Hag Sameach

My friends and colleagues call Shavuot the forgotten holiday. Even with the Yizkor service we don’t get as many in synagogue as we do for Pesach or Shemini Atzeret, not to mention Yom Kippur. If you were to go home and ask your Jewish friends why they were not in shul today they probably have no idea that today is one of the three major holidays on the Jewish calendar.

We live in a free country. There is all kinds of talk today about how people are opposed to government interfering with their personal lives. We don’t like our government getting involved in ALL of our private affairs. Whole movements in this country have revolved around telling Washington to leave us alone. From the beginning of this country, with the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, to the Civil War to our Modern Tea Party Movement, citizens of this country protest or fight when they feel the federal government has become too intrusive in their private lives.

Judaism, has no trouble at all intruding into our private lives. After all, one of the four great freedoms in this country is Freedom of Religion, and Judaism tells us Jews just how we are supposed to be Jewish. It tells us what we can and can’t eat. It tells us when we can and can’t work. It tells us what is right and what is wrong and does not give us any vote in the matter, and it even tells us when we can and when we can’t have sexual relations with our spouse. I don’ t think you can find anything on this planet that is more intrusive in our private lives than our religion.

Maybe the reason that so many people are NOT here today is because they have chosen to forget the responsibilities that Judaism puts upon them. Just like the secular government, they don’t want Rabbis, Torah or even God to tell them what to do. They want to be completely in control of their own lives, or at least they want to have what seems to be control of their own lives. But when their lives spin out of control, they look to government and to their religion to help them get back on their feet. It would be easy to call this kind of behavior hypocritical, but I am afraid that it is just human nature. From the time of the biblical prophets, human beings have taken all the credit for the the good things in life and blamed God and authorities for all that has gone wrong.

What makes this intrusion in our lives by Judaism even more interesting goes back to the very beginnings of our religion. We were once slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. The despotic ruler of the land alongside the Nile River made sure that we knew our place in society, a place he made for us on the lowest rung of the social ladder. He told us where and when we were to work, he told us when and what we could eat. We had no control over what was right and what was wrong; we were told that we must do what the taskmasters said we were to do and we were to do it quickly without complaint. They told us when we were allowed to have sexual relations with our spouses and if we did not give birth to the right gender of child, then the unwanted boys would be thrown into the river. Anyone unhappy with this arrangement would feel the sting of the taskmaster’s whip.

God heard our cry of pain and rescued us from Egyptian slavery. God told us that nobody should have to be a slave like that. God redeemed us with a mighty hand, sending plagues so that the people of Egypt would know the kind of suffering we were enduring and be moved to let us go, and then at the Red Sea, the entire army that backed up Pharaoh’s iron hand, was destroyed in the blink of an eye. Why? Why did God do this for us? That was the reason we came to Mt. Sinai at this time of year 4000 years ago. God did not want us to serve Pharaoh in Egypt. God wanted us to serve only God. No government was to have the power to tell us what to do. We were to follow the laws and commandments of God, and that would be all we needed to live better lives.

In my class in Pirke Avot, that I teach each morning before Minyan, we find the saying of Rabbi N’hunya ben HaKanah, who teaches, “Whoever accepts the yoke of Torah will be spared the burdens of the government and the burden of earning a livelihood. But whoever throws off the yoke of Torah will have to bear the yoke of Government and the yoke of earning a livelihood.” What is Rabbi Nehunya saying? That if we want to stop paying taxes and no longer need to earn a living we should just study Torah and God will provide for us? Is this what he means? I don’t think so. The Sages in his day studied a great deal of Torah and they still had day jobs that provided food for their families and they certainly paid their taxes. What does he mean when he teaches that the yoke of Torah spares us the yoke of taxes and the yoke of earning a living?

I think Rabbi N’hunya is trying to teach us that serving God is not at all like serving a government nor is it related to earning a living. Our relationship with God is based on a covenant, a contract between God and the People of Israel. We agree to faithfully follow God’s rules and God is there, in good times and bad, to help give us strength, support and understanding about all aspects of our lives. God is very much like a large safety net, so that when disaster seems to be crashing down upon us, we do not fall, but we are supported and encouraged by our faith in God. Without God, life is a yoke we must carry. When we accept the yoke of God, however, we no longer feel that the rest of life is a burden at all.

Today we recite the prayers of Yizkor. It is a time when we remember those members of our family who may have died, but who are not forgotten. There are many Sages who point to our relationships with our family when explaining how to comprehend our relationship with God.

Family relationships come with responsibilities. The love and support we get from a brother or a sister, the love and protection that we receive from our parents do come with obligations. We look out for each other. We take care of each other when we are sick or in a time of trouble. Those of us who are married happily understand that joy in life is never complete until we share that joy with our spouse. The unconditional love that can come from children make their loss one of terrible tragedy. If we cry when we recite Yizkor for our family, it is not because the memories are terrible, it is exactly the opposite, we cry because the memories were so good. I remember a story about a man who cried bitterly over the death of his spouse. “Why do you cry?” asked a well meaning friend, “Your tears will not change anything, your crying will not help.” The man cried harder and responded, “That is why I cry, because my tears will not help.

I have said many times, that our tears are the price we pay for loving somebody. We cry over the death of one with whom we shared so many happy times because those happy times are over. I once came to a hospice room where a 97 year old lady was sitting in bed, and her 70 year old daughter was with her. The older woman looked at me and said, “I have lived my life for 97 years with no regrets. I have accomplished everything I set out to do and have had wonderful experiences throughout my life. I am facing death now with the serenity that comes from being at peace with myself. The only problem is my daughter here. Rabbi, please tell her that she does not have to cry after I am gone, because I am not sad at all about how I have lived my life.

I looked at this gracious lady and told her, “I think you need to mind your own business.” She looked at me shocked but I went on. “You may be content with your life but your daughter is going to miss you when you are gone, and every time she misses you she is going to cry and there is nothing you or I can or should do to stop her. If you would have been a mean and nasty mother your whole life, then I doubt your daughter would care. But you had to go be a kind loving and gentle parent and your daughter is going to miss you when you are gone.”

We make a mistake when we think that Kaddish or Yizkor is about the person who died. Our prayers for the dead don’t change their life or the fact that we still miss them. All these prayers can do is help ease the burden of our sorrow and help us be comforted for our loss. That God commands us to be here on the second day of Shavuot is not about God’s need to tells us what we should be doing every minute of our day, but God is helping us to understand that the same memories that cause us so much pain, can also be the source of great strength, courage and joy in our life. It is God’s way of embracing us in the dark moments in our life, to let us know that light and joy are never really far away. The burden of death is no longer a yoke we must bear because of the teachings God sends to us through the Sages and through the Torah. Our Judaism is not about law and ritual, our Judaism is about kindness and love.

