
to life. Tonight: to learn.
One of the most famous stories from the Talmud describes
a meeting of the renowned sages of Israel that took place in the city of Lod,
not far from present-day Tel Aviv, nearly 2000 years ago. In attendance were
the brilliant and illustrious Rabbis Tarfon and Akiva. And the question arose
before this great conclave. Which is greater, study or action?
“Action,” cried Tarfon; “No,” objected Akiva, “study!” And then the Talmud puts
it this way: “The others then spoke up, saying: ‘Study is greater because it leads to action.’”
And that is one way the word “learn” is to be understood
in our tagline: We gather to learn, not only for the love of learning, but to act,
to live more loving and exuberant Jewish lives. learn, love. To Life.
Everyone knows that a synagogue is meant to be a place of
learning. When we celebrate a bar or bat mitzvah we pass a Torah scroll from
generation to generation – often with tears streaming down our cheeks - thus
symbolizing this profound commitment to teach our children. The very word Torah
means “teaching.”
But there is one crucial
fact about Judaism that is not always well understood: Even as there are eternal truths, in each
generation, our interpretations of Torah shift. The Judaism that my own great-grandparents
practiced in the shtetls of Poland is not the same as the Judaism we practice
here on the North Shore today. Had you had told my great grandparents, for
instance, that one of their descendants would be a rabbi, they would have been
delighted – for no profession was more exalted to a shtetl Jews than that of
rabbi. But had you added that this descendant would be female, I imagine they would have plotzed. And yet, the Torah that we study, and treasure, and the
canon of over 2000 years of interpretation we draw upon, is the same. But as
human knowledge and understanding evolves, as our circumstances change, so do
aspects of Judaism evolve and change.
And we live in times of change, don’t we? Change - and
trouble.
Since the election last November, we’ve witnessed a
shocking increase in hate speech, harassment and attacks against Jews, Muslims,
people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people.
It’s all documented by the ADL, the FBI and other professional and law
enforcement organizations. Not coincidentally, we have witnessed an
ever-widening, dangerous divide in our nation between people with different
views and sources of information, from the halls of Congress in Washington to
the supper tables of the humblest American families.
Times like these require communities like ours to state
the principles that define us without ambiguity. Fortuitously, we had already
assembled a committee of members representing a cross-section of our community
– different generations, parents of young children and teens, empty-nesters,
gay and straight, with a range of different Jewish backgrounds and political
views. Some married to Jews, others
not. And – as many of you know - this
group was tasked with helping to re-brand this congregation – along with Rick
Alpern and Single Source Marketing, who donated their incredible resources and
time.
The fruits of their
labor of love can be seen on the banner that hangs at the back of this
sanctuary, with the tagline I’ve already mentioned: Temple B’nai Abraham. To Learn.
To Love. To Life! Our new logo is a tree with 36 leaves –
double chai - including a red heart at the center. The tree of life (representing the Torah) is
also a person, with arms stretch wide in celebration and welcoming. The trunk is curved, representing both roots
and feet – grounded in tradition, and our precious earth, which we must care
for. It is a true representation of who
we are, and how we want to present ourselves to the world.
Also this past winter, members of our Board of Directors
and Social Action Committee made the determination to formally state our
guiding values – and I am proud to say that we did so with great seriousness
and study, relying heavily on the work of Rabbi David Teutsch, who has written
extensively on congregations and Values-Based Decision Making, and Newton’s
Congregation Dorshei Tzedek. Throughout this process, we tried to keep in mind
our responsibility to every person who walks through our doors and our wish
that no one should feel marginalized,
disrespected or, God forbid, unsafe.
In the end, our
statement of Seven Guiding Values was unanimously adopted by our Board on March
17. Each of you should have a copy of this statement and I encourage you to
follow it as it is read by those involved in the process: Tom Cheatham, Ken Hartman, Eve Noss, Alan
Pierce, Jim Younger. Jerry Schwartz is
not here tonight, as he is living out such values by volunteering to help first
responders and victims of the hurricane that hit Houston. Our prayers and support are with him and all
victims of these multiple devastating hurricanes, particularly this week our
brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico – who are not yet getting the aid they so
desperately need. We can feel
overwhelmed by all the suffering – or we can be inspired to help in whatever
ways we can.
Here are Temple B’nai
Abraham’s Guiding Values, each grounded in the holy Torah, which I hope will
inspire us all.
TEMPLE B’NAI ABRAHAM GUIDING VALUES
Voted on by
Temple B’nai Abraham’s Board of Directors on March 14, 2017
TBA’s values express our highest aspirations for who we are and
who we hope to be as a congregation. They are a touchstone for us to reflect on
in our actions and our decisions, guiding us in in our life together as
a Jewish community. The values address
our commitment to caring for each other and our actions in the larger
community.
קְהִלָּה
Kehillah (Commitment to Community):
Relationships are central to who we are.
Anchored within a web of mutual obligation, members share a commitment
to the wellbeing of the community and its values, and to supporting
one another.
