What if the internet goes in and out. Not a complete failure but disruptive. You write up what you were planning on saying. Here is some of last night’s discussion….

With thanks to Temple Beth Sholom in New York and Congregation Kneseth Israel in Elgin, IL, we participated in a late night services to really “open the gates” of the Days of Awe. This ancient service used to take place just before dawn when Jews believed G-d is closest to us. Others would begin the service at midnight. We started at 8:30 East Coast time or 7:30 Central time.  

With the help of The Bayit and the excellent music of Cantor Jerry Korobow and the words of Rabbi Sharon Ballan we began with Havdalah and continued through the high lights of the prayers for the High Holy Days. It is all designed to get us in the mood, to beg G-d for forgiveness and to make us think, to reflect about our lives. For this we use the ancient words that G-d taught Moses, reminding G-d of G-d’s very nature that includes that G-d is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, full of lovingkindness and truth, and forgiving of iniquity, transgression and sin. 

We used a setting for these 13 Attributes of the Divine from Beged Kefet.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRKs2k3e634   

This setting is part of how I became a rabbi. Growing up in Grand Rapids I was always reminded by others that the Jewish G-d is the G-d of vengeance and the Chrisitan G-d, you know, Father, Son and Holy Ghost is the G-d of Love. What I didn’t understand fully is that G-d is G-d. G-d is One. G-d is loving. Period. And G-d will forgive our sins. Period.  

Yet, we are also taught “For sins between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones, but for sins between a one and another, Yom Kippur does not atone, until he or she makes peace with his fellow.” 

My congregation has a four part vision statement that includes meaningful observance. It is a challenge, because what is meaningful to me might not be to you and visa versa. The real challenge is in making a life of meaning.  

Our discussion last night centered around Ron Wolfson’s book, The Seven Questions You’re Asked in Heaven, Reviewing and Renewing Your Life on Earth. 

Wolfson identifies seven questions that you might be asked in heaven. It fits squarely with the metaphor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that G-d is evaluating our lives and writing our names in the Book of Life.  

Here is the list: 

1. Did you tell the truth (in business and elsewhere)? 

2. Did you leave a legacy?
3. Did you set aside time to study?
4. Did you have hope in your heart?
5. Did you get your priorities straight?
6. Did you enjoy this world?
7. Were you the best you could be?

And for each question there are other questions that could be asked or explained. Let’s dive in.: 
1, Did you tell the truth? We talked about telling the truth can be difficult. Can mean in business that you are not a team player but in the end it is better. We talked about “Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it true?” and whether being able to maintain a filter can help. We talked about Brene Brown’s book, Rising Strong, and her idea that if we assume that everyone is doing the best they can, we can eliminate much grief.  As Wolfson said, “It’s not easy to live with lies.” And in fact, all the way back in our reading for Yom Kippur, the holiness code, we are commanded to have honest weights and measures. As our former CKI president would say, “It is all about balance.” Balance and honest in our work lives and in our personal lives. Honesty is about accountability. Do you count on others? Do others count on you? That’s how we become a blessing. Debbie Friedman’s beautiful misheberach, the prayer for healing of mind, body or spirit, says, “Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing.” Every one of us counts, just like in the beginning of the book of Numbers, which starts with a census. Honesty, truth, faithfulness are related words in Hebrew with the root, Emet, which is another name for G-d. It represents the first, the middle and the end. They are the key values of a life well lived. Be honest with others. Be truthful with yourself. Be faithful with your G-d. How are you honest.  

2. Did you leave a legacy? Many times we see our legacy, our place in time as our children and grandchildren. However, a legacy could be your children and grandchildren or it could be a poem or other writing or a business. Some people become teachers and their students are their legacy. (That applies to corporate training and mentoring too!) Nobody of their deathbed ever asks to be able to work longer. Most want to spend more time with family. (That gets to priorities, see below.) It is what you leave behind. What values do you want to leave? Here I usually tell the story of Honi. He saw a man planting a carob tree. “Why are you planting something you won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.” The answer was “Just as my ancestors planted for me, so too shall I plant for my children and grandchildren, my descendants.” It is part of how we live out the message of Girl Scouts, to leave the world a better place. How are you leaving a legacy? How are you teaching others? How are you making the world a better place? 

3. Did you set aside time to study? It teaches in Pirke Avot that we should, in fact, set aside time to study and many of the people on this call are active participants in adult study, whether that is a book group, adult Hebrew, Torah Study, even going to services. But study doesn’t have to just be Jewish. One person talked about teaching juggling to kids who were having a hard time succeeding in school. What great mentoring. Teaching and Learning in Hebrew have the same three letter root. For me and my husband, we try to study with another rabbinic couple every week. Thursdays at 2 will find Rabbi Steve Peskind, his wife Judy, Simon and me drinking coffee, laughing, catching up on our lives and reading a book together. Yet it is hard in our busy lives to keep to the schedule. Someone is late. One of us has a funeral. Someone has had a hard week. Currently, we are studying a book called “The Talmud of Relationships.” We don’t often agree with everything in the book but it is a great discussion starter. Pirke Avot also teaches that without Torah there is no bread (sustenance, income) and without bread there is no Torah. We also say that we turn it again and again. That’s why we read it in a yearly cycle. If we turn it again and again, we will learn everything. “Through the study of Torah, by applying its lessons to our lives, we learn to make a living and to make a life well lived.” The study of Torah leads to it all. See we are back to creating a meaningful life! Often, I have dreamed of learning Spanish or studying voice. Those goals will have to wait for another year. What do you long to study or teach? How do you make learning a priority? 

 4. Did you have hope in your heart? We talked about how hope helps us with fear. We talked about Rebbe Nachman’s song, “All the world is a narrow bridge. The important thing is not not be afraid.” Louis Armstrong sang, “What a wonderful world.” When G-d created the world, G-d saw it was very good. That’s hope. When Anne Frank was hidden, she wrote, “Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart.” That’s hope. Roosevelt talked about it in his famous speech Obama wrote about it in the Audacity of Hope. “It wasn’t just the struggles of these men and women that moved me. Rather it was their determination, their self-reliance, a relentless optimism in the face of hardship.” But sometimes hope is hard. As Wolfson says quoting a cancer survivor, “We don’t always feel it. Whan you insist that we be hopeful and positive, we feel we have failed when we aren’t. Don’t cut off the possibility that we will share our burden with you and the opportunity to support us through hard times.” How have you fostered hope and optimism? 