Just as our parents tried to help us live better lives by sharing with us the lessons they learned the hard way in life, so too Judaism tries to share with us the combined wisdom of thousands of years of experience in dealing with the trials and tribulations in life. We like to think that our modern world is vastly different from the world of our parents, our grandparents and all of our ancestors. And it may be true. The ancient Rabbis did not know from computers, the internet, YouTube or hybrid automobiles. The ball point pen was not invented until after WWII. The Torah and Talmud may not know much about modern inventions, but it does know a whole lot about human beings; their emotions, their drives and all of our weaknesses. Our Sages put together a way of living that could help us be strong when we are weak, grateful when we are happy and united when we fall alone. No matter how sure we are that we are doing the right thing, if Judaism says that it is wrong, if the Torah teaches us that this is not the correct way to act in life, we better pay close attention.

Judaism does need to change from time to time. Living in an urban world was different from living on the farm. Living in exile was different from living in our own state. Women have taken their rightful place on the world stage and that is different from the patriarchal societies of the past. Judaism did have to adapt to accommodate these changes.

But we human beings still get up every morning and worry about how we will feed our family. We go to work each day and we watch the rise and fall of our investments. We still try to teach our children to be Menchen, We try to be a good child to our parents and a good partner to our spouse. We still want to be known as honest and dependable. We still are hurt when someone abuses our trust and blames their mistakes on us. We still want to do what is right especially when it is not at all clear what the right thing to do really is. We still want to know that our lives have meaning and that the works of our hands will make a difference. And we want to live the kind of life that others will remember even after we have gone.

We could be like all the others who are not here and pretend that it all doesn’t matter to us. That we are doing fine all by ourselves and we don’t need Judaism, Rabbis or even God to interfere in the way we live our lives. But we who are here for Yizkor today understand that the memories that we recall today, will also be the memories that our children will recall when we are gone. Our faith, our religion, our Judaism does not interfere in our life, it IS our life. And the yoke of everyday living is easier and lighter because we have chosen to take the yoke of Torah upon our shoulders. We have chosen to remember Shavuot. We have chosen to be here in honor of those we loved in life. And we have chosen to love God with all our heart and soul and might.

May we always be blessed with memories filled with love and may we be blessed with a life filled with faith in God, faith in Torah and faith in our fellow human beings as we say….. Amen and Hag Sameach

Hag Sameach

Today is the Birthday of the Torah. Every time I say that I kind of cringe inside. Judaism does not really celebrate birthdays. Beginnings are important, but there really is not ritual in Judaism to celebrate a birthday. I guess our first clue should be that the Hebrew birthday song is just a poor translation of the English birthday song. Even the idea of having a cake on a birthday is considered in some Jewish circles, a pagan act. No, we Jews are not big on birthdays.

We don’t know the day that any famous Jews were born because we just don’t care what day they were born. We commemorate the day that they died. We honor them for the books they wrote and the ideas they shared. But on the day of their birth, they were like all the other people of the world, full of potential but short on impressive deeds. It will be years before a person’s true nature will develop and be revealed. So what is the sense in celebrating the day of birth?

This applies all the more so when it comes to Torah. Torah was not “born” on this day. This is only the day that we human beings received the Torah from God. God had the Torah before the beginning of time. Before there was a world, God had Torah and Torah was used as a blueprint when God set out to create the universe. Before there was day and night, before there was earth and sea, before there was a sun or moon, before there was any concept of time at all, there was Torah. So how can Torah have a birthday? Today is just the day, after thousands of years, perhaps millions of years (remember there really is no way to know how “old” Torah is) that human beings received the Torah and from that moment on, the history of Western Civilization was born. So “Happy Birthday Israelite people, Judaism and Western Civilization.

The Sages of the Talmud taught us that the Torah begins with Creation because there are parallels between these two momentous events. The revelation of Torah at Sinai is a parallel event to the creation of the universe. The similarities are striking. Both Torah and Creation are the handiwork of God. Both are given to human beings to guide their lives and both are created with ten divine sayings. I talked about this last Shabbat when I noted that each of the ten commandments has a parallel passage from the Creation story. God spoke at Sinai and at Creation a total of ten times.

If we look at Revelation and Creation in a more mystical way, we see the similarities clearly. Creation starts with God, and immediately from the oneness of God comes the duality of our world; light and darkness, earth and sky, ocean and dry land, birds and fishes, animals and humans, female and male. We live in a dualistic world, everything seems to have its opposite. There is only one unity, one unbreakable unity, and that is God. Everything else has a right and a left, an up and a down, an open or a closed, or a front and a back.

Torah also begins with one God. The first commandment clearly teaches that there is only one God in the universe; no more and no less. While the creation story begins with the letter “bet” which represents the number two, revelation begins with the letter “aleph” which represents the number one. Only after the unity of God is revealed, do we begin to see the duality of the law. There are positive and negative commandments. There are distinctions between the holy and the secular. There are things which are Tahore/pure and things which are Tameh/impure from a ritual point of view. And most of all, the Torah makes a great distinction between God and humanity. God appears on Mt. Sinai and the people remain below, separated by duality that makes up human existence.

The lens of Creation is but one way of looking at the Revelation of the Torah. There is another way to look at Torah and it is found in our Haftara for today. The prophet Ezekiel has a vision while he is among the captive Jews in Babylonia. It is a vision so steeped in the mystical that it spawned its own mystical genre, Merkava mysticism, the mystic story of the “Chariot”. This is a very different revelation from the one at Mt. Sinai. God met the people of Israel at Sinai. In Babylonia, Ezekiel meets God as God departs the doomed city of Jerusalem. God traveled that day by chariot, a very strange chariot. First of all it had two wheels, each one set with another wheel inside of it. This wheel allowed the chariot to move in any direction. This chariot was pulled by four strange creatures that had four faces in its head, each face pointing in a different direction. There was a human head, a lion head, an eagle head and the face of an ox. Each creature had six wings and they could pull the chariot in any direction without strings; they obey instantly the thoughts and commands of God. This chariot could take God anywhere that God wanted to go, and that day, in that vision, God was seen leaving Jerusalem, dooming the city to conquest and exile.

We have two stories of Divine revelation. The first is when God arrives to meet the Israelites, the other when he leaves Jerusalem just before its fall. We read both of these today, on this first day of Shavuot. What is the connection? What is the deeper meaning of these stories of revelation?

The first thing we can learn is that Torah is not static. Torah is constantly moving. God is either arriving or departing, but either way, Torah remains with us. Take one example from our Humash, from the first five books of the Bible. Almost every chapter and every verse has something to teach us about how our ancestors moved from slavery to freedom. Every moment of triumph, every bump in the road is recounted with loving detail except for one item. We see our ancestors go down to Egypt as a family and grow there to become a great nation. We see the signs and wonders that forced the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army to capitulate before God. We see our ancestors leave the slave pits of Egypt and arrive at Sinai to meet God. We see them wander in the desert for forty years until it is time to enter the Promised Land. The only thing missing from the story is the arrival of our ancestors at their destination. Moses dies and is buried in the wilderness and the people mourn his death. But the Torah ends without the Israelites entering the land God promised them.

