1. Shabbat Shalom

2. There are times when a Rabbi has to really dig deep into Rabbinic Literature to find a topic to speak about for Shabbat. Sometimes we have to look for obscure commentators or arcane literature to find a topic that would interest the congregation. This is not one of those weeks. It is not only Shabbat, it is also Hanukah; it is the holiday season and we are rapidly approaching the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. There is even the obscure date of December 5th that will occur this weekend, one of the few solar dates, a date not connected to the Jewish lunar calendar, that changes the wording of our liturgy. There is no shortage of topics that we can talk about this morning.

3. Last week, in our Parsha, we saw Joseph who had dreams of glory, fall, not just into a pit, but sold into slavery. We saw him rise again in the house of Potiphar, only to fall again into prison after being falsely accused. This week we see him rise again to be the second most powerful man in Egypt, but we see him also fall in the way he treats his brothers when they come to Egypt looking for food. That is the story of Joseph, it is a roller coaster ride of success and failure, but he keeps picking himself up, learning from his mistakes and slowly growing into the greatest of the Patriarchs.

4. This week we saw, in the news, the fall of those who are in power. The name “Wikileaks” will never again be confused with water dripping or some internet shopping site. After publishing the secret documents that showed the world the kind of war we were fighting in Iraq, this week the internet site released over a quarter of a million secret diplomatic documents that revealed the workings of our State Department and the Embassies that do our diplomatic work around the world. There were no documents that were categorized as Top Secret or Highly Classified. Virtually all of the documents were simply privileged or not for publication. They were the diplomatic correspondence between the Embassies and the State Department assessing the situation in foreign countries around the world and the sources of the information that was being shared. It had private opinions of diplomats and ambassadors and some very sensitive ideas that were the thinking behind the foreign policy decisions of our government.

5. Some of the documents endangered important sources that our Government relies upon to get sensitive information. To their credit, the New York Times and other newspapers carefully edited out those documents that would endanger lives. They made a distinction between the papers that placed sources in peril from those that were simply embarrassing to the author. Newspapers print embarrassing documents all the time. But they didn’t want to jeopardize the lives of the sources and they also understood that nobody would ever become a confidential source to our diplomatic corps ever again if their words would not be anonymous. But even with this “editing” of the papers, the publishing of these papers rocked diplomatic circles around the world.

6. Many foreign rulers were discovered to have private feelings quite different from their public pronouncements. It turns out that Israel has many allies in its “existential” fear of Iran. Many other Arab states quietly agree that Iran is a very dangerous state and they encouraged the United States to attack the Iranian nuclear facilities. It seemed almost comical to me that diplomats, who are trained to choose their words carefully as they negotiate agreements between governments, in private are not only candid but almost reckless with their opinions. I am sure that there were many ambassadors who had to call their counterparts in other governments to apologize, to explain and to try and mitigate the embarrassment and damage from the release of these private papers. It seems as if one low level office worker in Army Intelligence was the source of these leaks and he will face court-marital and jail. There is also many looking for the head of Wikileaks to bring him to trial for publishing the documents that were marked as secret. He has disappeared. There was also an attack over the internet on the computers that Wikileaks uses, in an attempt to prevent them from publishing anything at all.

7. So what is the Jewish angle to this sudden opening of the curtain behind the diplomatic dance that we see every day? Some of my colleagues see this as an example of Genivat Daat, the stealing of ideas and thoughts. They may be right. This may be the real sin behind the release of these documents. But I see a different lesson here.

8. A student once asked his Rabbi, “What Jewish lesson can we learn from a telephone?” The Rabbi thought and replied, “What is said here, is heard there.” We have this idea in our heads that words that we say in private, will remain private forever. I just hope that nobody in this room, with all the life experience that is represented here, still thinks that “What is said here, stays here.” The motto of Las Vegas may be “What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” but it is just not true. If someone is important enough and does something stupid in Vegas, you can be sure there will be someone to sell the words and pictures to the press.