5. Did you get your priorities straight? Did you understand one thing from another?  Say what? We’re back to priorities. What is really important to you? How do you find the things that matter to you most? How do we achieve balance? Sometimes I use a Star of David and put the things that matter to me most in the six points. Sometimes I replay the experiment of the rocks in the jar. (Spoiler alert—you will see that one in person or on Zoom soon). What is the most important to you? Ultimately, this is about asking the big questions. Did you ask questions about your life experience that led you to wisdom. Did that analysis lead you to understanding? As Wolfson put it, “Were you able to combine your analytical abilities with your hard-won wisdom from your experience to make good choices.” If you knew you only had one more day to live, what would you do? I’ve thought about this a lot recently. For me, I would still like to travel—that includes back to Israel and Italy and places I haven’t been, Alaska, Hawaii,  Giverny, Savanah. I would like to learn to dance. I would like to be a better wife and mother. And according to the very first piece of Talmud I ever learned, I should repent one day before I die. The rabbis then ask, how do we know when? Then we should repent every day. How perfect as we approach these Days of Awe. Teshuvah is not just for the Yamim Noraim but every day. These are the questions that will help us answer our big question. Did that you lead a life of meaning? 

6. Did you enjoy this world? This is the one that has really captivated me this year. In a year where it has been hard to celebrate, it is important to find ways to still enjoy life. The actual question was “Did you see My Alps.” G-d created the Alps and they are a thing of beauty and an awesome sight. It is OK to enjoy them. It is more than OK to enjoy them. You are supposed to. But like with meaning, what is enjoyable or pleasurable to you may not be to me and visa versa. The rabbis of the Talmud teach we should say 100 blessings a day. What blessings for pleasurable things can you think of. When we were driving through Michigan this summer there was a billboard, “Do what you love.” It was a sign for a job fair. Wolfson summed up this chapter giving us permission. “Enjoy G-d’s creation. All of it that is permitted to you. Each and every minute. Today…and every day.” How have you enjoyed this world. What would you still like to taste, touch, see, smell, hear?

7. Were you the best you could be? This was the question that Reb Zusia asked. When he was dying, he was crying. His students, his legacy, were surprised. “Why are you crying?, they asked. He answered, that when he died, he was not going to be asked, “Why were you not Moses?” Instead, he would be asked why was he not Zusia. This is like the Army commercial. We are asked to be all that we can be. We don’t need to be Moses or Zusia. We need to be the best we can be. We need to be fully, uniquely, ourselves. Figuring out who we are is our life’s work. 

And in the end, we decided that the questions are very interconnected. And related to the Mary Oliver poem, The Summer Day, which asks the question, “What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.” We only have one life to live. That life is right now, in the present moment.  

Wolfson sums it up beautifully. “Now you have a choice. You can look at your life so far and answer the questions. Or you can look forward and ask yourself, “How can I get to yes.” How can I be more honest? How can I leave a legacy? How can I find time to study? How can I have hope? How can I prioritze? How can I enjoy? How can I be me?” 

Let’s ask these questions. Now while the gates are open.  

1. What is a commandment and who is doing the commanding? 

2. What are the purposes of the commandments? 

3. What habit would you like to change? 

4. Are any of the commandments more important to you than others? Why or why not? Make a list of those that are.  

1.  
   Identify what behavior you want to change. 

2. Identify the stimulus that creates your behavior 

3. Identify the response. 

4. Identify a substitute. 

5. Try for seven days. 

6. Record in a log and share with us! Did it make a difference? Is the new habit established? 

Still playing catch-up. But here is Re’ah. It is based on a recent experience I had learning of a family that chose organ donation.

“Ani l’dodi v’dodi…I am my Beloved and my beloved is mine.” These words from Song of Songs, are chanted at many weddings. Is also the acronym for the month of Elul that starts tonight. Tonight we celebrate, yes celebrate Rosh Hodesh Elul—just 40 days to Yom Kippur. As the midrash teaches, it was on Rosh Hodesh Elul that Moses began his journey back up Mount Sinai to receive the second set of tablets of the 10 commandments.  

G-d was willing to give Moses, and the people of Israel a second chance.  

Yes, even after the sin of the Golden Calf, G-d will take us back in love. G-d will go with us and give us rest. So very needed in these complicated times.  

But what happened to the first set of tablets?  

According to Torah, the first set was inscribed by God’s finger – whereas the second were chiseled out by Moses and rewritten by God – but it doesn’t tell us what happened to shards. One Talmudic tradition states the broken tablets were placed in the Holy Ark along with the second, which were intact. Another tells us: “Two Arks journeyed with Israel in the wilderness. One in which the Torah was placed, and the other in which the tablets broken by Moses were placed.” 

Estelle Frankel said in her book, Sacred Therapy, that “If the two sets of tablets represent developmental stages we go through in our spiritual and emotional development, the first tablets correspond to our youthful dreams and ideals. . . . The second tablets represent our more mature visions and dreams, which perhaps are not as lofty as our youthful visions and dreams but are more viable. . . . Gathering up the broken pieces suggests that we must salvage the essential elements of our youthful dreams and ideals and carry them forward on our journeys so that we can find a way to realize them in a more grounded fashion. For ultimately the whole and the broken live side by side in us all, as our broken dreams and shattered visions exist alongside our actual lives.” 

They are like the pieces of the glass that are shattered at a wedding, that many couples keep for placing in a mezuzah to reminds them of their dreams on their wedding day.  

Today’s Torah portion, we are told “See I set before you blessing and curse.” It implies then that we then have a choice, to choose blessing. That part seems easy. Who wouldn’t want to choose something good?  

Melissa, you have chosen Jason and Jason you have chosen Melissa as your beloved. Ani l’dodi v’dodi li. As a blessing.  We, as your congregation, are excited for you. You have dreams and goals of happiness. Visions of the way life will be in your new married status. 

There are books with titles like Finding Joy and Choosing Happiness—and there is some evidence in modern psychology that you can in fact choose happiness or at least put it as a slogan on a coffee cup or a t-shirt.  

The reality is that each of us will go through experiences that will seem like curses. Can we find the blessing in the curse? That can be really, really hard to do.  

That’s because there are a couple of challenges here. The first is to not blame G-d. While our parsha tells us explicitly that blessings and curses come from G-d, I am less sure of that. The name of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book is When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and not why? The question is what do we do when bad things happen. 