The lesson here is that Torah is not a destination, Torah is a journey. Torah is not about finding final answers, but in discovering God as we travel our path in life. The law that the Torah establishes from the first meeting at Sinai is called, “Halacha” “the Path”. Torah represents the signposts that we find along the way to help us navigate all the difficulties and tribulations of life.

There is no one path that the Torah offers us. There is not just one way. There are many ways and we travel them sometimes all at once. There is the way of translation, to read and study the words of Torah so we understand the stories it contains. This is a meaningful journey but it only scratches the surface of what the Torah can teach us. There is the path of Drash, the path of stories within the stories, the Midrashim the Sages used to fill in the gaps in the story of the Torah. Who are the people of the long genealogical lists of Genesis? Why did Joseph’s brothers hate him? What did Moses do as a child? What happened on Mt. Sinai that delayed Moses’ return to the people? Here we add a deeper meaning to the lessons of the text.

Then there are the things that the Torah only hints at. What kind of work is forbidden on Shabbat? There is a hint of this as our ancestors prepared to build the Mishkan in the wilderness. There are many married people in the Torah but there is not much to tell us what a marriage ceremony would look like, we only find hints of the ceremony in the Torah. Even some of the laws of Kashrut are only hinted about in the text.

Finally there are the secret meanings of the Torah. Those found in the Zohar and other mystical texts that uncover ideas about God, holiness and humanity. How can we aspire to dwell close to the divine? The answers are found in some of the deepest secrets of the Torah. In the end, it does not matter if one journeys on the path of plain meaning, Midrash, Hints or the secret meanings, all paths eventually lead us to God. It is not the results that are important, it is the journey we take to get there. We don’t need to read the text fast or slow. We don’t have to make sure that we have mastered every word. It is not about what we read nor about how long we ponder. Words and watches have no power here. It is not the results, but the experience of Torah where real Torah can be found.

Today we remember that all of creation came to be because of Torah. Today we remember that we began a journey on Mt. Sinai. We started what has turned out to be the longest classroom discussion in the history of humanity. A discussion that will never end because as long we have questions, Torah will be there to help us on our journey. Every moment of life has significance and holiness, if only we look to Torah, to our history, our literature and our Sages to help us recognize how God can be found all around us. Shavuot does not celebrate the beginning or the end of our studies, but it celebrates our journey through life, our journey through the world and our eternal search for God. From the beginning of time, it has been this search that has given our lives purpose and meaning.

Let us celebrate Torah today and every day. And may God always bless our studies with so that it brings us joy and fulfillment.

Amen and Hag Sameach

Stuck In The Middle With You

2010

Shabbat Shalom

Parshat Emor is about the rules that apply to the Kohen, the priests who would officiate in the Mishkan/Temple. All the Children of Israel are holy, but the Kohanim are set aside as being at a higher level then Israelites who are not of priestly descent. This meant that there were things a priest just could not do. He (and yes it was always he) could not attend funerals except for very close family members. There were restrictions of who he could marry, what he could eat, when he should bathe and when he was permitted to officiate.

While there are many controversial regulations for the Kohanim, the one that struck me this week was the rule that a Kohen who was physically blemished, from something as simple as a missing finger or a broken arm or if he were blind, lame or a hunchback, all of these would exempt him from service in the Mishkan. Today, we do not consider these blemishes as “handicaps” and we consider it a religious obligation not to deny the handicapped a chance to show what they are capable of doing.

But in ancient times, one did not bring something with a blemish before God. This meant that a priest could not appear if he had a disqualifying blemish. It was also forbidden to bring an animal that had a blemish before God to be sacrificed. Both the sacrificial animal and the one who was sacrificing had to be free of all disqualifying blemishes.

Sunday is Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer. It is a rather strange day and we are not really sure why it is set aside from all the other days of the Omer. Over the centuries, it has become attached to the stories of the rebellion against Rome by the Jews of Israel. How that rebellion began, has to do with what we have learned in this week’s Parsha

It is said that the story of the destruction of Jerusalem began with a party. A certain man had a party and he wanted to invite his friend Kamtza, but not his enemy, Bar Kamtza. But the invitations were mixed up and Bar Kamtza came to the party. The man wanted to throw him out and to prevent embarrassment Bar Kamtza begged to be allowed to stay. He even offered to pay for the entire party. The man picked him up and threw him out. Nobody came to Bar Kamtza’s defense and so he decided to inform against the Jews to Caesar. He told Caesar that the Jews were rebelling and he could prove it. He said that the Jews would not sacrifice an animal that came from Rome. To test this, the Emperor sent a beautiful animal to be sacrificed. On the way Bar Kamtza made a very minor blemish on the animal, one that would make it treif for the Jews but not for the Romans.

The Sages, when they saw the blemish, were going to allow the animal anyway since they wanted to have good relations with the Roman government but the super pious Rabbi Zacharia protested saying, “People will claim that we sacrifice blemished animals.” The animal was turned away, Ceasar assumed it was because they were rebelling and the army was sent to destroy Jerusalem.

Some days I have a hard time trying to decide who is the real villain in this story. Is it the informer, Bar Kamtza or is it Rabbi Zecharia who, in trying to be so pious, brought about the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation? I keep thinking of this story as I listen to Jews today who try to make any sense out of the relationship between the United States and Israel. In a similar way, it is hard to tell who the villain is in this story. I don’t think it is America nor do I blame Israel. But there are those who say they love Israel who are doing more to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state under the guise of piety patriotism.

Negotiations between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama are really not very different from the negotiations between Israel and the United States under any administration, Israeli or American. The United States would like to see peace in the Middle East. And I really believe that Israel desires peace with her neighbors. But there are some here in the USA and some Jews in Israel who would not like to see peace, so they spread lies and half truths, informing one side against the other and acting so pious that someone should suggest that America or Israel compromise for peace. Let me make one thing crystal clear. One does not make peace with enemies by standing on principles. If there is to be peace, it will come because both sides have compromised and both sides have made concessions.

That said, let me share some compromises that will eventually have to be made. If you look at a map of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the legal and the illegal ones, you will see that if the Palestinians hope to have a country some day, there will be settlements that will have to be dismantled. That is a fact. There will not be enough land to do anything in the West Bank unless some of the settlements are torn down. To continue to permit these settlements to grow, will not only sabotage any possibility of peace, but it will endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers who must be deployed to defend these Jews who are only interested in their own political statements and not the welfare of the entire state. Why should all of Israel suffer because there are fanatics who believe that the West Bank should never be traded for peace? What we will have to give up and what we will be able to keep will eventually be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States wants to see those talks begin; America really has no interest at all in what is decided between them. America does care about what fanatics are doing to undermine the possibility of peace.

If someone were to break into your home and barricade himself in your spare bedroom and then want to negotiate so he can stay, that is absurd. For Jews to buy land in Jerusalem so that it will be impossible to share the city with the Palestinians is equally absurd. American money is being sent to Israel to buy up this land so it can be given to Jews and to push the Arabs out of areas of Jerusalem that they have lived in for centuries. The latest scam is to buy the land and say that Arabs will be living there and when the housing is improved, Jewish settlers move it. They then dare the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality to throw them out. These are not the actions of people who want peace. These are actions of people who don’t care if Israel goes to war again.