9. A teacher once told me that I should only speak sweet words, in case I should have to eat them later. This is really good advice. There is a difference between candor and being offensive. There was no doubt that President Nixon was a tough politician. But when we heard all the swearing on the White House Tapes, it did not make us any more proud of our President. Presidential candidate Gary Hart thought that his private liaisons with a woman other than his wife would never become known to the public, and when they did, he gave up any chance he had of being elected again. Colonel Oliver North, testified before Congress that his conversations with the Nicaraguan Contras and the illegal sale of arms to Afghanistan rebels, had been carefully deleted from the National Intelligence computers. What he didn’t know that, for security reasons, there was a backup of all conversations on a different computer. And it all came out at his trial and almost brought down President Reagan.

10. The most embarrassing papers in the Wikileaks release are those that were basically unnecessary. Diplomats said things that should have never been said. They gave voice to opinions that should have never been voiced. They made a record of their thoughts thinking that they would never become known. But they did and now they have to eat their words. Judaism teaches us to watch our words. To say what we mean and not speak words that are hurtful or mean. We must speak with candor and not be afraid to tell the powerful that they are wrong and need to change their ways. But there is no excuse for words that hurt another person or words that tear them down. Our inner words should be the same as our published words. Just as our inner thoughts should be the same as our outer actions. What is said here, is heard there. If not by the one we hurt, by the God who hears all that we have to say.

11. What we see in these diplomatic papers is what amounts to Global Gossip; people who should know better writing things that should never be written. They thought that their words were read and then destroyed, but they were not destroyed and now they have destroyed reputations, friendships and feelings.

12. I am quite sure, that our State Department will officially apologize for the embarrassing letters and they will be forgiven because, in the Foreign Affairs department in every country of the world, they probably use similar language in their own diplomatic cables thinking that their words will never become public. Even in totalitarian regimes, the truth will eventually come out. We can save ourselves embarrassment and shame if we just watch the words we speak and print.

13. Rabbi Yani once heard a street vender hawking “the elixir of life.” When the Rabbi inquired as to what this elixir was, he was given this verse from Psalms, “Who is the man that desires life and desires many days that he may enjoy good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” And Rabbi Yani replied with a verse from Proverbs, “He who keeps his mouth and tongue, keeps himself out of trouble.” The Rabbis declare that words are like an arrow, that once they are shot into the air, there is no way to retrieve them. The Mussar literature also teaches, “The tongue is your slave as long as you keep quiet. After you have spoken, you are its slave”.

14. This week there are many important people in the world, including our Secretary of State who wish they could call back the words that were leaked to the press. The thoughts shared may be true, but the words were written carelessly and hurtfully. If we wish to avoid their mistake, we need to follow the advice of Psalms, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.”

May God help us to watch our words, those spoken and those in print, and may we speak sweetly at all times, lest we one day have to eat what we have spoken.

Amen and Shabbat Shalom

1. SHABBAT SHALOM

2. The difference between Jacob at the beginning of our Parsha and Jacob at the end is as different as night and day. By the end of Vayetzi, Jacob is the father of 12 children, 11 boys and one girl (he will have one more boy later), he is the husband of two sisters and he is a very wealthy man, having acquired many sheep and goats. He is a man of means and power. He has an entourage of many shepherds and servants and although he has to flee from the presence of his father-in-law when he is pursued, he stands his ground and defends his family.

3. At the end of the parsha, Jacob is a strong and powerful man. At the beginning he is alone and weak. He is sleeping out under the stars, fleeing from his angry brother and certain he will never see his family again. Without the protection of his family, he worries about bandits robbing him, he worries about where his next meal will come from and he wonders who will hire someone with the kind of reputation for deceit and deception that he carried in his character.

4. It is the weak, defenseless and alone Jacob that goes to sleep and dreams of a ladder spanning earth and heaven. It is the scared and worried young man that hears God’s voice in a dream telling him that he is destined for greatness. In the morning, armed with nothing more than this promise, he vows that “IF God will protect me and give me the food and necessities that I need, THEN I will be loyal to God and will give God a tithe of all that I have.” We have to ask, why does Jacob make such a vow to God when God has already promised him divine protection? Is this Jacob, the deceiver, once again trying to manipulate someone to do what Jacob wants? Does Jacob ask for too much or does he only ask for what he needs? Just what kind of a man is Jacob? Has he learned the lesson from his deceit of his father or is being a con man, now going to be a part of his character? Jacob has a difficult journey ahead of him, as Jacob slowly but surely rebuilds his character, hour by hour one day at a time.

