Rabbi Michael Gold

Jewish Family & Sexuality Issues-Rabbi Michael Gold

2024 High Holiday Sermons

HIGH HOLIDAY SERMONS 5785 – 2024

1ST DAY ROSH HASHANA 5785 – 2024
A BINARY VIEW OF THE WORLD – FROM THE LEFT
The late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, composer and teacher, used to tell a story. He would walk across a college campus with some of his followers and come upon a young man. “What are you?” he would ask. “I am a Baptist.” Then he would come upon a young woman. “What are you?” he would ask. “I am a Catholic.” Then he would meet another young man. “What are you?” he would ask. “I am a human being.” Carlebach would turn to his followers and say, he is a Jew.
I first told that story years ago, before Jews were trying to hide their identity on campus. It is about the Jews who were so busy being universal, loving everybody, that they forgot to love themselves. They forgot that they are Jews. But the story is more poignant today. It fits in a world where Jews need to hide their Jewish identity on college campuses, where they wear baseball caps rather than yarmulkes and hide their Jewish stars under their shirt. In is a world where people say, we don’t hate Jews, only Zionists, and then they shout at Jewish students, go back to Poland. It fits in a world where some students tear down mezuzas from their fellow students’ dorm rooms, and some students do not allow students to pass the barricades unless they declare they are not Zionists. You know that I like to quote the lyrics of a Broadway musical in my High Holiday sermons. As I look at college campuses today, all I can think about is the song from Hamilton, “The world turned upside down.”
Perhaps the clearest sign of what is happening on our college campuses was in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, after the mass murder, rapes, and kidnapping of Israelis. It happened before the current war with Gaza, before Israel had a chance to react. It happened before the bodies of murdered Israelis were even cold. 31 student organizations at Harvard, representing a variety of ethnic groups, put out a proclamation that Israel was totally at fault. There was no nuance. No attempt to understand the complexity of the issues. The October 7 massacre was entirely Israel’s fault. To quote the letter signed by these organizations., “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Afterwards, on colleges across the country, students demonstrated against the “Zionist state.” They set up encampments, took over buildings, disrupted graduations, and harassed Jewish students. They chanted. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Ask these demonstrators what river and what sea? Most of them do not know. It is not just on college campuses. At a bookstore in Brooklyn, a rabbi was slated to do an interview with an author. The bookstore cancelled the event at the last minute, saying they would not host a rabbi who is a Zionist. To their credit, the bookstore has since apologized but the damage was done.
What is going on here? To understand, I need to reach back into my own mathematics background. Yes, I was a mathematics major in college and even did graduate work in math at Berkeley. I studied mathematics in Hebrew at Hebrew University while a junior in college. I love math. When I was very young, before my Bar Mitzvah, I was put in an experimental accelerated math class. I don’t remember much about what I learned, but I do remember one thing. We can represent numbers using different bases. We count in base 10, probably because we have ten fingers and ten toes. There are ten digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. But computers count in base 2, there are only 2 digits, 0 and 1. On or off. There are only two possibilities. Your computer, your cell phone, your television, your car, all electronic devices in your life work in base 2. It is called a binary system.
Today’s talk is called “A Binary View of the World – From the Left.” Tomorrow’s talk is called “A Binary View of the World – From the Right.” Those who have such a binary view of the world, whether from the left or the right, have something in common. They hate the Jews. This binary view of the world works great for computers. But the problem is that people try to apply such binary thinking to real life. I can partially blame my generation. We demonstrated against the Vietnam War and for Civil Rights. And we proclaimed, “You are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem.” One or the other, a binary choice. There was no middle ground, no nuance.
And this has carried to our own day. Ibram X. Kendi wrote a very influential book entitled How to be an Antiracist. In the book, he laid out a choice. Each of us is either a racist or an antiracist. To be an antiracist we have to bend the rules to make up for past wrongs. We have to go out of our way to let people of color into universities, hire them, support their businesses, whether or not they are more qualified. If in the past we discriminated against people of color, today we have to discriminate in favor of people of color. Otherwise, we are racists. You have to say “black lives matter.” If you say “all lives matter,” you are a racist. If we say that we want to be color blind, judge people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, we are racist. To this binary point of view, Martin Luther King Jr. was a racist.