To these people, if the United States, Europe or any other country want to bring about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, then they must be discredited at all costs. Every disagreement between Israel and other nations is blown way out of proportion. I read this week that President Obama walked out on Prime Minister Netanyahu and left him “stewing” for two hours in the White House because Obama did not respect the Israeli Prime Minister.

I challenge anyone to find any record of such a snub in any mainstream press account. I make that challenge because I know it to be a lie. Any decent newspaper, American and Israeli, reported at the time that Obama and Netanyahu met long into the night over the issue of building in the Arab sections of Jerusalem. When it was clear that they were at an impasse, Obama ended the session for the evening. Netanyahu’s staff asked if they could remain in the building while they considered the final proposal. Obama’s staff permitted them to stay. Two hours later, they notified the White House staff that they had a new proposal that they wished to share with President Obama. Obama, who was getting ready for bed, came back and met further with Netanyahu. They still could not agree on a compromise and so they quit for the night. That is how the New York Times reported the encounter the next day. It was presented as evidence that both sides were ready to do all that was necessary to find a solution. It was not to be. That is how political compromises work.

It is no secret that Israel and the United States do not see eye to eye on what needs to be done to bring peace between Israel and her neighbors. Israel has political realities that Netanyahu cannot ignore. The United States must press Israel on these issues if there are to be any negotiations. But Obama has political realities he has to face. Israel has many strong supporters in Congress and in the American public. There are good and important strategic ties between Israel and the United States. The United States is not about to “sell out” Israel. If the United States can live with a corrupt Afghanistan government, then our country will not turn our backs on Israel which is the only really stable democracy in the Middle East. We certainly will never sell out Israel to a corrupt, unstable Palestinian government nor will they turn Israel over to Hamas terrorists. Diplomacy is not a game for the faint of heart.

The left also has it fanatics. Divestiture of Israel and university snubs also undermine peace efforts. Israel may not be a perfect state, but it is a long way from Apartheid. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is not responsible for the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The fact of peace in Israel has no impact at all on the fate of American troops serving overseas. Israel has de facto peace with almost all her neighbors and terrorists may try to disrupt those relationships, but the course of these negotiations will have little impact on worldwide terrorism nor will it stop the spread of radical Islam. Selling out Israel in fact, would make all of these problems more severe.

The Israeli government has some difficult decisions to make if it wishes to make peace and end this constant state of war. There is pressure from the left and the right to undermine any attempt at making a lasting peace. Should we sacrifice anything for peace? 2100 years ago a Sage embarrassed the Sages into turning away an animal that had a minor blemish for a sacrifice that could have saved the Temple and Jerusalem. There will be sacrifices this time for peace. For a real and lasting peace. Yitzhak Rabin understood this and these same Jewish elements cried out for his blood and celebrated his assassination. We can expect Israel not to give one inch of compromise for anything short of a real and lasting peace. And we can expect that the United States will do all it can to insure that Israel will have the peace that She deserves. That road may be rocky and there will be many bumps and bruises along the way. We need to be supportive of Israel as she has to make the difficult decisions about settlements, about Jerusalem and about what needs to be done to bring about peace.

President Obama is not our enemy. Secretary of State Clinton is not our enemy. Our enemy is anyone who acts with malice to prevent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It certainly includes Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Al Qaeda. It may also include militant Israelis who place their own agenda over the needs of Israel’s government and citizens. It may also include those who are trying to drive a wedge between Israel and the United States, who have a long history of close ties and common bonds. I warn all the Jews of America, let us not fall in line with the wrong side.

May God keep Israel Strong, Safe and Secure and may her government be free to do what it must to bring peace to all her cities speedily and soon. Amen

1. Shabbat Shalom

2. The very core of our Torah reading this Shabbat is about the day that the priests were installed to their positions in the newly constructed Mishkan, the sanctuary that our ancestors built in the wilderness. It should have been a day that Aaron and his family would remember forever. But they would remember that day for a very different reason.

3. At the height of the installation ceremony, suddenly, the two eldest sons of Aaron, Nadav and Abihu are suddenly struck down by God for offering “strange fire before the Lord”. The ancient commentators and even the modern ones are not really sure what exactly they did. We are not sure if it was a breech of Temple protocol, if it was a character defect in these two young men or if they (as all too often is the case) were just the spoiled sons of the High Priest and unworthy of becoming priests. We are not really given a reason for their sudden death by the hand of God. But perhaps there is a hint about the problem that can be found in the text.

4. Before the story of the installation can continue, there is a short passage that gives a new responsibility to the priests who are officiating in the Mishkan. Aaron is informed by God that priests are not to enter the Mishkan while under the influence of intoxicants. Wine and beer can be consumed when not on duty, but when the priests are to officiate, they are to be completely sober.

5. Not surprisingly, Many commentators point to this passage, coming so close on the heels of the death of Aaron’s two sons, and declare that the sin of these two young men was that they appeared before the Lord, drunk. Unable to properly perform their duties, God struck them dead. One cannot perform holy service unless one does it with a clear mind and with complete control.

6. The problems of alcohol and drug abuse are still with us. The ability of substances to impair our abilities seems to know no bounds. Just listen to the news on any given night and we can see quickly the devastating effect that substance abuse has on our community. Just yesterday, a 28 year old man appeared in court on child endangerment charges. His two toddlers were found in his car at 2 AM, parked in front of a bar. One child was sleeping, the other flagged down a passing woman to tell her that they needed to eat. The young father and his brother were drinking in the bar. There were open cans of beer in the car. They had been drinking all day and had forgotten to feed the children. The police arrested them. Where was the mother? The parents were divorced and it was the young father’s day with his children. Only he forgot to spend it with his kids, he spent it instead partying and drinking.

7. Just like Nadav and Abihu, the children of the wealthy and famous seem to be the ones with the biggest abuse problems. They are in the news all the time. Sometimes they think that their rich and famous parents will get them off the hook when they are arrested. But let me tell you a secret. Substance abuse among the famous may be the fodder for tabloids, but the problem affects many families from all walks of life….. Including seniors and including Jews.

8. I know that there is a common saying that Jews don’t get drunk. I can tell you from my Rabbinic experience, that this proverb is just plain false. I have helped Jewish teens battle drug problems. I had money from a Purim carnival stolen to buy cocaine. And it does not stop there. There are all kinds of addictions that plague humanity. I had a woman embezzle money from the Sisterhood gift shop to pay for her gambling habit. Eating disorders are often just food addictions. I am not talking about someone who just craves chocolate, but someone who has no control at all over their eating.

9. Addictions are not a problem of self control, they are a sickness that is in need of specialized care. It is often not the case that someone can just choose to stop drinking, drugging or gambling. The reality often is that their inability to stop is what is feeding their addiction. The more they drink, the worse they feel because they are out of control, the worse they feel, the more they drink to stop the bad feelings and the cycle goes on until they die, or get some serious help.