We have a choice. We can choose how we respond to tragedy. One thing I tell people preparing for a marriage is to prepare wills and health care proxies and power of attorneys. I pray that you then don’t need them for a long, long time. As part of your advance directives, I strongly encourage people to become organ donors.  

Sometimes people are surprised. They had heard that Judaism rejects organ donation. But it is not true. Even in the Orthodox world, organ donation is now encouraged. Of course, we Jews argue about everything—even this. But here are my positions as your spiritual leader. 

It says in the Talmud that if you save one life it is as though you have saved the whole world. I actually quoted this earlier this week as it related to the vaccine clinic. Some were disappointed that so few people that night chose to be vaccinated. Let’s look at that another way. While I don’t have the final number of people vaccinated that night, you can think about it that at least 5 people’s lives may have been saved.  

For much of this past year, we have talked about the principle of pekuach nefesh, saving a life. That principle relates to organ donation too. 

While some have argued no to organ donation, because Judaism prohibits the unnecessary mutilation of the dead. However, if the mutilation is done with the purpose of saving life, the principle of Pikuach Nefesh allows it. 

Judaism encourages the quick burial of the dead and prohibits the postponement of burial, and harvesting organ may postpone burial, if it is done with the purpose of saving life, the principle of Pikuach Nefesh allows it. This applies as well for donating a body “for medical science” 

We are also prohibited from benefiting from the dead.  Although the recipient of the dead person’s organs benefits, since this was done with the purpose of saving life, the principle of Pikuach Nefesh allows it. 

Israel, in particular, in 2008 passed laws allowing organ donation passed with the full support of its Chief Rabbinate. The Halachic Organ Donor Society and other organizations like that, including Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz my friend and colleague who happens to be an Orthodox rabbi,  who has donated his own kidney and arranges for others to do likewise, encourages and supports organ donation. 

In my role as police chaplain, I recently learned about a family that chose, our key word, to donate the victim’s organs, after tragedy. Six people received the gift of life. I am grateful that that family in the midst of unspeakable tragedy had the courage to choose blessing. May we all be able to do likewise. See, I set before you blessing and a curse. Choose blessing. Be a blessing.  

Every now and then, you write a sermon and it doesn’t “preach well” Here is what I was trying to say. You need two eyewitnesses. Eye witness testimony is unreliable. Just look at the research on the black blue dress. So in pursuing justice, and setting up fair courts, the death penalty, while permitted by Biblical law is not used in rabbinic law. Here is the full, edited sermon:

“Seeing is believing.” We’ve all heard that. But my answer is “Well, maybe.” 

Seeing places an important role in Judaism. We are told in the same chapter that we are commanded to “Love our neighbors as ourselves,” to not out a stumbling block before the blind. We are told that we cannot see G-d face to face and live and that Moses was the only one who did—and that Moses saw G-d’s backside. What does that mean? Sometimes when I am teaching kids I say that it is like the wind. You cannot see the wind and yet you know it Is there. You feel the breeze on your face. See the leaves rustling. Sometimes, like this week, you see the destructive nature of wind, and you know it was there. You witness it. 

We witness G-d’s presences by feeling G-d’s loving compassion and mercy. We emulate that by doing similarly. As Sotah tells us, just as G-d clothed Adam and Eve, we should clothe the naked. As G-d visited Abraham, we should visit the sick. As G-d fed the Israelite manna, we should feed the hungry. As G-d buried Moses, we should bury the dead. Each of these is the visible sign of G-d’s compassion. That is how we walk in G-d’s ways. It is about walking the talk, to use that business phrase.  

The Sh’ma, the proclamation that G-d is one, the watchword of our faith commands us to hear.  But there is also a command to witness. The last letter of Sh’ma, Hear is ayin (which actually means eye) and the last letter of echad, dalet, taken together these two letters, ayin dalet mean witness. 

Today’s Torah portion has lots to do with justice, tzedek, tzedek tirdof, justice, justice shall you pursue. Part of that is in creating fair, equitable courts. One thing you need is two witnesses. Male, of course. We women didn’t count.  

And as a footnote. That is still true today. As recently as 2001 and again in 2004, in a Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative Movement, in a well researched and documented responsa went through all the halacha. https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/19912000/geller_womenedut.pdf  

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/20052010/mackler_women_witnesses.pdf  

So women can be witnesses but cannot sign legal documents especially for gittin, divorce decrees.  

To this day, when I meet with wedding couples I suggest strongly that they have two, male, non-related witnessed for the ketubah signing so that there are no questions about status in case they ever want to move to Israel. It is always a painful part of pre-marriage counseling.  

And it is important for another reason. In the case of an agunah, a chained woman, In the case of a classical Agunah, a woman whose husband has disappeared and it is not known whether the husband is still alive, a single witness (even a woman or slave, normally invalid as witnesses) may testify that the husband has died, and on that basis the woman may remarry. 

Take a breath. That was a long footnote…and while that is important, you need to understand that there are two kinds of witnesses in Judaism. Testifying—those that witness a crime for instance and attesting, those that witness something like a chance in status—marriage, divorce, conversion, even rabbinic ordination. 

It leaves us with a critical question:  

What, then does it mean to witness something?  

Scientific American did an entire issue on this important topic.  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-seeing-believing/  

We have all seen, yes seen, and probably argued about the blue or gold dress Perhaps you saw a blue dress with black stripes or a white dress with gold stripes.  

https://slate.com/technology/2017/04/heres-why-people-saw-the-dress-differently.html  

For more fun, including the tennis shoe. Is it teal or pink, try this article: https://www.insider.com/best-optical-illusions-photos-2017-10#as-you-probably-know-by-now-the-dress-turned-out-to-b 

It is fascinating to think about how the eyes see something and then the brain processes it. Apparently most people at first saw the dress as white and gold but in reality the dress was really black and blue. Read the article. It is fascinating and fits within our scientists in the synagogue grant. How do we really see what we see? 

It has practical implications for this very Torah portion. We need just courts. One of the most significant books I read in 2020, just before the world shut down, was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson about his death penalty work. There is a movie by the same name, which I confess I haven’t seen but should. We know in this country that people who are on death row are disproportionality people of color have not had the same access to quality legal representation. It is part of why my husband’s brothers, both attorneys, have argued death penalty cases at the US Supreme Court. This is a topic with my own commitment to racial justice I too feel passionately about.  

