These are the words I shared with B'nai El Congregation on Yom Kippur Morning 5770. Please feel free to e-mail me with comments and feedback.
As I look around the sanctuary on a morning such as this I am, in so many ways, astounded by the amazing diversity that we represent even within this small congregation. Obviously we are either all Jews, connected intimately enough with a Jew to find ourselves here instead of work, seeking to become a Jew or simply interested in learning about Judaism in very serious way. Despite that Jewish connection that we all share in some way, we are still an incredibly diverse group of people.
Some here have spent nearly every High Holy Days of their lives in either this synagogue or in one of B’nai El’s previous homes. For you B’nai El has represented the leading force in your Jewish life and identity. For others, like myself, you grew up in, and may have even belonged to as an adult, another Reform congregation, either here in St. Louis or elsewhere. Many of you, and a recent statistical study suggests that it is as many as half of you, grew up in or spent a significant portion of your life affiliated with a congregation that was either conservative or orthodox, or not Jewish at all. Still others have spent either childhood or a significant portion of adulthood unaffiliated, not being a part of a congregation, and some of our guests still fit in that category.
As if that diversity is not enough, irrespective of those categories, each of you have a different connection to this congregation. Once again, for some, you come almost weekly for services and take advantage of classes that interest you. Others prefer some of the leadership and social aspects of the congregation to our religious aspects. For others our commitment as a congregation to social action connects you and others of you are here for the sake of the religious education we provide for your children, and others come during these days, only coming at other times for specific special occasions.
Once again, this diversity is amazing, and I haven’t even gone into our diversity based on our ethnic backgrounds (even within Judaism), gender orientation, professional positions, socio-economic class and political points of view. In each of these categories this congregation I know spans virtually the entire spectrum. As Americans and as Jews we can celebrate this diversity, knowing that in many ways it makes us stronger. As it says on the coins and bills in our pockets, e pluribus unum, from many – one.
But at the same time as Jews this diversity gives us some pause. If we are so different in all of these ways, what, besides the word “Jew” keeps us together? If diversity is the only goal, is it then not even better that, while we maintain our personal Jewish identity, we all up and join a Unitarian/Universalist congregation, where we as Jews could join with like minded Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Wiccans and atheists?
As a community of Reform Jews, we recognize the flow of history and how the Jewish People has played a role in it. Before the horrific events of the 1930’s and 40’s, we looked at a humanity that seemed to be moving on a direct path toward more openness, more acceptance, more tolerance. The Reform movement saw that the Jews place in such a world was to try to move the process forward even more quickly toward a messianic era of peace and harmony for the world.
That dream, however, was shattered by the events of World War II, from the Shoah, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the Iron curtain that fell over Eastern Europe. While we have seen progress in the 60 some years since then, the creation of Israel, the fall of that same iron curtain and an increased level of tolerance for all types of minorities in this county, it is hard to argue that the world as a whole is on a direct path toward pursuing the messianic dream.
The constant threats to the very existence of Israel, becoming sharper in recent years, the fundamentalism in the Muslim world that threatens freedom everywhere, and the fundamentalism in our own nation that threatens even modest steps toward the type of moral, scientific and political progress that once seemed inevitable all give us reason to despair. It leaves us adrift in this post-modern world, wondering where is our place, what is our purpose. Where once this seemed clear, now it is truly muddled.
Therefore, on this day of days, Shabbat of Shabbats, as it is called in the Torah, we seek, through our prayer and our confession, even a little glimpse of what our ancestors once found so sure. What is it that, despite our diversity, calls us together as a Jewish people, what is our purpose and goal as a people and how do we get there, or at the very least how do we move ourselves and our generation a little closer to there?
These are very challenging questions, and I do not expect to provide some sort of definitive or ultimate answer to them, rather I will share with you today some of my recent thinking on these questions. I was especially influenced in both my desire to tackle these issues and the approach that I am taking to these issues by my recent reading of the book, “Renewing the Covenant: a Post-Modern Jewish Theology” by Dr. Eugene Borowitz, the pre-eminent philosopher of the Reform movement in the second half of the 20th century.