10. Do you know someone with an addiction problem? Chances are you do. The signs of addiction are all around us if we choose to open our eyes to the reality. I will bet that most of you don’t know where to buy illegal drugs. Or at least you don’t think you know anyone who sells drugs. I will bet, however, that you do. In almost every condominium and senior neighborhood, there are people, people you know, who always seem to have an endless supply of prescription drugs to share with neighbors. Especially pain killers and anti-depressants. Where do they get this supply and how can they pay for those drugs? They trade for them with your neighbors and sell them so they can buy more. Are you sure that you don’t know anyone? Next time you are at the pool, just ask a friend who you should ask to get a pain killer for “a painful hip”. Chances are someone will tell you right away who you should go to for Oxycontin or Percoset.

11. Hospice nurses tell me that when a senior dies at home, the first thing they tell the family is to destroy the extra drugs that are no longer needed. This way they cannot be stolen when the family is sitting Shiva. I have heard of seniors and others, who, when invited to a party, use their time in the bathroom to explore the medicine cabinet to see if they can steal a few pills while they are there. Sometimes seniors take more than napkins and sweet and low from the table. I have heard of people who have stashed in their purses bottles of wine when they think no one is looking or when asked to “water the plants” when someone is on vacation, they help themselves to a few drinks thinking nobody will miss a few glasses of wine.

12. Gambling is another addiction. I was not the least bit surprised that there were so many arcades in Delray Beach when I got here. I was also not surprised that there is regular bus service to regional casinos. It is one thing to lose money in a casino. It is another to lose your entire retirement fund thinking that the next win will let you replace it all. Only that one win never comes. Hey, I used to like to take a few dollars and try my luck from time to time. I can’t go to casinos anymore. I see the vacant eyes of the men and women mindlessly feeding the slot machines, with endless cash coming in from their credit cards, and I lose my appetite for gambling.

13. With the Internet, gambling has taken on a new dimension. You don’t even need to go to a casino, it is as close now as your own computer and all you need is a credit card to start playing. I have yet to see a cruise ship without a casino that opens just as soon as they are out of United States waters.

14. As far as I know, there is no cure for addictions. One can only learn to live with the understanding that the gambling, the alcohol and the drugs are the enemy and the only good day is one when we are successful in that we don’t abuse anything for the entire 24 hours. Addicts measure success in how many days since their last drink. They support each other in their daily struggle to stay clean and sober. The next time you are on a cruise, you know how much the cruise lines push alcohol, notice on the daily schedule that there is always a group meeting, usually before dinner, for “friends of Dave”. Dave is the name of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The meeting is a support group for those who know that if they start drinking again, they will lose their friends, their family and maybe their lives.

15. If you know an addict or someone with an addiction problem; drinking, prescription drugs, gambling, and you want to help, what can you do? First, you have to be determined to stop enabling their habit. Don’t loan them money, don’t give them gifts, don’t cover for them when they get in trouble and stop making excuses for them. They are sick and need help. Talk to their doctor so he will stop giving them pills they don’t really need. Tell family members that there is a problem and they need to intervene. Take the car keys away from someone you know is impaired. Tell them they are no longer welcome in your group if they continue to abuse.

16. I will tell you, this is not easy. Those of us who work with addicts have a saying. We ask; “How can you tell if an addict is lying?” the answer…”His lips are moving.” an addict will tell you anything they think you want to believe to cover for their abuse. They will tell you they have stopped drinking, they have thrown away all their pills, they haven’t been gambling for “a long time” but they need just a few dollars because they are short this month, just until their next check arrives. You think this person is your friend, but they have no friends, they only have their addiction, and they will sell our their friends, their family and anyone who will listen just as long as they get what they want, the money to get their next score.

17. How do they manage to remain addicted so long? Usually they have an enabler, someone like a spouse or a child who does not want to believe that there is a problem or would be too embarrassed to admit the problem. Those of us who work with addictions, also believe that addictions can be hereditary. Just another genetic disease. Do you know someone with children who have addiction problems? Don’t be surprised if they have a parent or a grandparent with their own addiction problem.

18. A person with a serious addiction needs effective intervention. Only when they lose the support of their family and friends, only when they hit bottom, arrested, broke, thrown out for their homes, can they see that their lives are out of control, and only then can they begin to fight back to take control of their lives. It is a painful recovery. They will need to ask God to forgive them. They will need to seek forgiveness from the people they lied to and cheated when they were using, and they will eventually have to find a way to forgive themselves. I have sat in on these “confessions”. There are the lies and the cheating or course, but some have done worse, they have sold their bodies, stolen money from children and parents, embezzled cash from their jobs or from the causes where they volunteer, they have done whatever it takes to get the next drink, and now they have to face the disease and speak out loud the sins of which they know they are guilty. Only when it is spoken out loud, in public, can they break the cycle of abuse and start to heal.

19. I have to ask, sometimes, if we at Temple Emeth are enabling those who may have a drinking problem. We all know that there is wine and hard liquor in the back for those who want a drink and nobody there to limit what they might drink. A small shot of whiskey is one thing. I have seen people, here in our congregation, go out early for Kiddush, and drink their scotch from a coffee cup. We serve wine at every dinner, but never do we offer grape juice for those who don’t drink. I think it is time we had some second thoughts about how we serve alcohol here in our Temple. Certainly everyone who wants a shot of bourbon is not an alcoholic, but do you know how much liquor we go through in a week? And we buy the extra large bottles! I suspect that there are those in the kitchen who know who comes in early and drinks a bit too much. I think what is needed is something more than just looking the other way.

20. Nadav and Abihu paid with their lives for their drinking. Their example should give us all pause. Must we wait until someone dies before we take some sensible steps to control the consumption of liquor at our synagogue and the exchanges of pills in our condo? We know the harm that it does, the auto accidents, the falls and broken bones, the broken families and the broken lives. We need to speak up, to learn the signs of addiction and know what we can do to really help those who struggle with this terrible disease. We may not all be guilty of substance abuse, but we are all responsible. Speak up if you know someone with an addiction, and together we can find a way to help that person find their way to get back control of their life.

21. May God help us do the right think and bring healing back to those who are afflicted. As we say… Amen and Shabbat Shalom

Shabbat Shalom

Many people have asked me why I don’t often speak about Israel. There are a lot of reasons that Israel is not the first topic I gravitate to when I begin planning my lessons on Shabbat. First of all, I don’t consider myself a political commentator. Cable Television and Talk Radio have full time commentators that are able to put their full time into examining and researching the nuances of international politics. They do a far better job of analysis than I can do. Second, Judaism is a vast and intricate way of living and Israel is only one part of it. I have to balance my time covering the ritual, historical, spiritual, moral, communal and private aspects of our faith. Israel is a part of this, but it isn’t the only part, so I split my time between them all.

But the biggest reason that I don’t often speak about Israel is because I know that when I do, I make a LOT of people angry with me. I don’t think it is wise to have my congregants come to synagogue to get angry at the Rabbi, so I don’t often venture into the realm of politics.