But what does Jewish tradition say? Like everything, the rabbis argue about it. Biblical law allows for the death penalty in 36 offenses. They include crimes like murder and kidnapping, adulty to incest and rape, idolatry and apostasy and, pay attention kids, disrespecting parents.  

And yet, by the time of the Talmud, in Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 we learn that rarely was there is a need for “presenting completely accurate testimony in capital cases because for any mistakes or falsehoods could result in the shedding of innocent blood. If any perjury were to cause an execution, ‘the blood of the accused and his unborn offspring stain the perjurer forever.’” This is the root for learning, which I quoted last week in a different context, that “if you save one life it is as though you’ve saved the whole world. If you take a life it is as though you have destroyed the whole world. 

In Talmudic times, capital cases required a 23-judge court, while you only needed 3 for a non-capital case. The US Supreme Court is 9 people (and yes, it includes women!) And coming out of today’s portion, you needed two or more eyewitnesses to testify to the defendant’s guilt. (Sanhedrin 4:1) Judges were urged to rule against conviction and if there was a one-vote majority, you could not convict. So additional judges were added in pairs until the majority ruled against conviction. (Sanhedrin 5:5)  That piece was new learning for me, so if you look at current discussions about “packing the court” I guess as Ecclesiastes says “there is nothing new under the sun.” 

The real argument against the death penalty is here: “Said one: The Sanhedrin (Supreme Court) that puts to death one person in seven years is termed tyrannical. Rabbi Eleazar Ben Azariah says, ‘One person in seventy years.’ Rabbi Tarffon and Rabbi Akiba say, ‘If we had been in the Sanhedrin, no one would have ever been put to death.’ Rabban Simeon Ben Gamaliel says, ‘They would have thereby increased the shedders of blood in Israel (Mishnah Makkot 1:10).’” 

Many have argued through the years that the death penalty serves as a deterrent. That argument was made to me recently as it relates to the sentencing in the Poway Chabad shooter, most research has shown that the death penalty does not work as a deterrent. Would that have made a difference with an Hitler? An Eichmann? It is an important question.  

While the last line of this sugiya, argument may be used to support a belief that the death penalty, if carried out judiciously, can be a deterrent, prevailing Jewish thought in every major Jewish movement in the United States has followed the previous opinions, which either oppose the death penalty outright, or allow for it only in the most extreme — once in seventy years — circumstances. Following this line of thinking, the major Jewish movements in the United States all have specific policy supporting either abolition of the death penalty, or a moratorium on its use. 

And here’s why. If you convict on eye witness testimony it may not be accurate. We just proved that back with the white and gold, or wait, blue and black dress. People see what they see.  

In 1992, the Innocence project was founded to use DNA testing to clear wrongly convicted people. As of  August of 2019, they have won 365 exonerations including 20 people on death row.  

This, is part of what we learn out of today’s portion. Tzedek, tzedek tirdof. Justice, justice shall you pursue, by setting up just and merciful courts AND making sure that they are equitable with honest eyewitnesses and the right kind of evidence. And that we should not support the death penalty, not even once in 70 years.  

Part of the Scientists and the Synagogue grant:
Va’etchanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11 

Parsha Summary: 

This is BiG, this is really, really BIG. This Torah portion has the repetition of the 10 Commandments. Well almost, There are a couple of key differences. And then the Sh’ma and V’ahavta. The watchword of our faith. The proclamation that G-d is One. Something we are witness everything we say it. 

This week in our synagogue service, our Bar Mitzvah proclaimed, called out, read the Sh’ma from the scroll itself. What a thrilling moment.  

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One.  

Listen up folks. G-d is the only G-d; there is no other. The Israelites have been told that over and over again. All the way back to when G-d was more powerful than Pharaoh. They have seen G-d’s might displayed. The 10 plagues. The Exodus. The parting of the sea. The quaking of Sinai. But this is the new generation.  

Earlier the Israelites had promised that they would do and they would hear. How could they promise to do something before they knew what they were promising? 

The rabbis in the Talmud teach a couple of interesting things about this verse. We are commanded to recited the Sh’ma twice a day. These very words. When we lie down up and when we rise up. The rabbis wonder whether it counts if we read the words out of the scroll. The answer is no. You have to intend to say them, not just read them. They also teach that your ears have to hear what your mouth is saying.  

The Sh’ma is so important that in order to have the right intention, the right kavanah, you need to really hear it. This notion fits within the context of the therapeutic relationship. Psychologists know that by saying something out loud, then it becomes more concrete, more real.  

That raises questions about what happens if someone cannot hear.  We are told we should not put a stumbling block before the blind or curse the deaf.  (Lev. 19) But living with someone who lost his hearing, or most of it, while undergoing chemotherapy, it can be very frustrating.  

Ultimately the question here becomes how do we hear? How do we listen? How do we obey?  Scientifically, here is a great TED Talk to explain it: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-science-of-hearing-douglas-l-oliver 

The good news is that we understand so much more about hearing than ever before AND the technology for helping hearing impaired people has improved so much. This is clearly a time to be grateful for the scientists and all their work on this topic.

Table Topics: 

1. What does it mean to hear? 

1. Why does the Exodus version of the 10 Commandments say “Remember the Sabbath” and this version say “Keep” (Or guard or watch)? What is the difference? Is there a difference? 

1. How do you show that you love G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might/being, all your everything? 

1. How can G-d command an emotion? 

Labs at Home: 

1. Materials: 

• Plastic wrap 
• Container with wide opening 
• Uncooked rice (any other small grain will work) 
• Tin cookie sheet (or other noise maker)  

It’s easy to make a model of the eardrum (also called the “tympanic membrane”) and see how sound travels through the air. Just stretch a piece of plastic wrap over a large bowl or pot (any container with a wide opening will work). Make sure the plastic wrap is stretched tightly over the container. The plastic represents the eardrum. Place about 20-30 grains of uncooked rice on the top of the plastic wrap. Now you need a noise maker. A tin cookie sheet or baking tray works well. Hold the cookie sheet close to the plastic wrap. Hit the cookie sheet to create a “big bang” noise and watch the rice grains jump. 

The “big bang” produces sound waves (changes in air pressure) that cause the plastic sheet to vibrate which causes the rice grains to move. Sound waves vibrate the eardrum in much the same way. 