This binary vision is at the heart of what is happening on college campuses. The world is divided into two groups, and you have to make your choice. There are the oppressors and the oppressed, the privileged and the unprivileged, the powerful and the powerless. And the more privileges you have, the worst you are. How does this work? Whites are privileged, people of color are unprivileged. Men are privileged, women are unprivileged. Straights are privileged, gays, and all the more so trans people, are unprivileged. The able-bodied are privileged, the disabled are unprivileged.
Where do I stand in this binary view of the world? I am a white, male, heterosexual, who is mostly able-bodied. I am filled with privilege. Therefore, by my very nature I am an oppressor. Progressives often use the word “intersection.” I am at the intersection of all these privileged groups. And someone who is at the intersection of the unprivileged groups, picture a black, lesbian, disabled, woman, is a victim. Today, believe it or not, there are support groups for white people who feel guilty about being privileged. Robin Diangelo wrote a book about it called White Fragility. Good and evil have disappeared from the world. Instead, the world is divided into oppressors and oppressed. That is what our Jewish college students are learning in their classes.
So where do Jews stand in this entire binary scheme? It is simple. Israel is the oppressor. Palestinians are the oppressed. And if a Jew is a Zionist and supports the state of Israel, that Jew is an oppressor. I am not talking about supporting every policy of the Netanyahu government. Most Israelis do not support many of his policies. I am talking about supporting the existence of the state of Israel. If you support the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state, you are an oppressor. Never mind that Israel totally withdraw from Gaza in 2005. Never mind that Israel has offered the Palestinians a state of their own countless times. If you believe the state of Israel has a right to exist, let alone defend itself, you are an oppressor. If you are a Zionist, and most Jews are, you are an oppressor.
All of this ignores the fact that Jews have been oppressed for thousands of years. We came back to our land, a land which we lost to the Romans, so that we would no longer be an oppressed people. We proclaimed the State of Israel after 6 million Jews were killed by Nazis. Yet they call us oppressors. The demonstrators claim that Israel is a white, colonialist, apartheid state. But how do you colonize your own land? And how do you account for the fact that the majority of Israelis are not white but fled to Israel after being kicked out of Arab lands? And how can you be apartheid when Israeli Arabs jurists sit on the Israeli Supreme Court?
None of this matters. When you have a binary view of the world, when you are either a racist or an antiracist, either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist, either an oppressor or someone oppressed, either bad or good, you no longer see the truth. You no longer see nuance. You no longer see the complexities of the world. It was like the old tv Westerns where the bad guys wore black hats and the good guys wore white hats. It was so simple. And Israel is wearing a black hat while Hamas and Hezbollah are wearing white hats. And so, at UCLA in my home town of Los Angeles, part of the campus was blocked off and Jews could only pass if they declared they are not Zionists. Thank God that a court in Los Angeles found UCLA guilty of harassment of Jewish students for this practice.
Part of the proof of this world view is that there are parts of the world where real genocide or real repression is taking place. There was genocide in the Sudan province of Darfur, but it was Arabs against blacks. Since they are both oppressed peoples, they were no encampments or occupying buildings against this genocide. In China, the Muslim Uyghurs are being relocated into internment camps, but there are no campus protests. This is the Asian treatment of Muslims, both oppressed peoples. The world is filled with people oppressing other people. But according to the binary world view, Israelis are white colonizers and Palestinians oppressed people of color. At least that is what our college students are learning.
And so Jews walk around college campuses pretending they are not Jews. Imagine if Christians had to walk around pretending they are not Christians. There is a cute story of the good Irish Catholic Christopher O’Rorke, who wants to join the Jewish country club and play golf with his Jewish buddies. They tell him, “You cannot join this club if your name is Christopher O’Rorke. Tell them you are Irving Schwartz. And if they ask you what you do for a living, tell them you manufacture tallises.” So Christopher O’Rorke goes to the club and introduces himself. “I’m Irving Schwartz, and manufacture tallises.” The club manager says, “Great. I was always curious, how do you get the fringes on the tallises.” O’Rorke looks confused for a moment, and then answers, “The fringes are not hard. The hard part is putting on the sleeves.”