But I am going there today. This was a very interesting week for Israel, for the United States and for all the pundits and bloggers who comment on every blip in politics between these two countries. There was a bit of a spat last week. Vice President Biden went to Jerusalem. He went to show his support for Israel as indirect talks with the Palestinians was about to begin. But in the middle of his visit, the Interior Minister of Israel decided to announce that there would be 1600 new homes to be built in East Jerusalem. The announcement not only angered the Palestinians, it embarrassed the Vice President. Everyone got angry but as the week ended, our President called the whole thing just a “disagreement among friends”. But if you were reading the papers and listening to the news, one would have thought that we were about to break diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Right wingers here and in Israel saw this as another example of how the Obama Administration is trying to undercut Israel. The Left wingers saw this as another example of Israel snubbing the United States and preventing a Middle East peace agreement. Which one was right? In my mind, neither of them. While they all can point to a myriad of “proofs” that their side is correct, the truth is, as usual, somewhere in-between.

My opinion? Israeli politicians play a vicious kind of hardball that goes far beyond any right/left argument in this country. I have little doubt that the Shas and Yisrael Beytainu parties were looking for a way to embarrass Prime Minister Netanyahu. He needs them for his coalition and they could act with impunity to undercut any talks with the Palestinians and to promote the building of settlements. Now the Prime Minister can’t overturn the announcement without causing the government to fall. He can apologize but can’t give the US a freeze on building in East Jerusalem. The US will not send its envoy, George Mitchell, to Israel; the Palestinians will boycott even indirect talks and the world gets a chance to condemn Israel one more time. Only it gets scarier. This week, for the first time in quite a while, a rocket was fired from Gaza and it killed a Thai worker on a Kibbutz.

Hamas, yes Hamas has asked groups not to fire rockets. Now the Al-Qaeda militants, with whom Hamas has allied themselves, have challenged Hamas to stop them. Hamas buildings in Gaza have been bombed by these extreme militants. Hamas will now have to assert some control over Al-Qaeda; but if they do, they could be seen as being “soft” on Israeli aggression. If they don’t, Israel could invade again and destroy more of the Hamas infrastructure. Hamas is now squirming as much as Netanyahu. This is not good for peace, and it brings both sides way too close to killing each other again.

I generally feel that Israel has to play the same kind of hardball that the Palestinians play. I don’t like it but then, I don’t live there. My opinion: leave this kind of political posturing to the experts in Israel. Between the nuances of diplomacy and the unknown factors that come from Israeli intelligence which we will never know, we should not be telling Israel what to do.

But I don’t feel that Israel is always right. This past week, one of the ultra Orthodox members of Knesset introduced a bill to give full control over conversions in Israel to the Rabbanut. It would also not allow those who converted out of the country to become citizens of Israel. We had barely 48 hours to stop this bill. The outcry from Jews, all over the world was so loud that the bill was pulled from consideration for now. The Jewish Agency, UJC, Federation, Reform and Conservative/Masorti Jews are now in discussions with the Prime Minister’s office to prevent this bill from getting back on the floor of the Knesset. Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, has expressed his support to kill this bill. So far, it is off the table.

But the issue of freedom of religion for Jews in Israel is still on the table. Every attempt to get State money to build synagogues for Conservative and Reform communities is defeated. Any attempt to get our Rabbis on the local religious councils is subverted either legally or illegally. In some cases, rabbis properly chosen for the council find that the Orthodox rabbis refuse to call a meeting. Even rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court have been ignored by these groups who deny basic religious freedom to Jews who are not as frum as they are. These Orthodox groups are rioting over civil rights for people they don’t agree with. They are rioting over parking lots open on Shabbat and are rioting to close industries that dare to be open on Shabbat. They are way out of control and no one, not the Army, the police nor the Government of Israel seem to have the nerve to stop them. They throw chairs at women at the Western Wall who dare to pray wearing tallitot. They have attempted to steal the Torah scrolls from non-Orthodox synagogues and there have been a series of fires at some Conservative synagogues, multiple attempts at arson. So far, nobody has been caught. In this country, these would be hate crimes. In Israel, they happen almost every day. If you want to know why Americans don’t make Aliyah to Israel, look at how Conservative Jews and Reform Jews are treated like second class citizens, being spit upon by Orthodox Jews, and the State does little to help.

On the issue of whether or not Israel is treated fairly by other nations, here I can see where a little paranoia is warranted. Some countries just can’t say anything good about Israel. No matter how many acts of terror Israel endures, she is still told that it is her own fault. No matter how much the Israeli Army tries to fight a war in a humane way, it is never enough. No matter how many humanitarian missions Israel sends to poor countries and to disaster sites, Israel is never given credit. Israel seems to be the country everyone loves to hate.

What I find interesting is how some countries have now had to back away from this stand. Governments sometimes say and do things for all kinds of political reasons, but Western countries can’t fool their citizens for long. England just had a really serious bout of Anti-Semitism and it has so embarrassed the country that they have softened their criticism of Israel. France had Moslem youth rioting in the streets. Jews there are told they should not wear a kippa outside because of the danger. French Jews are leaving France and immigrating to Israel. France is so embarrassed by all of this that the French Prime Minister, in spite of his own problems, has said some things in support of Israel. Turkey says one thing publicly against Israel but still sells Israel vitally needed oil. Saudi Arabia, no friend of Israel, in the face of its own terrorism, has stopped broadcasting hatred for Israel. Even Abu Dhabi, where the Mossad may or may not have killed a Hamas leader, has condemned the Israeli government for the murder but has not condemned the entire country.

Israel has trampled on the civil rights of many citizens. Not just Palestinians but her own Arab citizens, as well as homosexuals of all faiths. There is culture of corruption that we can compare to our own Dade County where politicians are found guilty of all manner of scandals; stealing money, sex scandals, giving no show jobs to friends, bribery etc. They run again for office at the next election and get elected by promising to give more money to those who get out the vote. Arab citizens in Israel get precious little justice in Israeli courts and some elements in the Israeli army seem to think that they can harass Palestinians with impunity.

So you tell me. Am I on the right or on the left when it comes to Israel? Do I believe in the Jewish State, no matter if she is right or wrong? Not hardly. Do I condemn her at every turn for her policies? Never! Do I insist on peace at any price? Nope. Do I advocate killing all the Arabs and ending this long war? No again. Do I believe that Israel has made some mistakes? Yes. Do I think that Israel deserves its bad reputation in the world? Nope. Israel is clearly held to a standard that no other nation is required to hold. Sometimes I agree with Israeli policy, sometimes I don’t. I lend my voice to the most outrageous claims, and roll my eyes over the rest. Israel is just another country trying to make the best decisions it can. Sometimes they do it right, sometimes they don’t. Their track record is no better or worse than any other country. When she gets it right, I am first in line to cheer her on. When she is falsely accused, I am first in line to defend her. And when she is wrong, democracy tells me I can offer my critique and vent my frustration.