2. Play the game telephone. Sit in a circle. Someone starts by whispering a sentence to the person next to them. That person whispers what they heard or think they heard to the person next to them and so on until it gets back to the person who started. See how the sentence changed. 

Act of Kindness: 

Help someone go to an audiologist to get a hearing test. See how the Lions Club makes a difference in vision and hearing in your community. 

Song: 

Check out this version of the Sh’ma done in sign language. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUU4vy2tmM  

Some of you may know that Congregation Kneseth Israel was the recipient of a grant from Sinai and Synapses to explore Science in the Synagogue. Our task has been to take each parsha and provide a summary, some table discussion topics and a hands-on lab. Tomorrow, July 20th, our education director, Heather Weiser and I will be speaking about this grant and how it has energized our community at NewCAJE, a professional development conference for Jewish educators. We are one of four organizations in the country in this round of funding.

Let us know how these are meaningful to you. We will keep you posted on how tomorrow’s presentation goes.

Devarim, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 

Parsha Summary: 

This week we begin a new book of the Torah, Deuteronomy. In Hebrew it is called Devarim, Words. These are the words…These are Moses’s last words. It is his swan song or his ethical will. It is a retelling of the history of the Israelites. This portion recounts the journey from Egypt to the steppes of Moab, as the Israelites are ready to enter the Promised Land. Moses tells the Israelites that “The LORD your God has multiplied you until you are today as numerous as the stars in the sky.” (Deuteronomy 1:10) This is the promise that was given by G-d to Abraham and it seems to be coming to fruition. Yet, in the original text of G-d speaking to Abraham, G-d promises to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea. What happened here? Here is another example: Moses tells the Israelites about how he delegated his authority. He leaves out that he learned this from his father-in-law Jethro. What happened here?  

It seems that memories change over time. Remember that Moses is talking to the next generation. The ones that did not live through the Exodus from Egypt. While we are told that we are each to think of ourselves as though we were freed from Egypt and we each stood at Sinai, our memories of those events are not so realistic, dare I say. There has been much research on the neuroscience of memory in the last 30 years. Northwestern Medicine published an article about how memory is like a game of telephone. Once, when going over my own family history lovingly preserved in a family cookbook, my mother exclaimed, “That simply isn’t true.” My daughter and I looked at each other stunned. We grew up with the story of my grandmother who was Irish. What happened to my mother’s own memory?  

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2012/09/your-memory-is-like-the-telephone-game  

Table Topics: 

1. How does memory change? What does that mean for us? 
2. Why does Moses change his repetition of the promise to Abraham to become as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea? 
3. Learn the blessing for a shooting star:
   Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’olam, Oseh Ma’aseh Bereshit, Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, who does the work of Creation. This blessing also is recited for lightening (the first time during a storm), comet, earthquake, volcano, tornado, hurricane, ocean or mountain. When have you experienced awe? Has it drawn you closer to G-d? 
4. What values do you want to pass down to your children and grandchildren? What would you say in an ethical will? 

 Labs at Home: 

Go outside late at night and look for a shooting star or more! We are entering the height of the Peresid Meteor Shower. As EarthSjy has said: 

“2021 is a great year for the Perseids! The waxing crescent moon will set at early evening, providing dark skies. Start watching for these meteors in early August. Their numbers will gradually increase. Predicted peak in 2021: the night of August 11-12, but try the nights before and after, too, from late night until dawn. The Perseid meteor shower is perhaps the most beloved meteor shower of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a rich meteor shower, and it’s steady. These swift and bright meteors radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus the Hero. As with all meteor shower radiant points, you don’t need to know Perseus to watch the shower. Instead, the meteors appear in all parts of the sky. These meteors frequently leave persistent trains. Perseid meteors tend to strengthen in number as late night deepens into midnight. The shower typically produces the most meteors in the wee hours before dawn.” 

And apparently, it has begun earlier than usual on July 14th and continuing through August 24th. So go outside and look. Late at night. As far away from light pollution as possible. We will be trying a corn field or just a soccer field sometime after 10PM and before first light. Remember bug spray. Sit back, look back and count. See how many you can spy in an hour. Then report back. I always find the thrilling to see and I feel deeply connected to my ancestors who must have had the same sense of awe watching in the desert skies.  

Act of Kindness:
Sit down with an older person, a parent or grandparent, and ask them to tell a story of their earlier years. Ask them how that experience made a difference in their lives. Ask them if they know if anyone else tells the story differently, a sibling, a child. See if you can figure out how the differences happened. 

Song:
A while ago there was an animated movie, “An American Tale” about Fievel the Mouse who came to America to find freedom. The hit song from it was “Somewhere Out There.” Somewhere Out There – Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram(with lyrics) 

Hodesh Tov! Shabbat Shalom! 

This Shabbat is both Shabbat and Rosh Hodesh. Rosh Hodesh Av. Rosh Hodesh Menachem Av. It’s formal name that is used when we bless the new month.. Av is the saddest month of the year in the Jewish calendar. And yet the formal name of this month means Comfort of the Father.  

Rosh Hodesh is a half holiday, the start of a new month. Typically, we add Hallel, joyous Psalms to our service which we just did, and there is an extra Torah reading, outlining the extra offerings for Shabbat and Rosh Hodesh that was to be offered in the Holy Temple. Sometimes I talk about how that extra offering is the basis for musaf, the additional service on Shabbat, festivals and Rosh Hodesh. 

The three weeks leading up to Tisha B’av, is a period of mourning in Judaism. In the heat of the summer, people stop doing fun things. For instance, at Jewish camp, there may be instructional swim but no free swim. People stop going to instrumental concerts, wearing leather, eating meat. In the synagogue, there are three weeks of dire warnings in the haftarot: don’t go after strange gods or engage in idol worship or Jerusalem will be destroyed.

Jerusalem was destroyed. Her people exiled. In 586 BCE and again in 70 CE. These are dates that are seared into the Jewish gestalt, into our very kishkes.  

Shabbat interrupts the mourning. And yet, I am intrigued by the formal name of this month: Menachem Av. Where do we find comfort in the midst of tragedy? The question is as current today as it was 2000 years ago.  

People said that they find comfort in their family, in their friends, in nature, in shul. 

I find comfort in community. In people coming together to mourn as we did Thursday night or to celebrate as we do with the Morgans today and the Friedmans in a couple of weeks.  