5. Character is not a word that we hear about very often. In fact, the only time we really hear about it is when someone is questioning the character of someone else. We endured a political season when everyone was disparaging the character of his or her opponent; each thought that they would build up their own character by tearing down the character of their opponent. But the reality is that when we try to destroy the character of someone else, we are, in reality only destroying our own character. Our character is the only real thing that we own. And no matter what someone else says, nobody can take it away from us. It can only be tarnished by our own deeds and the way we conduct our own lives.

6. Usually we talk about the “worth” of a person. When we talk about how much a person is “worth” we think we are talking about net worth, the amount of money that man or woman earns and how well they have invested their savings. By this gauge, Jacob, at the beginning of the Parsha, is not worth very much. He has no money, no valuables and no real job training. Shepherds were the low wage earners in his day. How much training does it take to watch sheep? Jacob has never hunted nor has he had any job outside the family chores. But if we only see Jacob’s net worth, we miss the most important part of the story.

7. As the Parsha unfolds, we see that Jacob is not all that bad a guy. When he alone moves the rock from off the well, a rock that usually needed four or five men to move, we see that he is not as weak as we were led to believe. He proves to be kind and sensitive, a rare trait in ancient days for men, and it will be a trait that serves Jacob well. While he has a reputation for defrauding others, we find him now honest and, if anything, a bit too trusting of his father-in-law. He is a good husband, a good father and a really good shepherd.

8. Net worth is really not a very good indicator of character. Sam Waltman, who became one of the richest men in the world, on his death, left a legacy of his children fighting over his fortune. All of his wealth did not prevent his family from unraveling after his death. Or perhaps we should look at Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates. For a while, it seemed that his legacy would be a company that devoured all the competition. Who would have guessed that Bill Gates would retire so that he could manage the charitable foundation he founded, a foundation that gives away more money than some countries have in their national budget! Bill Gates no longer stands for the corporate boss; he is now one of the world’s premier philanthropists. It is not about how much money one has, it is about what we do with whatever money we have.

9. Newsweek recently reported that the amount of money it takes to make people happy in the United States of America, is $75,000 a year. More than that does not make anyone any happier. Even Warren Buffet, the man who is the most successful investor in the country, wants to be remembered as the man who encouraged others to give away part of their wealth. “Who is rich?” asks the Mishna, “The one who is satisfied with what he has.” The person who only wants more, who only wants everything that everyone else has, will never be happy. Being rich is a state of mind, not a balance in a checkbook. What is important is character.

10. We can say the same thing about fame as we say about fortune. The many famous people who have checked themselves into Rehab for drugs and alcohol grows longer every year. Movie stars and athletes rise fast and fall even faster. Tabloids feed us a constant stream of lurid affairs and nasty divorces, of families touched by tragedy and disaster because the famous think that fame will protect them. They get invited to all the fanciest parties but they can’t take control of their lives. “Who is honored?” asks the Mishna, “The one who honors others.” it is not what you get but what you give that matters.

11. Paul Newman had a long and storied career. He was an actor who was in great demand his whole life. He had his choice of what roles he would play and had so many awards for his acting that he became a legend in Hollywood. He was also married to only one woman his whole life. Apparently, he didn’t let his fame intrude on his love of family. He made a living acting, so when he decided to go into business and use his name and face to sell groceries, all the proceeds of those sales, all the profits that they generated, went directly to charity. While others wanted to wax rich through their endorsements, Paul Newman used his endorsements to make the world a better place. It is all about character.

12. I like to tell the story of a young girl who listened in as her mother entertained an elderly woman known for her kindness and concern for others. When the elderly lady left, the little girl said to her mother, “If that is what being old is all about, I wouldn’t mind getting old at all!” The mother watched the gentle lady walk down the street and said to her daughter, if you want to be like her, you better get started right away. She does not impress me as someone who became that kind and gentle overnight.”