Ultimately, Dr. Borowitz’s ideas can be simplified into one word: Covenant. This means that we, as Jews, are covenanted to God as a people and as individuals. That covenant still calls us to certain actions and duties, even if those actions and duties of today are different than the actions and duties of years past. This is an idea and concept I accept as true. The covenant was formed through the Sinai experience and shaped by every generation of the Jewish people who care to engage in the covenant.
Jews are covenanted to God as a people and as individuals. This is an important statement that breaks down into three distinct questions. The first is what is this God that has covenanting authority? The second how do we, as a people, relate to that God and that Covenant? And the third question is how do we as individuals support and participate in our people’s relationship to God and the Covenant? It is through sharing some thoughts on these three questions that I will attempt to shed at least a little light on the larger question I posed before: what is it that calls us together as the Jewish people?
What is this God that has this covenanting authority? This, of course, is a very large question. Traditional Judaism tells us that this God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, and as such has the power to command groups of people as He (God is always He in traditional sources) sees fit, and we better listen. This is a very simplistic answer. While, most of us in this room do recognize a God, or some type of divine power that created and sustains the universe, we understand the way God relates to the world in very different terms from our more traditionally minded co-religionists.
As individuals who have come of age and lived in a democratic society, we hold dearly the concept that those who govern us do so only with the consent of the governed. This idea or ideal is challenging when it comes to applying it to a covenant relationship between God and people. How do we give our consent to be governed by an entity that we cannot see, and toward which we have a variety of views? All the more so who are we to not consent to be governed by such an entity, one that has created and sustains the universe? The answer lies somewhere in between those two questions. As a matter of faith, but not fear, we can willingly assent to live according to our own interpretations of God’s commands. This is the ideal of Reform Judaism: that we are in a constant, sacred conversation with the commandments, and in that way in constant conversation with God. It is in this way, through an ongoing dialogue, discussion and experimentation that we consent to being in covenant with God.
So now we come to our second question: how do we, as a people, relate to that God and that Covenant? I gave the answer in part already. As a people, in order to understand the conditions of our covenant and to best fulfill our duties as we understand them, we must be in conversation with God by being in conversation with the basic texts of our covenant: the Torah, the later scriptures and the conversations of generations past (the Talmud, commentaries, codes and response that cover over 2000 years of these conversations).
Fortunately so much of this work of conversation is ongoing for us as a people. From the ultra-orthodox yeshivot in Jerusalem, to the academics and scholars of the American Conservative and Reform seminaries, the scholars of our people are continuing the conversation on behalf of the entire Jewish people. For us, as Reform Jews, scholars such as Dr. Mark Washofsky in Cincinnati and his responsa committee tackle questions of practical Judaism sent in from Jews around the world on a day to day basis. Dozens of other scholars work doing similar tasks every day exploring our sacred texts, our history, philosophical ideas, and the lives of Jews as we live them today. The conversation is continuing.
But it is not only at that level where the conversation is taking place. This conversation continues every day, every week at synagogues across the country and around the world. When we gather together on Shabbat morning to engage in Torah study with our friends at Shaare Emeth, we are taking part in that conversation. When we gather for Shabbat and holiday services and I read and explain a piece of Torah, or give a non-text specific teaching as I am right now, we are continuing the conversation. When we come together for a class, when we discuss how we as a congregation are going to respond to issues that have Jewish importance, when we bring our children to religious school for them to learn, we are continuing that conversation.
Therefore, if our task as a people is to continue that conversation and live as a community in response to that conversation, then it is our task as a community to create and sustain the institutions and situations that engender the conversation and allow us to live our lives as a people in response to the conversation. Of course our synagogues are the places where we can do this at the most basic and practical level, both in terms of carrying on the conversation and living in response to it.