The explanation of why the Second Temple was destroyed was because of sinat chinam, baseless or senseless hatred. The Israelites just couldn’t get along. While we are familiar with the Pharisees and the Saducees, there were maybe as many as 70 sects warring amongst themselves.  

We have seen lots of baseless hatred in the last few years. Both here and in Israel. There is no question that rising anti-semitism is real—but not just anti-semitism alone. Rising anti-LGBTQ hatred. Rising anti-Asian hate crimes. Rising street violence. The very fabric of this country seems to be unraveling before our eyes. 

In Israel we have seen four elections in two years, continued issues with women who want to daven at the Wall and just last week the Israeli rabbinate refusing to recognize a Jewish congregation in Guatemala and Uganda. Who is a Jew is still debated. Fiercely. 

What is the solution? 

Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi in modern day Israel had this to say: 

“If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love — ahavat chinam. (Orot HaKodesh vol. III, p. 324) 

Let’s consider this seriously—as the V’ahavata says, in our homes and on our way. Our homes themselves, ever since the destruction of the Temple, are to be seen as mikdash me’at, a little sanctuary, filled with shalom bayit, peace of the house. Our synagogues too, and as much as I talk about how Jews kvetch and argue, those arguments are to be for the sake of heaven. 

Which argument is for the sake of heaven? That too was debated. According to Pirke Avot, the argument between Hillel and Shammai was for the sake of heaven and the argument of Korach, questioning Moses’ authority. (Pirke Avot 5:17) 

Rabbi Menaham Meiri (1249-1306 Catalonia) explains the Pirke Avot. Why were Hillel and Shammai’s arguments for the sake of heaven? Because in their debates, one of them would render a decision and the other would argue against it, out of a desire to discover the truth, not to be cantankerous or to prevail over his fellow.  

Tomorrow there will be a rally in Washington DC: “No Fear: A Rally in Solidarity With the Jewish People.”  According to the Forward, it may be the largest demonstration in the nation’s capital since 1987 when 250,000 people rallied for Soviet Jews. (Simon and I were there!) or 100,000 rallied for Israel in 2002 during the second Intifada. The charge for this rally has been led by Elisha Wiesel, son of Elie Wiesel who was responding the immediate crisis of the recent rocket attacks in Israel and the subsequent blame game. I find it inexplicable how you can fire rockets into Israel and Israel gets blamed. It was a hard month—for friends living in Israel and for frayed relationships here with long standing friends and social justice partners.  

The need for this rally is real—and it will be important to note who will stand with the Jewish people, as we have stood with so many.  

Yet, not all are happy with this event. Many have praised it as a “triumph or diplomacy and Jewish solidarity.”  But some progressive groups have been alienated by the way the event came together, particularly over disputes related to Israel, which was the original rallying cry. 

The debate of who could, and should have a seat at the table—or the right to march in a rally against anti-semitism and for Israel, is a fascinating topic. I am proud that my good friend, another Menachem, Rabbi Menachem Creditor was chosen as a speaker. So was Rabbi David Saperstein who used to lead the Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center until he was chosen by the Obama administration as an ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom. They will speak alongside conservative speakers such as alongside a conservative figures such as Meghan McCain and Hussein Aboubakr. Those at the rally will also hear from victims of antisemitism, including Rabbi Sholmo Noginski, who was stabbed in Boston last week. 

But this coalition is fragile. There has been much back and forth about the statement the ADL wanted added that the coalition “will not tolerate expressions of racism, Islamophobia, misogyny, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia or any other hate.” Seems pretty basic to me. Similar to every statement on job applications and such. 

But that very language rankled some of the original, more conservative sponsors. 

As quoted in the Forward, “This is a rally about Jew hatred,” said Mort Klein, the ZOA head,  “It’s not that we’re not appalled by every hatred — of course we are — but this really waters down the theme.” 

So the references to specific forms of bigotry were removed Thursday, “leaving a more generic line opposing “all hatred.” Rally spokesman Nathan Miller said the deletion was inadvertent and due to the challenge of managing a web page that was being constantly updated. The full statement was restored Friday morning.” 

How will you decry anti-semitism tomorrow morning? Me, I’ll be running a 5K for pancreatic cancer research to support a friend who works for JUF bringing young teens to Israel. And yes, I’ll be proudly wearing my kippah! 

At CKI we’ve been known to argue too. Which prayer book should we use? How much English or Hebrew? Whether to sit or stand for Kaddish. Which tune for Adon Olam. Even, dare I say it, what kind of toilet paper.  

Perhaps some of those arguments, even well intentioned, are not for the sake of heaven and we should just stop. Just say no. Perhaps we should remember that everyone—and yes I mean everyone—is created in the image of G-d. 

As we approach Tisha B’av, in this year, with these challenges, where do we find comfort and how do we continue to work for ahavat chinam…baseless love. Perhaps it is with Rabbi Menachem Creditor’s own song which we often sing here. 

Olam Chesed Yibaneh.  

We will build this world with love. 

Olam Chesed Yibaneh   

And maybe it is with another classic song sung at many a rally, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”  

Let us continue to build this place with love.  

It’s been a while since I’ve published anything but I was asked to share this Shabbat’s sermon. So here it is and Happy Fourth of July!

I will grant him My pact of friendship—a covenant of shalom.  

Today’s Torah portion has much to say about counting and legacy. Here we have a census after the plague. Almost all of the Israelites who left Egypt have died. Just Caleb and Joshua and Moses are left. The intuitional memory of being a slave is gone. This is a new generation. And there they are…on the steppes of Moab, ready to go into the land of Israel, the land promised to their ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as part of the covenant, a land flowing with milk and honey–arrayed under their tribal flags to be counted. All the men, just the men, 20 years up, those of capable of military service. 

“Among these shall the land be apportioned as shares, according to the listed names.” This is about inheritance. Each tribe according to its size. But the women? Not so much. Until the daughters of Zelophehad: Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, who had no brothers, argued that their father’s name should not die out, that they too should inherit. They went to Moses, who went to G-d. And G-d agreed with the daughters. They inherited. And we stand on their shoulders. 

Perhaps it should say, I give THEM My pact of friendship—brit shalom, a covenant of peace. For all of us. Even now.  

I stand here this morning, Rabbi Margaret Joy Frisch Klein. I stand on the shoulders of the daughters of Zelophehad and the daughters of the American Revolution.  