13. Character is not something that we can obtain at a store. We can’t order character on the internet and have it delivered right to our home. Character is something that we build, every day we are alive. It is the result of a lifetime of good decisions, of kind responses and being open and honest with others. Character is not only what we give, but what we forgive. Character is not just about what we get, but what we choose to forget. Character is knowing that “nice guys finish last” and still being nice – and realizing that being first is not always that important.

14. A person of character understands that real “net worth” is not about money but in how much we give of ourselves to our community. A person of character understands that business is not as important as family. A person of character does not assign value to things, but assigns the highest value to his or her relationship with others. The late Rabbi Bernard Raskas once wrote, “it is not what we have but what we are that makes life worthwhile. All the riches in the world cannot gild poverty of character. The worth of a person is determined by the way he relates to his responsibilities in life. We should measure worth not in financial terms, but in spiritual terms, in all major areas of personal responsibility.”

15. Everyone here knows that retirement can be just one long vacation, days spent lounging and gossiping at the pool, nights spent eating out and being entertained at the clubhouse. But that kind of retirement is not the life of a man or woman of character. Even in retirement, the time we donate to good causes, the time we spend helping our neighbors and extending our hands to those in need, giving rides to those who don’t drive, giving comfort to those who are alone, sick or grieving, and standing up for those who can’t speak for themselves, these actions are the building blocks of a person of honor. If we make these actions a part of our lives, the actions will then speak of our character.

16. Jacob has some serious flaws in his character, flaws about deceit and fraud that will follow him his whole life. But he learns to grow beyond his flaws and, in the end, it is not his flaws that we remember. It will not be Jacob the trickster who will become famous; it will be Israel, the Man Who Struggled with God, who will be the patriarch of the People of Israel. Therefore, we have no need to worry that we are not perfect and that we may have made some terrible decisions in our lives. We should not dwell on the mistakes that we have made, but we should focus on how the lessons of our failures can help us grow in the future. We can still leave a legacy of kindness and compassion, but only if we start today. Character is not something that can be built overnight. It is built, one deed at a time, day by day, hour by hour until the day that we die.

May we all live good, honest and faithful lives, lives decorated with kindness and caring, and may we leave that as our most precious legacy to our children and grandchildren. As we say,

Amen and Shabbat Shalom.

1. Shabbat Shalom

2. At the very beginning of this week’s Parsha, God, out of the blue, tells Avram to leave his home country and go to a different land that God will show him. God makes all kinds of promises about what will happen to Avram when he and his family get to this unknown land, but the reason Avram has to leave the land of his birth, the land of his ancestors is never mentioned in the text of the Torah.

3. One reason that Avram might want to leave his home country is because he lived in a world where people worshiped local gods. The only way to teach people to worship the one God of the universe, the God who will be the focus of Judaism in later centuries, is to be in a country where one can see the hand of God clearly. For Avram and for us, that land is the land of Israel. For over 4000 year, from the moment that Avram first set his sights on the land, Israel has been the one place in the world where Jews have gone to find a personal connection to God.

4. I usually don’t speak about Israel from the pulpit for the same reasons I don’t do most news stories, current events or political positions. We live in a world of 24 hour, seven day a week news cycles. There are many really famous television, radio and cable personalities who have a small army of researchers who make sure that each broadcast is completely up to date and ready for intelligent conversation. OK, maybe some of it is not so intelligent, but for me, a pulpit Rabbi in a large congregation with many pastoral and spiritual responsibilities, I just don’t have the expertise to argue policy from the Bima. My duties are to teach Jews the spiritual and moral direction of their lives. I have never seen my role in a congregation to be the mouthpiece for Israel to the exclusion of everything else.

5. But that does not mean that Israel is not important. In fact, Israel is one of the really important parts of being a Jew. The Jewish Federations had a campaign recently that put their message on T-shirts and banners all over our community. It said, “Wherever I stand, I stand with Israel”. And that is something we must always feel every day we speak out in the world. It does not matter if we stand on the left or on the right. It does not matter if we are Democrats, Republicans or Independents. It does not matter if we are Conservative, Reform, Orthodox or Reconstructionist. If we are Jews, we must stand for Israel. God knows that there are certainly plenty of other people, who, for all kinds of reasons, don’t understand why Israel, even with all her imperfections, is important to Jews, to the Eastern Hemisphere and to the world. If we don’t speak out about Israel, then who will support the Jewish state?