Other Jewish organizations also allow for this as well. The Federation both raises funds and distributes them using methods derived from our sacred conversations and organizations such as Hadassah and other Israel support organizations, Jewish Family Services, the various programs and departments of our Reform Movement all are created and act in response to these conversations. On a higher level, as I already alluded to, our seminaries, such as the HUC-JIR, both goes into great depth on these conversations and prepares individuals to go and lead communities in this task: continuing the conversation and living our lives in reaction to those conversations about our place within covenant to God.
This brings us to the final question: how do we as individuals support and participate in our people’s relationship to God and the Covenant? The first part of this question has a very simple answer – we support our people’s relationship to God and our Covenant by being a part of a congregation, giving of ourselves to the congregation in terms of both our time and money as we are able, and doing the same for additional organizations as well, both those in which we participate and those from who’s work the Jewish people as a whole benefit.
But support is not enough; it does not bring us, as individuals into the sacred conversation. No matter how much we may give, or what board positions in our congregation or different organizations we may hold, if we do not participate in the real life of our people, participating in the conversation and living in response to it, then our support is holding up a house of cards. For a sacred community such as ours to not just survive, but to thrive and become a place of living Judaism, we need a membership that is participatory and knowledgeable. Otherwise to what end is the money and time that is given to this congregation?
As I mentioned before, we have many opportunities to engage in the life of our people within our congregation. Our Shabbat and holiday services, opportunities for social action, and activities relating to the ritual life of our people such as our building of the Sukkah on this coming Wednesday evening, all provide an opportunity for us to live our lives in response to our covenant with God.
There is even more; opportunities to enter the conversation about our covenant abound as well. On your seats you will find a sheet of paper outlining the vast array of programs offered through this congregation (sometimes in cooperation with others) all of which allow for you to participate in the sacred conversation. Our Shabbat morning Torah study offers a weekly opportunity to engage directly with our sacred texts, as does our every other week lunch and learn. A new current events class beginning in October will allow us to learn how we can take our sacred learning and apply it to very modern situations. Another new class that will begin in November will allow us to see how others have interpreted the Jewish mission and community through film, and allow us to respond to the issues the writers, actors and directors bring to life for us.
My words and the paper in your hands are only a sampling of what is offered in this congregation and in our community. Other activities exist as well, from the Jewish Book festival, headed up by our own Zelda Sparks, to the Sichot Kodesh series that will allow you to learn on a variety of topics from just about every Rabbi in this community. All sorts of opportunities for learning about and participating in our covenant exist; it is simply up to you to go.
In the Torah portion that we will read shortly, we will read in part, “You who stand here this day, all of you before the Lord your God … to enter into the sworn covenant...it is not with you alone that I make this sworn covenant I make it … equally with all those who are not here with us today.” This tells us that the covenant between God and the Jewish people is an eternal covenant, covering all the generations, this covenant, even in its multitudes of interpretations is what keeps us together as a Jewish community even amongst our diversity.
We are all a part of this covenant as the text of our Torah portion makes clear, from the richest to the poorest of us, from the most learned to those who are new, oldest to youngest, born Jews and those who converted along with those who are a part of our community by way of marriage to a Jew, all of us are a valued part of the covenant and all of us, whether we are here this day or not, have a role to play in this covenant if we choose to do so.
We do ultimately have a choice if we want to participate in the covenant or not. We have the choice as to whether we heed the call of our people or not. We can ignore that call. To do so, however, not only hurts the community, but also hurts the individual. To ignore the call is to deny your heritage, to withdraw from your community and to live a life apart, lacking a foundational path for finding meaning, hope and faith.
As I have said, there are a multitude of ways to answer the call of our covenant, to respond to and add to the sacred conversation between God and the Jewish people that continues to this day. All I, B’nai El and so many other organizations can do is to provide opportunities; to take advantage of the multitude of opportunities is up to you.
May each person here, in this coming year, step forward and take up your inheritance of this rich and deep covenant with God. May each of us participate in the sacred conversation that is the lifeblood of our people. May each of us rise up and respond “hineni” “here I am” to the call of our people, the call of our sacred texts and the call of our God.