It is no secret that the 4th of July is amongst my favorite holidays—and the time where we made a command performance back in Grand Rapids. After all my stepdaughter’s birthday is the 5th, my parents’ birthdays were the 6th and 7th. Those fireworks were for them, right?  It was one big weeklong celebration. A pilgrimage festival with its own traditional rhythm. Flag up at dawn. Blueberry raspberry lemon loaf in the oven. Decorating bikes for the parade.  I spent years decorating bikes for that parade,  Lots of cooking and eating. Menu etched in history. Deviled eggs, guacamole, that festive lemon cake, hot dogs, hamburgers, and something the neighbor always made: ham balls. (They work with ground turkey, too!) One big backyard barbecue. And then, of course, the fireworks. 

I am an American Studies major. I love reading history. But one of the things I the things learned at Tufts and we all need to do is to think critically about history.  

What do we do with our place as Jews in American History? As a student I thrilled to learn of William Bradford’s Hebrew manuscripts. He wrote his marginalia in Hebrew. This country was founded on the idea that a new light would shine over Israel—this was the new Israel and that all men were created equal.And yet, these same Puritans kicked Roger Williams out of Massachusetts because of his religious views.He wasn’t the right kind of Christian.  And yet, the first professor of Hebrew at Harvard College, Judah Monis, we know his name too,  from 1722 to 1760, had to convert to Christianity to keep his professorship. Hayyim Solomon helped bankroll the American Revolution. Jews fought and funded  both sides of the Civil War.  

And yet, In December 1862 Major General Ulysses S. Grant, angry at the illegal trade in smuggled cotton, issued General Order No. 11 expelling Jews from areas under his control in western Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky. Jews appealed to President Abraham Lincoln, who immediately ordered General Grant to rescind the order. What do we do with this history? What do we do with current events where after unprecedented acceptance of Jews at all strata of American life, there is an unprecedented rise in anti-semitism, on the left and the right. Or that a rabbi in Boston, was stabbed 9 times getting into his vehicle on Thursday.  

I go back to one of the treasures of American history and American Jewish history in particular. The letter that George Washington wrote to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, RI in August of 1790. 

I read the whole thing here:
Gentlemen: 

While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens. 

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. 

If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people. 

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. 

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. 

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity. 

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. 

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy. G. Washington

https://www.tourosynagogue.org/history-learning/gw-letter  

To bigotry no sanction—to persecution no assistance. The words that adorn the entrance to the US Holocaust Museum in Washington. The vision of Isaiah that we often sing here, everyone should sit under their vine and fig tree and none shall make them afraid. The words inscribed on the Liberty Bell—Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land. Freedom throughout the land. From the Book of Leviticus. These are the legacies we give to this great nation. 

Jews rose to be accepted, slowly over time, in every sector of American society.  There are still people who remember no swimming signs at the quarry, no membership at Elgin Country Club, quotas at major universities and bans on Jews in prestigious hospitals and law firms. Thankfully those battles to be won.  

So I ask again, what is our role in this great nation? 

I want to call to mind several verses: 

Put not your trust in the great, in mortal man who cannot save. Psalm 146:3 

Shemaiah and Abtallion received [the oral tradition] from them. Shemaiah used to say: love work, hate acting the superior, and do not attempt to draw near to the ruling authority.–Pirke Avot 1:10 

Be careful [in your dealings] with the ruling authorities for they do not befriend a person except for their own needs; they seem like friends when it is to their own interest, but they do not stand by a man in the hour of his distress. Pirke Avot 2:3 

Perhaps then, our job as Jews in this society is to hold America to a higher version of itself. To be constant reminders of Jewish values, to welcome the stranger, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with G-d. To be prophets in our own community. To work for peace everywhere. Even Hillel and Shammai seemed to agree on this: 

Hillel and Shammai received [the oral tradition] from them. Hillel used to say: be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah. Pirke Avot 1:12 

I cherish the 4th of July. My flag is already raised. It is one of the many legacies I pass to my daughter and one day to her daughters. But I do it with my eyes wide open. With an eye toward critical history and a responsibility to work for a better world, a vision I share from Isaiah and George Washington—a world where everyone—and all means all—can sit under their vine and fig tree and none—none shall make them afraid. Then we will all enjoy that covenant of peace promised in today’s portion. In Song of Songs it says, “The banner of love is spread over me.” That’s the flag I want. Love. Olam Chesed Yibeneh. We will build this world with love. And yet…one last quote from Pirke Avot—Ours is not to finish the task, neither are we free to ignore it.  

Hinini, here I am. Fully present. And yet, like Moses I have no words to share with you this morning. Where is Aaron, the peacemaker to speak for me? Pirke Avot teaches that we should be like the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursing peace. And yet, when Aaron’s own sons were killed, he remained silent. I cannot remain silent. May the words of my mouth (as imperfect as they are) and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You.

Many of us watched in horror as events unfolded in Washington on Wednesday. The Capitol, the hallowed grounds of our legislature, our very democracy, was breached. I have stood in that rotunda, awestruck. It is American holy ground, just as we read about Moses standing on holy ground in today’s portion. I cannot imagine being a civil servant, an elected official or even the esteemed Capitol Police and Secret Service. They must have been terrified. For their very lives.

Having lived in Israel, the images were too reminiscent of terror I had seen first hand, and second hand and I wanted to look away. I wanted to dive under the covers and not come up for air. I knew that was not an option. I knew that history was being made, for better or worse, and only history will be able to decide which. So, as painful as it was, I knew I must watch. This was a moment, like the assignation of Kennedy or 9/11 that cannot be ignored. And my cell phone was beginning to light up. Constantly. Text messages, emails, phone calls, everybody was watching. Some were angry. Some were fearful. And just wanted my comfort. Please tell me this is all going to be OK. That’s what leaders do. Offer comfort and reassurance. Sadly, I cannot do that. Some of that is for other leaders to do. However, what I can do is teach Torah. And so that is what we are going to do this morning.

Let’s look at this morning’s portion. It is one of the most important portions in the Torah. It begins by paralleling the beginning of Genesis in some important ways we looked at during Torah Study this week and it begins to birth a nation. I own a book called “The Birth of Nation”, by Arthur Schlesinger about the days before American Independence. I can tell you, as an American Studies major, there are many lenses to tell the story of the founding of the United States, just like there are many lenses through which to study Torah.