6. Russel Robenson, the CEO of the Jewish National Fund, the organization that literally owns the land that Israel is built on, recently said in a report to Rabbis, “Any Jew in the world who wants to go to Israel can now go to Israel. And they have a place called Israel to go to. We have won even more than we had hoped to win. There are over 15 Israeli companies now on Wall Street. Israel is an economic miracle. All the detractors and boycotters can do what they will but at the end of the day, we are here and we are strong.” There may be many countries and world leaders who do not like Israel but Israel is not going anywhere. And we don’t need to have the constant siege mentality. We only need to do our part to keep Israel strong.

7. I received from many people here, a sermon from the internet, from Shelomo Lewis. That is actually an error. Rabbi Sholom is a long time friend of mine in Atlanta. He too is a strong supporter of Israel. That fact is clear from his long time stance in support of Israel and you can’t read the sermon and not believe that his heart is with Israel constantly. I had only one problem with his sermon. While it is passionate and articulate, it does not tell anyone what they can do to support Israel. He gets everyone fighting mad but never gives any guidance about what we can do to keep Israel strong. That is an argument I have will all my colleagues who speak about all the terrible things others say about Israel and all the terrible things that others want to do to Israel. Just what do they expect us to do about it?

8. So I say today, if anyone here wants to be a REAL supporter of Israel, these are the five things that everyone should do to show that their support of our Jewish homeland is more than just angry words.

9. First of all, if we are to be a supporter of Israel, we need to buy Israel Bonds. The most basic bond is only 100 dollars. It has a return on investment that makes it secure enough to place our retirement accounts. The money that we are lending Israel with those bonds goes directly to building the Jewish state. It goes to roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railway stations, transportation, the electrical grid, and thousands of other basic requirements of a modern country. There are many good causes in Israel to donate our money, but if we are to be real Israel supporters, we need to invest our money in the basic structure of the state.

10. This means that we should buy at least one bond every year. It is not enough to say I bought them last year, or the year before. If we can afford to, we should reinvest our bonds as they become due. The State of Florida invests in Israel Bonds. The pension accounts of dozens of cities and counties in south Florida also are heavily invested in Israel bonds. They see these bonds as safe investments for their future retirees. But if Jews don’t invest in Israel bonds, then how can we say that we believe in what Israel stands for? Warren Buffet has said that one should never invest in a company that you don’t understand. We Jews understand the importance of Israel and that these investments are safe and secure. We will have a breakfast for Israel Bonds here at Temple Emeth in February. You don’t have to wait that long if you don’t want to. You can find out about Israel Bonds at the local Israel Bonds office or online. Don’t call yourself a supporter of Israel unless you are buying Israel Bonds every year.

11. The second way we must show our support for Israel is to join Mercaz, the Zionist party of Conservative Judaism. American Jews should not be telling Israeli political parties how to run their country. But we can tell them how to spend the money we send to Israel every year. This allocation is done through the World Zionist Congress. Our representatives to the World Zionist Congress are from Mercaz. We support pluralism, freedom of religion, equal funding for all religious organizations, support for Jews with disabilities and special needs, education for all citizens and a center political course for Israel. Membership in Mercaz is only $36 dollars per person. We are given votes in the World Zionist Congress based on how many members our organization has. Just by joining, we strengthen our representation in the Congress and enable us to work in coalition with other parties that have similar agendas. Mercaz works closely with Reform Judaism, Hadassah and many Israeli parties to plot a course for Israel that is for a state that represents all of the citizens, not just the most radical positions on either the left or the right.

12. Since the day I came to Temple Emeth, Mercaz information has been in our lobby. Joining is as simple as sending in a check or using a credit card online. It is the best $36 dollars you will ever spend. As a member of their national board I donate to Mercaz far more than regular dues. It is a vital part of my identity as a Jew and a show of my support of Israel. If you are an active Israel supporter, then you should also be a member of Mercaz.