Our college campuses have Jews hiding the fact that they are Jews, while their professors teach them this binary view of the world. What is particularly disturbing about this binary view of the world is that it has even hit Rabbinical schools. At one point when I first considered becoming a rabbi, I considered going to the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. I am glad I did not go there. Recently several students resigned from the college, disturbed by its anti-Israel policies. They wrote a letter to the Forward about their reasons for reasoning. To quote a bit of the letter regarding their fellow rabbinical students, “Students characterized Israel as committing apartheid, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism, and genocide. Faculty refrained from teaching the definitions of these terms and from explaining the mutable nature of antisemitism.” What will happen to the Jewish community when rabbis ordained with this point of view seek positions with synagogues around the country? Will synagogues hire rabbis who reject Zionism and declare themselves anti-Israel? If they do, what will that mean for the future of Judaism in our country?
As Jews, it is vital that we reject this binary view of the world. We need to say that we are proud Zionists, people who favor the existence of a Jewish nations in our historic homeland. This nation is certainly not perfect. But it is far more perfect that most other nations in the world. It is not a white colonial nation, it does not practice apartheid, nor is it committing genocide. It is a nation that seeks to be moral. I often think of the words of Rabbi Yitz Greenberg. If Israel were five percent more moral than the other nations of the world, it could be a light onto the nations. If it were ten percent more moral than the other nations of the world, it would be dead.
Today is Rosh Hashana. It is the birthday of the world. We pray, Hayom Harat Olam. Today the world was created. God did not create a world in black and white. God created a world with a palette of different colors. The world is not divided into good guys and bad guys, the oppressed and the oppressors. Jewish tradition teaches that God created every human being with a yetzer hatov, a good inclination, and a yetzer hara, a bad inclination. They struggle within each of us. But the great Biblical commentator Rashi teaches that we should seek to serve God with both our inclinations. We are all a mixture of good and evil, seeking to live lives of decency in a difficult world. Binary ideas may work if we are designing a computer. But binary ideas do not work when we are designing life in the real world. We must reject any binary vision of the world, any attempt to paint the world as oppressors and oppressed, with Israel as the oppressors. That is not the way the world works.
Part of the beauty of Judaism is it avoids simplistic, binary solutions to complex problems. This binary view of the world is a problem on the left, among progressives. But it is also a problem on the right, among reactionaries. To learn more, you have to come back tomorrow. Today, on the birthday of the world, let us be proud of our wonderful, complex tradition. And let us be proud Zionists, who love and support Israel. On this New Year, may God write all of us in Sefer HaHayim, in The Book of Life, And let us say, Amen.
2nd DAY ROSH HASHANA 5785 – 2024
A BINARY VIEW OF THE WORLD – FROM THE RIGHT
Chaim owned a small Judaic shop selling mezuzas and kiddush cups, and he was struggling. Finally, one day he realized, why don’t I widen my clientele? The vast majority of people in this country are Christian; why don’t I open a Christian shop? He called the biggest Christian wholesaler in town. “Give me two dozen crosses, two dozen pictures of Jesus, two dozen incense holders, and two dozen, what are those little beads called? Rosaries. I am in a hurry, can you get them to me tomorrow?”
The wholesaler answered, “I have what you need but I cannot deliver it tomorrow.” “Why not?” answered Chaim. “Tomorrow is Shabbos.” So often we Jews hide who we are. Yesterday I spoke about college campuses, where Jewish students wear baseball caps instead of yarmulkes and hide their Jewish stars under their shirts. It is college campus where Jews are stopped and told, “You cannot walk here unless you renounce Zionism.” I spoke about the binary view of the world, the oppressors and the oppressed, the good guys and the bad guys. According to this view, Israel, and most Jews, are the oppressors. In fact, according to this view of the world, Israel is a racist, apartheid, genocidal, colonial state. Never mind that most college students cannot explain what these words mean. The binary view is a world without nuance.