So, after all this, I can say without any hesitation. I love Israel. It is the only real democracy in the Middle East. It is the one place where Judaism can be practiced openly. It is the political stage where Jews make a difference in world politics. It is the best refuge for Jews all over the world who are in danger. The existence of Israel makes Anti-Semitism harder in any country since Jews can count on the support of Israel, a State prepared to rescue Jews in danger anywhere in the world. In just a few more years, there will be more Jews in Israel than in any other country in the world. We are first in agricultural research, in technology, computers, reversing desertification, and Israel even has a pretty stable economy in spite of her high taxes and constant state of war. Israel is a miracle, a miracle that I proudly support.

I pray every day that God gives Israel’s government the courage, wisdom and strength to meet every challenge and to be true to her values and faith. May this be our constant prayer, as we say… Amen and Shabbat Shalom

Parshat Vayakel/Pekuday

2010

SHABBAT SHALOM

If the incident of the golden calf, which we read last week, teaches us anything, it teaches that the people needed something tangible to focus their attention in prayer. Clearly an image of God or some other figure was not permitted. In fact, we will see later in the book of Numbers, Moses will make a bronze image of a snake to save the people from a plague and it will have to be destroyed centuries later when the snake becomes an item of veneration by the people.

The Israelites need something visible, something in the realm of space so they know where to look when they pray. In this week’s parsha, we see the People of Israel giving their gold and jewelry to build a Mishkan, a portable sanctuary that will go with them as they travel in the desert. The people will not be permitted to ever see the Aron HaKodesh, the Ark that would rest in the Holy of Holies, but they would know that the presence of God was inside that tent and it would give them a place to direct their praise, petitions and thanks to God.

Over the millennium, we have grown to better understand the nature of this God that has no physical form and without any parallel in the physical world. We have come to understand that no matter where we are and no matter how far we are from sacred space, God is still with us. We know that God is all around us and inside of us. And yet… we still direct our eyes and our hearts when we pray, to the front of the synagogue, and if there is no synagogue, we direct our gaze up to the sky, perhaps a vestige of our childhood belief that, up there somewhere, is an old man with a beard who wants to hear our prayer.

As long as Jews have built synagogues, we have tried to create inspiring prayer spaces. Ancient Jews decorated their synagogues with elaborate mosaics on the floor. In Eastern Europe, a shteible was any small room where people prayed, but there was also a grand Synagogue in the cities, where, on Shabbat and Holidays, the community would gather for formal worship. Many of these synagogues were elaborate structures with great works of art inside. Here in America, we have created grand synagogues with soaring ceilings, stained glass and unique artwork. Some of the greatest American architects have tried their hand at creating a spiritual atmosphere in which we can pray.

Take a look around this sanctuary. It is a beautiful place to pray. The windows let in a mixture of natural light and the hues of the stained glass. The seats are comfortable, the bima is easy to see and the sound system brings all the beautiful notes of our Hazzan to life. The entire room calls our attention to the front where our eyes are lifted to see the Ner Tamid, burning in front of the Ark. Everything about this room is designed to inspire us to words of prayer.

But if I were to ask, which of the elements of our sanctuary is the most important parts, where should be invest our resources to improve our prayer experience, what would you answer? Should we invest in our bima, updating our ark and bima furnishings to new and inspiring forms? Perhaps we should make our prayer space more accessible for those who enter with disabilities, so that they too can be inspired by this space? Should we change the colors of the walls, the carpets or the ceiling? Should we improve our entry foyer or buy new doors for the sanctuary? Funds are limited, of all the things in this room, which should be the first to be improved?

I often enter this sanctuary when there is nobody here. The lights are off and only the Ner Tamid lights my path. I can tell you, when the room is empty, it is just that, a big empty room. The most important part of our synagogue is not the bima, windows or seats. The most important part is the people sitting in the seats.

Without you sitting here, nothing in this room would make any sense. All of the beauty and all of the furnishings are designed for people to appreciate them. We are the most vital part of our synagogue. The Hazzan can sing and I can preach on this bima, but without you, the congregation, it is only an exercise in futility. It is you who inspires us. It is each and every one of you that makes Temple Emeth a place of inspiration.

I mention all of this because we, all too often, come here and insist that others stay out of “our space”. People get angry if someone else should sit in their seat. We don’t take too well to changes in our synagogue. Each part of the building has a story to tell, and we find comfort in arriving here and finding everything just the way we remember it.

Over the past weeks, as discussions about our merger with Anshe Shalom began, there has been a lot of discussion about what would happen to our building, to our property and to our sanctuary. Will we get to stay in this building or go to the other synagogue? Where will we sit for the holidays? Where will we park for the holidays? How can I feel at home in a different place than here?

One of the things I like to do as I travel around the country, is to visit the daily minyan in different places. One of the things you learn about daily minyan is that what is important are people. If ten adult Jews don’t walk through that door, then nobody can pray. When prayer is that intimate, we learn to take notice when someone is not there one morning. We learn to care about those who join us in worship and to care about their family. At minyan, we look out for each other, help each other, learn from each other and celebrate with each other.

The reality of our congregation is that no matter where we are, no matter what may happen, in the end, we are all about people. Terrible things could happen to our building, (God forbid), fire, flood, hurricane, but as long as we are together, as long as we gather together to pray, to learn and to share good times, we are a community. If we were to leave this location to build anew in a different part of town, with a different floor plan and different space, as long as we are together, we will still be “home”.

If we merge with Anshe Shalom (and we are still not in the “sure thing” stage), but if we merge, there may be good financial, logistical and practical reasons to leave this building and gather together down the street. If we do, it may be a different building and a different location, but as long as we are with our friends, we are where we belong. No one knows what the future will bring, but as long as we are together, we can face that future with strength and security. Anyplace where the members of Temple Emeth gather, that is where Temple Emeth will be.

I am, like you, very curious about how the two congregations will resolve the many issues that the future will bring. There are certainly many things upon which there is general agreement, but there are significant challenges as well. Some of them affect the members of both congregations. These are serious issues and will require some very careful negotiations to resolve. Combining two different congregations, making new friends and establishing new habits, these can be very challenging. But the issues of space and logistics, these should be the easiest to resolve.

So if your seat is broken, if the carpet needs cleaning, or if the walls need painting, that is all easy to fix. But if, after a whole year together, we don’t know who is sitting in front of us or behind us … that is a major problem. A crisis is not about the building, it is about whether or not visitors feel welcome when they attend our service for the first time. What is important is not space, but relationships, friendships and concern for our neighbors. If we can master that in our congregation, we can handle any other issue the merger might bring.

May God help us see past the physical to see our fellow Jews, to pray with them, to welcome them, and to share holy time with them. If we can do this, we can face the future with certainty that our holy community will be eternal.

May God be with us on the path to our future as we say….AMEN AND SHABBAT SHALOM.