13. The third thing all Israel supporters must do is to join an Israel advocacy organization. A real supporter of Israel must be politically active in this country on behalf of Israel. It is not enough to just vote for the candidate who says that he or she is pro Israel. We need to lend our voices to the ongoing lobbying effort to provide security and political support from the United States to Israel. The two largest Israel advocacy organizations in this country are AIPAC and J Street. I know that it is strange to mention them in the same breath; they are very different but they both work hard to show us how we can lobby our representatives in support of Israel. I am a member of AIPAC. You can like what J Street stands for or not but the discussion is important, and joining one or the other is important. AIPAC will be holding is Fall Conference in Hollywood, FL in just two weeks. There are fliers in the lobby about a special community forum on Monday evening, October 25, at 7:00 pm. The cost is reasonable and the support we show is vital for Israel. If we get ten of our members to attend we can have our own table. If we get more than 20 to attend, we can talk about getting together and renting a bus to take us to the Westin Diplomat Hotel for the program. To be a supporter of Israel, one must be involved.

14. The fourth duty of being an active supporter of Israel is to visit Israel, at least once every three years. Change happens so fast in Israel that after three years there is more to see than what we saw before. It is not enough to have a member of our family live in Israel. That is very good and also important, but that is how they show their support for Israel. To show our support, we need to visit Israel for ourselves. Every year, I have many families tell me that they would have visited Israel if only the economy would be better, if the terrorism was not so bad, if the Arab situation was not so scary, etc. etc. Our parents would have given anything to visit Israel even once in their lives. How can we show our support for Israel if we never go there? There are many ways to visit Israel even if we have all kinds of special needs. Israel is one of the most accessible countries in the world. To be a true Israel supporter, we need to visit the land we love or send a member of our family to the land at least once every three years. For over a decade one or more members of my family have been in Israel every year. If this is a year you would like to go to Israel let me know by sending me an email or a letter. If we get just 20 people who want to go, we will call a meeting and organize a Temple Emeth trip to Israel.

15. Finally, if we really want to show our support of Israel, we need to stop waiting for the Rabbi to tell us what to do, and we must organize an Israel Committee at Temple Emeth. This committee would create at least one important program for Israel for the congregation each year and would be the source of information for all our members on how each of us can do something for the Jewish State. The members of this committee would represent our congregation at Israel events in the community and help organize advocacy on behalf of Israel. Our members don’t need me to speak every week about Israel; the greatest support for Israel will come from those in our congregation who will create the forum to keep Israel always on the minds of our members, in the bulletin, in our programming and in our wider community. How can we say we support Israel if we don’t serve on a committee for Israel right here in our own congregation?

16. These are the five things that a supporter of Israel must do: Buy Israel bonds, Join Mercaz, Join AIPAC or J Street, Visit Israel AND (nor or) AND serve on our own Temple Emeth Israel committee. Sitting at the Kiddush and commenting on the Rabbi’s sermon may be OK when we are talking about our moral obligations in the community. But if we are to call ourselves Supporters of Israel, we need to offer our hearts, hands and voices on behalf of the state that we love. For thousands of years, Jews longed to return to Israel and spoke about it on Shabbat, holidays and at Seder. What Herzl did was to stop talking and DO something about it, and within 50 years Israel was born. Imagine what a wonderful state Israel will be fifty years from now…. Let us go out and work to make that dream a reality. I could give a thousand sermons and not make one bit of a difference. But if each of us does each of these five things this year, we will affect life in Israel for years to come. I am waiting to hear from you after Shabbat.

 Shabbat Shalom

1. Shabbat Shalom

2. If we were to examine the life of Isaac, we would be hard pressed to find incidents in his life that are his alone. More often than not, Isaac is part of the story of his father Abraham or part of the story of his son Jacob. It is really hard to find something that is unique to the life of Isaac.