One of my professors, Rabbi Dr. Nehemia Polen, likened the Book of Leviticus to a reset button. It is.a recipe of how to draw close to G-d. Any many of the same elements exist in the Book of Exodus as well. He would explain ritual this way. The Torah commands sacrifices, one in the morning and one in the evening as a way to draw close. He likens it to the prescription meds some of us take, one in the morning and one at night. He then would talk about one of the most important moments after 9/11. The Wall Street Journal managed to get out a morning edition. It was their ritual. When all the world was crumbling, it was their back to work. Not a whole lot different than what we saw Congress do on Wednesday night. Back to work. To do the people’s business in those hallowed halls.

We Jews are good at various lenses. The whole Talmud is a collection of different opinions about what the Torah says. The rabbis argue back and forth and that is encouraged. What isn’t encouraged is violence.

At the beginning of the parsha, a new pharaoh arose in Egypt who knew not Joseph. It had been some 400 years. Can we look at this portion through Pharaoh’s eyes? Perhaps. It seems he was afraid that the Israelites would outnumber the Egyptians, that they might unite with the Egyptian enemies to destroy Egypt, that there might not be enough food to go around. Pretty frightening. So he orders that all the baby boys be killed. Also pretty frightening. Imagine being a mother about to give birth! Shifrah and Puah, two midwives, stand up and prevent that from happening. They defied a direct order. Remember their names. Shifrah and Puah. They played what we might consider a bit part but they helped birth a nation. Shifrah and Puah.

These midwives are described in the Torah as yorah Elohim – women who fear god. The Torah tells us that people who fear God are those who uphold and take seriously ethical, moral behavior. According to the great Biblical scholar Dr. Nachum Sarna, “Their defiance of tyranny constitutes history’s first recorded act of civil disobedience in defense of a moral imperative.”

Henry David Thoreau argued passionately for civil disobedience in his essay by the same name. He felt that there were times that government did more harm than good, and that included democracies. His short essay is often published together with Dr. Martin Luther King’s essay, Letter from a Birmingham Jail. However, while civil disobedience may be called for, in both King’s case and Thoreau’s case, it involved non-violent protests. Things like not paying your taxes.

Rabbi Ari Hart, in one of the most masterful sermons I read this week, (and this week I read and heard lots and lots of sermons!) compares the actions of Shifrah and Puah to the actions of the senate aides who did not turn aside. They saw the ballot boxes holding the electoral college returns. They scooped up them up and calmly ushered them and themselves out the Senate chambers. I am not sure I would have had that much foresight or courage. Four congressional staff members saw the ballot boxes, and the keys to our democracy.

Later in the portion, Moses, himself looks aside:

“Some time after that, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

Why does he choose to act then? When he knows no one is watching—or when he knows he is the only one present who can act? How we look at this story is about how we perceive truth.

There was another time I wanted to turn aside. When I was president of the Greater Lowell Leadership Alliance, I had to make a statement to the press about the movie, The Passion of the Christ, a very bloody, awful Mel Gibson movie with some anti-semetic tropes. My friend, the Rev Larry Zimmerman and I went together on tickets provided by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Afterwards, we sat in silence in his van for a long time. For like a half an hour. Imagine me quiet for a half an hour! Finally he broke the silence. “I understand the Holocaust. It was a mob mentality. Once the mob started it was impossible to stop. Sadly.” The people that watched Jesus and the thieves being taken to his death, not only looked aside, they joined in on egging it on. It was impossible to stop. The lies that the leaders had portrayed over and over again had contributed to what had happened. The Holocaust, as Rev Zimmerman had suggested, had similar roots. Lies, propaganda, fear all contributed to what became Kristalnacht and then even worse. I had a different take. It was the best argument against capital punishment I had ever seen. (But that is a sermon for another time!)

Still later, Moses sees a burning bush, a bush that is unconsumed. And he realizes that this is a special moment, a holy moment. This time, he turns aside to look. He doesn’t ignore it. The midrash tells us that other people walked by the bush and didn’t act. He takes off his shoes. He knows he is standing on holy ground. On Wednesday night, between congressional votes, a congressman was on his hands and knees cleaning the floor of the rotunda. Why? Because it is holy ground.

The midrash teaches: “Why did the Holy One see fit to speak to Moses from within a thorn-bush? If it had been a carob tree or a sycamore tree, would you not have asked the same question. However, to send you away you without any answer is not possible, [so] why from within a thorn-bush? To teach you that there is no empty place devoid of the Shechinah, not even a [lowly] thorn-bush.”

Moses is a reluctant leader. He doesn’t want to do this, go back to Egypt and speak truth to power. He needs reassurance that he is not alone. So, G-d provides him with Aaron to be his mouthpiece and assures him that G-d himself will go with him. G-d provides Moses with G-d’s own name. “Eyeh asher eyeh”—very difficult to translate, something like “I will be what I will be.” G-d is all encompassing and forward thinking. G-d is everything.

Moses is a humble leader. Like the lowly bush, we are told over and over again, he is humble.

The parsha demands an answer. G-d calls to Moses, “Moses, Moses” and he answers “Hineini, I am here.” What does it mean to answer Hineini, to be fully present. To be able to see the burning bush. To feel with such passion that you feel called to do something. Midrash actually draws a linguistic connection between the “flame (lavah) of fire” of the burning bush and a heart (lev) of fire. Being called to do something is to have passion about it. To know that you cannot turn aside. It is something you must do. You must have heart.

Frederick Buechner teaches that “Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” The world needs much these days. What then, are you called on to do? Where does your deep gladness meet the world’s greatest needs? That then is how you answer Hineini with your lives. That’s where you will find meaning. Whether you are Shiprah and Puah or four congregational staffers or “just” you. Each of us has a unique role to fill. Each of us is called to do something.

Moses answers Hineini. I am here. He is humble. He is reluctant. He doesn’t go it alone. And he doesn’t do it with violence. Don’t turn aside. Look into the fire. Find the fire. We will continue to look at Moses’s leadership over the next few weeks as the story continues to unfold. Because after all at the end of Deuteronomy, just before Moses dies, we are told that never again did there arise a leader like Moses. But each of us is a little like Moses. If we would be silent long enough to listen.

Cleanse our hearts: A Poem Prayer
In the middle of the night
Between votes
A lone congressman
Was on his hand and knees
Cleaning the rotunda.

What can we clean?