צֶלֶם
אֶלֹהִים
Tzelem Elohim (Inclusion and Human Dignity)We affirm the Jewish teaching that every human being is created b’tzelem Elohim, “in God’s image,” and
is thus deserving of care and respect. We welcome all those who share our
values: people of all ages, races and ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds,
abilities, family or partner status, gender identities,
sexual orientations, and immigration status.
מַחֲלוֹקֶת לְֹשֶם שָמַיִם
Machloket l’shem
shamayim (Debate
for the Sake of Heaven): We foster respectful discourse and
affirm the traditional Jewish value of “debate for the sake of heaven”, as
evidenced in our ancient teachings of the Mishnah and Talmud. We welcome and need dialogue about issues
that may divide us.
לִימוד תוֹרָה
Limmud Torah (Lifelong Jewish Learning): Our
rabbis taught that study is greater than action because it leads to
action. We strive to engage with Jewish
texts, values, practices, and traditions in ways that move and inspire us. We
are committed to the mitzvah of teaching our children - to nourishing the next
generation’s values, traditions, and spiritual and ethical practices.
רוחָנִיות
Ruchaniyut (Spirituality): We
seek out and nurture experiences, both individually and collectively, that
elevate, inspire, and connect us to that which is beyond ourselves, including
Shabbat, holiday and lifecycle celebrations and various forms of spiritual
practices.
אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל
Eretz Yisrael (The Land of Israel): We support Israel’s basic right to safety and
self-preservation as a democratic Jewish State in our ancient homeland. We can respectfully disagree with each other
regarding government policies, while holding the Israeli democracy up to Jewish
standards of justice and fairness. We
commit to learning more about the complicated dynamics and history of Israel,
the Palestinians, and the entire region so that our opinions and actions can be
strengthened and well informed.
תִקוּן עוֹלָם
Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World): We are guided by the Prophets of Israel and
our sacred teachings that call on us to take stands against all forms of hate,
oppression, and injustice – stands that we understand to be religious
imperatives. We understand that our
tradition implores us to care for our Jewish brothers and sisters as well as members
of
our local and global communities and our precious planet.
As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught,
“...there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human
beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free
society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” May all beings
live in safety.
When we provide food
for our neighbors who are in need, or work with Family Promise to others who
are homeless; when our Sisterhood cooks for members who are ill or sitting shiva,
we are living our values. Our Board’s
decision to support our role with the Beverly Multifaith Coalition and ECCO to help
our immigrant and refugee neighbors was guided by these values.
When
our engagement process leads to member-generated actions to build community, when
we use our grant from CJP to grow food in our Pe’ah Garden to donate to people
in need, and teach our children about our ethical responsibilities; when we
commit to an adult Me’ah class to explore the history of Jewish-Muslim
relations; when Jim Younger works to make this building greener and more
sustainable– we are following these values.
I
imagine that we will be referring to these values a lot in the coming months –
and by the way, these seven are not completely set in stone – we may add to or adjust them over time.
This year, I invite you to study the Torah
and rabbinic sources of these seven values with me – and engage in our adult
learning opportunities including Hebrew College’s Me’ah Select and Cantor
Siegel’s Thursday morning Torah study. And
attend the Sisterhood Donor Brunch whose theme is lifelong learning – one of
our cherished values.
The Torah grounds us and connects us across millenia. Every time we remove a Torah scroll from the
ark, we do it as our ancestors have done for some 20 centuries: A member of our
community touches and kisses it with a corner of a tallit and says asher natan lanu torat emet v’chayei olam
nata b’tocheinu, “Blessed are You… Who has given us the Torah of truth and
implanted eternal life within us.” What is the connection between the
Torah and implanting within us eternal life?
The Piaseczner Rebbe, Kalonymus Shapira, also known as the
Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, had the unimaginable mission of shepherding his
community through poverty, pogroms, war, and ultimately, the hell of the
Holocaust. When the remnants of his community were forced into the Warsaw
Ghetto, he continued teaching Torah to inspire and to comfort. But it soon
became apparent to Rabbi Shapira that the end of the ghetto, and all its
inhabitants, was near. He took all his
writings and buried them in a canister, labeling it with the Polish word for ATTENTION
– because he rightly assumed that there would be no one left to find it who
spoke Yiddish. Years after the war a Polish construction worker discovered it,
and it was translated into English by Rabbi Nehemia Polen, who taught here last
year.
Rabbi Shapira’s luminous Torah and moral courage continue to
inspire and comfort us and that is indeed one way in which Torah implants eternal
life. He taught that each of us who
studies Torah reveals our own unique soul. Each one of us reads Torah in a way
that invigorates not only our own life, but the lives of others, in the present
-and the future.
The call of Yom Kippur is the same as Rabbi
Shapira’s call to his young students: We
are each summoned to greatness, to lives of moral beauty and spiritual depth,
according to our unique soul’s mission. We
are also called on to keep learning and to
embrace the Torah’s eternal truths and values, which bind us together, and inspire
us to go forward.
May you and
your families be inscribed for a good, healthy, safe and meaningful year. Gemar hatimah tovah.
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