3. The one story that is Isaac’s alone; is the story of Isaac and the digging of the wells. In Genesis Chapter 26, we find Isaac and his family locked in a struggle with the people of Gerar over water rights in the area around the city. At first, the people of Gerar try to drive Isaac and his family away by stopping up the wells he needs to water his flocks. When Isaac moves away and discovers new wells, the people of Gerar drive him away from those wells also. Finally, as he moves closer to the desert and Beer Sheva, he finally finds the water that he needs for his family and his flocks without having to fight for them. He is then able to make a treaty with the King of Gerar that will insure that there will no longer be trouble between Isaac and Gerar.

4. Isaac is so good at finding water because he is retracing the steps of his father Abraham. Each time he re-digs a well that was once his father’s, he does not rename the well, but calls it by the same name Abraham gave it. This is how he stays connected to the memory of his father. Later biblical commentators draw connections between the water that Isaac finds and the “water” that is Torah. In the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva teaches that just as a fish cannot live without water, so too a Jew cannot live without the life-giving words of Torah. Just as Isaac knows where to find the water because of the work of his father, so too do we know where to find Torah, by following the example of our parents, grandparents and great grand parents.

5. Our patriarchs were models of prayer. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are given credit for creating the Shacharit, Mincha and Maariv services. Living a nomadic life, worrying about where the next watering hole will be, and if there will be enough food for the flocks and if there will be enough food and water for the family, all of these can help make a person very spiritual. Living out in nature, surrounded by trees, grass, mountains, animals and the wide open sky, it is not hard to feel connected to God. But for those of us who do not live out in nature, those of us who live in cities, with lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of noise and lots of urban congestion, it is much harder to find God.

6. There are some who say, that the last place they would look for God is in the synagogue. They might go to the beach, to the forest, out under the stars or in some other beautiful place in nature and there they would feel God’s presence. In synagogue there are too many people, too much talking, a lot of speed reading and too many distractions. How could Jews even think to find God in a synagogue? And yet, for me and for many others, a synagogue is a natural place to draw closer to God, as long as we don’t let the distractions hamper our search.

7. What does it really mean to pray? Is it just reading the words? Is prayer reciting a Hebrew text that we don’t understand? Is it prayer to read the English text even if that does not seem too traditional? Is prayer being on the right page? Or is prayer something altogether different? Rabbi Sharon Braus, one of my colleagues in Los Angeles has written, “A few months after I had become a rabbi, a terrible tragedy occurred in my congregation in New York. An active member of the synagogue, a junior in college, was crossing the street in her university after finishing a final exam when she was struck by a car and left in critical condition for a week, with little chance of survival. The whole community was paralyzed and devastated. “What can we do?” I asked my Rabbi. “Pray,” he said, “Pray with all our heart, pray as if there is no such thing as a medical certainty. Pray as if anything is possible. Pray without ambivalence, Pray without doubt in God’s capacity to heal. Pray as if the whole world depends on your prayers.” That Shabbat, I closed my eyes and sang out with all of my heart. Halfway through Kabbalat Sabbat I realized that I was no longer singing – I was praying. I was soaring. That experience changed my life. It is when I realized that prayer can be a moment in which we suspend doubt and disbelief, in which we allow ourselves to hope and to believe that anything is possible. Since then, I don’t sing, I pray.”

8. Temple Emeth can provide many ways for us to find prayer. We have a wonderful cantor, we have a congregation that loves to sing. We have many people who know the prayers and have prayed on Shabbat almost all of their lives. But in the end, nothing we can do will make prayer possible. In the end, the final boundary has to be crossed in our own hearts and souls.

9. I think that one of the barriers to prayer is the way we conduct the service. Maybe because I was a fidgety little boy, my mother and father were always trying to get me focused on the prayers. They asked me multiple times, “What page are we on?” trying to get me to keep up with the rest of the congregation. But I have discovered that being on the right page is not a good way to pray at all. When I am really praying, I may stay on one page long after everyone else has moved on. Something on that page has inspired me and I don’t want to leave it until the feeling is gone. I have responsibilities during the service to help the congregation find their way to their own prayers. This means that I have moments of deep prayer between long stretches of trying to catch up. But I have to try very hard not to get in the way of other people here who are trying to pray.

10. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, from Massachusetts and now living in California, writes, “I’m always struck when the leader of the service says, ‘We now rise for the Shema’. Why are you telling me that? I’ve been coming to services here for thirty years. I know we stand up for the Shema. Only Jews tell one another when to stand. People in every other religion assume you know what to do, and if you don’t, you’re smart enough to watch and see what everyone else is doing?”

11. Just think about what Rabbi Kushner is saying. Do we really need to be told when to stand and when to sit? Some of you have been coming to shul longer than I have been alive. Does it really help when the Rabbi tells everyone to stand? This is supposed to be our spiritual home but when we are home do we need someone to tell us when we should stand and when we should sit? Or take a different example. I know that we are new to this prayer book, but do we really need anyone to tell us what page we are on? We know the basic order of the service. Borchu, Eyl Adon, Shema, Mi Chamocha, Amida, Kedusha, Kaddish Shalem, Torah Servcie, Sermon, Musaf and closing. If someone puts a different Ashkenazi siddur into our hands, how long would it really take us to figure out where the service is and to sing along with the rest of the congregation?

12. I often find myself agreeing with Rabbi Kushner. We are dumbing down our service. Making our congregations feel as if they are infants who need guidance to know how to pray. The fact is; our ability to pray is tied closely to our sense of spirituality, the needs that weigh heavily in our hearts and the sense of gratitude for all of God’s gifts in our lives. It is not so much about the words, but about how we feel in our hearts. At this week’s Sisterhood meeting I talked about the partnership between humanity and God to provide food for the world. As I walked around the room, a woman said to me, “After all these years, I never saw the Hamotzi that way. You are right; we lose sight of the human and divine elements in the food we eat.” She will never pray in the same way again.

13. Another Rabbi I know was told that his services were not very spiritual. He had to remind the person that a synagogue cannot make a person spiritual. We have to do that work ourselves. Every time I call out a page number, it is as if I am forcing everyone to be on the same page I am on. That is not how you find your way closer to God. If you are on a different page, then there must be a reason to be on that page. Being on my page will not help connect you to God. If it does anything, it moves us away from finding that religious space in our hearts. In our attempt to make things uniform, we have lost our spiritual way.

14. This is also the same dance that we do with the Torah Service. People tell me every week that they NEED me to tell them the page in the Humash where the Torah reading begins. And they tell me all kinds of reasons why I have to tell them. They tell me they don’t know Roman numerals. They tell me they don’t understand chapter and verse. Rabbis have so trained our congregations that we cannot even do what any Christian or Muslim can do, find their place in scripture by chapter and verse. I can also point out that there is another clue as to where the Torah reading will begin… The page number is printed in your Shabbat announcement sheet. Why do we have to break up our study of Torah to give a page number that everyone knows anyway?

15. In my daughter’s shul, everyone does not use the same siddur. They provide a guide, given out by the usher at the door, of the different books they use and on what page important prayers can be found. These are young Jews, not all of whom have had strong Jewish backgrounds, but they are smart enough to figure out, when they need to, where the congregation singing is in the Siddur.

16. So, as of today, I give everyone permission to be on a different page if it will help you in your search for God on Shabbat. If your heart is heavy with pain, worry or trouble, then you don’t need any page or prayer to pour your heart out to God. Don’t be on the same page. Find a word, a sentence, an idea, in Hebrew or in English, and examine it deeply as to why, at this moment, these are the most important words in your life. Close your eyes and see the words dancing inside your mind. Send the letters soaring to God, either above you or inside you.

17. The Siddur is not a cookbook. You can say all the words and still not have a cake to show for it when you are done. The siddur is a road map, a guide, an inspiration. Just as it inspired generations of Jews to reach higher and higher toward God, our liturgy can do the same for us if we only free the words from the burden of being correct, and instead see them as calling us to consider the deeper implications of what they have to say.

18. You don’t need me to tell you what page we are on. You probably, right now, have your finger in the place in the Siddur that you know we are going to turn to when this sermon is over. And you know that you will have to stand for the next prayer. What is the next prayer?

What page is it on?

Why in the world do you need me to tell you? How about we do without the page numbers and the interruptions, and let’s you and I, with all our heart, soul and might, stand up and pray together the Musaf service. And I mean REALLY pray it.

SHABBAT SHALOM