Parshat Ki Tissa
2010
1. Shabbat Shalom
2. This Shabbat we have read about the lowest moment in the history of our people in the wilderness. The people, anxious that Moses has been on the mountaintop so long, begin to fear that he has died and there is no one to lead them to the Promised Land. They have no leader and without Moses, who will bring to them the world of God? Our people were frightened and feeling alone.
3. So they start to demand a God that they can see. After all, Moses was their only link to the invisible God and now Moses is gone. Every other nation had a god or multiple gods that could be seen and worshipped directly. Can we really blame them for wanting a golden calf? Some scholars claim that the calf was really not a god at all; the calf was merely the pedestal upon which God would stand. God was invisible, riding on the back of the calf but the calf gave the Israelites a place to direct their prayers.
4. Others blame God for the golden calf. After all, God has left Israel in Egypt for hundreds of years. All their experience with religion had been in Egypt where there was a god for everything and the gods were larger than life. Some Sages claim it is like a parent that sets his son up in the hair styling business and puts the shop in a part of town where all the vain and shallow people congregate. Then the parent is shocked that his son has become vain and shallow. “Don’t blame your son,” the friends of the father say, “after all, you set him up in a bad part of town.” So too, it is God’s fault that Israel strayed, after all, God sent them to live among the Egyptians! Do you ever notice how when children get in trouble, they always find a way to blame the parent!
5. The details of the story focus on the sin of the people for demanding a god they could see. I look at these passages and understand that the people have a serious concern and there are no really good answers to their problems. Moses seems to have vanished. The people are lost and afraid. A god they can see would be their “security blanket”, to help them feel the closeness of God. The golden calf was an object they could point to, admire and direct their anxiety toward. I guess there is a bit of Aaron, Moses’ brother in me. I can’t help feeling sorry for the people. After all, could we honestly say that if we were in the same circumstances, we would have done better?
6. It is true that we don’t fashion gods out of gold anymore. But we do put our trust in lots of things that clearly are not God. We put our trust in our possessions, that they will protect us from hard times. We trust that our investments will be there to pay for our retirement and then are horrified to find out that when the economy takes a dive, that our investments are unreliable. And apparently we could not trust those who were supposed to prevent the misuse of our retirement funds, they too were fallible and could not prevent either Bernie Madoff or the financial crisis. Do we rely on our Doctors and Lawyers and Politicians to save us from tragedy? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. People used to rely on Insurance to protect them from tragedy, but today we know that sometimes it is very hard to get an insurance company to pay what they owe us.
7. We also all have our superstitions that we rely upon to protect us. The lucky charm that we take with us when we leave our homes. The mezuzah that we think will protect us at home and the Jewish jewelry that somehow brings us under God’s protecting wings. Dare we ask ourselves what we are really expecting to happen when we stand up and add our friends’ and loved ones’ names to the Mishebayrach for the sick? Is kissing the Torah s sign of respect or do we expect good luck? What about if we kiss the Rabbi? (No, that would be a bad idea. Way too many germs out there.) We may know that there is a God that we cannot see, but we rely all too often on things we can see to save us from the dark forces that surround us.
8. So then, what SHOULD we do to face the future with confidence and certainty? If Judaism, if God, knows that we are insecure human beings, what does our religion and our faith have to teach us about where we should look if we seek to find God?
9. The first place we should look if we seek the image of God is in the face of the people around us. Not just those who sit around us in synagogue, but those among whom we live, work, eat and play. Each human being is unique from each other, but all of us are created in the image of God. It is not in our differences that God can be found, rather, God is found in the core parts of each and every one of us, deep inside where we are all the same. I am not talking about raising up one person to the level of God; I am talking about finding that spark of the divine that exists in every person, old and young, male and female, religious and secular, Democrat or Republican, black, white, red or yellow, rich or poor.
10. I think Moses, when all was said and done, understood the fear and anxiety in the people. When he returns to the mountain, he too is unsure and insecure. Did he do the right thing in punishing the people? How could he blame them for their sin if they really did not understand the full meaning of a God that sees but cannot be seen? He needs God to forgive the people but this is the God who destroyed the world with a flood, and overthrew the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. What would prevent God from destroying the Israelites for this grave and serious breach of the new Jewish law? Moses does not know what to say to God about the people and he is unsure himself about the nature of this God, who saved Israel from Egyptian slavery, but demands complete and perfect loyalty. Moses returns to the mountain and returns to God with one request, to see the “presence of God”. What Moses actually sees is the subject of Jewish mystical literature. I am only concerned with what Moses hears.
11. He hears that famous passage :
12. “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord! The Lord! A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the \

13. thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin:”
14. When Moses hears this he understands that God has forgiven the people, because the essence of God is forgiveness. If we are to understand that human beings are created in the image of God, then we must also understand that these qualities of God are the qualities that we too must cultivate if we are to discover the nature of God’s essence.
15. When we are gracious and full of compassion, we can see the point of view of others easily and can work to ease their discomfort and to calm their souls. When we do, we can “see” the image of God at work. When we are slow to anger and when we fill our hearts with abundant kindness, we are bringing the presence of God into the world. When kindness leads us to forgiveness of even the most dark sins, we can easily experience the divine in ourselves and in others. When we bring these qualities of God down to earth, we are creating the foundation so that together we can move forward. Life is no longer stuck in the present or in the past. When we bring God into the world, we also make possible the future.
16. A Hasidic Rabbi once offered this prayer to his students, “if you can treat every person next to you as if he were the messiah, waiting for just one more act of kindness so that his presence can be revealed and the world redeemed, if you can treat that person to every act of kindness, then even if that person is NOT the messiah, it will not matter.”
17. We bring God into the world when we reach out our hands to those who are in need, both Jews and non-Jew, no matter if they are in Delray Beach, the United States, Chile, Taiwan or Haiti. When we hear of earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis or fire and we open our hearts, our hands, our homes and our wallets to those who are alone, afraid and suffering, we are bringing God into the world, and making the presence of God into a reality. When we visit someone who is sick, comfort someone who is bereaved, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, stand up for the oppressed and clothe the naked, we have created the image in which we can focus our prayers and our eyes.
18. The golden calf should never be worshipped; we should instead worship the golden heart. We should not berate others for not being pious enough, rather we should aspire to live the kind of life that we would like to see in others, and then shower all those around us with the kindness and concern that will make others sure that if they too seek God’s presence, they only need to emulate your actions and open their hearts to others. We need to be less judgmental, and more forgiving. We need to be less impatient and slower to anger. We need to be less strict with the law and more merciful in our dealings with others. And above all we must be kind.
19. When we feel alone in the wilderness, when we feel anxious about life and insecure about what the future holds for us, when we find ourselves looking for a Moses to lead us out of the wilderness and into the promised land, we need look no further than our own hands and our own hearts to unlock the secret of God’s presence in our lives and in the world. God is not on the mountain top where we must climb to find God. And God is not across the sea that we must sail far and wide to find God. And God is not deep within the earth requiring our strength and stamina to find God. God is in every meaningful relationship. God is found whenever we open our hearts and God is close at hand whenever we turn to our neighbor in compassion and kindness.
20. May we all find God today and every day, in our actions and in our hearts as we say…
AMEN AND SHABBAT SHALOM