Yesterday I spoke about how Jews are under attack by the progressive left. It is very scary. But what about the reactionary right? In some ways it is even more scary. It was not a college professor who murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue or killed a woman and injured three others including the rabbi in a Poway synagogue. It was not college students who marched carrying torches in Charlottesville, VA, shouting “Jews will not replace us,” killing a young woman. I will explain shortly what they meant by “Jews will not replace us.” There is vicious and scary antisemitism on the right, that often turns violent. And it also has a binary view of humanity.
I am not talking about the crazies on the right. I am not talking about Representative Marjory Taylor Green who claimed that the forest fires in California were started by Jewish space lasers, financed by the Rothschilds. I am not talking about black Christian commentator Candace Owens who claimed that Israel was founded as a refuge for pedophiles and stated to Rabbi Shmueli Boteach, “Are you drunk on Christian blood?” Ms. Owens also claimed that the Lubavitcher Rebbe hated non-Jews.
Nor am I talking about Tucker Carlson interviewing quasi-historian Daryll Cooper who claimed that Churchill, not Hitler was responsible for World War II. To quote Cooper, “Churchill was the chief villain of the Second World War.” He also claimed the Holocaust never really happened as claimed, but Hitler simply did not have enough prisoner-of-war camps. Carlson, the darling of the right, said that it was an extremely important interview. He claimed Cooper was the best and most important historian in the United States. Carlson is talking about a Holocaust denier. And Elon Musk, owner of X that used to be called Twitter, publicly agreed on the importance of the interview. I will return to Tucker Carlson in a moment.
The right-wing Jew haters can be even scarier than the left-wing Jew haters. The right also has a binary view. The view is known as the Great Replacement. It is a far-right theory originally developed in France by Renaud Camus. It is common in Europe but is becoming more and more common in America. According to Camus, foreigners and immigrants are replacing native born Europeans, changing the character of many European countries. There is a touch of truth to this. Much of Europe is becoming inundated with Muslim immigrants, and many of these immigrants are calling for Shariah law in their adopted countries. These are the immigrants who, in 2015, murdered 12 employees of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and also killed 4 other people at a kosher supermarket. They did not like what the magazine had printed about Muhammed.
Europe does have an immigration problem. When I visited Paris several years ago, the local rabbi who gave me a walking tour told me to take of my yarmulke. It was too dangerous. Rabbi Yosi Denburg, the Habad rabbi in Coral Springs, wrote a wonderful essay about immigration. He quotes Maimonides, who taught that foreigners should not come live in a community. However, if they accept the seven Ethical laws of the Children of Noah, the fundamental ethical laws of the Torah, then they can live in a community. Applying Maimonides to the situation in Europe, foreigners are welcome only if they accept the basic ethical laws of the community.
What about the United States? We are a nation of immigrants. My grandparents and great-grandparents came to this country from Poland and Russia. If an American says that we should not welcome any immigrants, ask them what Native American tribe did they come from? But there are Americans who are preaching this same Great Replacement theory that is popular in Europe. Again, it is a binary view; America can be divided into two groups. There are the good guys, Americans, mostly Christian but not aways, mostly white but as Candace Owens proved, not always. Not everybody on the right agrees with this conservative, anti-immigrant view. These are the good people who are my daughter’s neighbors and friends in Clover, SC. Most of them are conservative Christians. They are also strong supporters of Israel who love Judaism. They welcomed my daughter, who has taught about Hanukkah in the local school.
But there are extremist voices on the right who believe that a Great Replacement of true Americans is taking place. Let me return to one of the most popular commentators on the Right, formerly of Fox News, Tucker Carlson. This is a direct quote. “I know the left …becomes literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters, from the third world. But, they become hysterical because that’s what happening, actually. Let’s just say it; that’s true. Every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter.” Carlson does not mention the Jews explicitly but we already saw his interview with a Holocaust denier. But those who marched in Charlottesville shouting, “Jews will not replace us” made it clear who is behind this Great Replacement. Those who see authentic Americans being replaced by immigrants and people of color know who is behind the great replacement. It is the Jews.
Here is the binary view of the right. There are two groups of people. There are the real Americans. And then there are the horde of foreigners, immigrants, people of color, seeking to replace them. And the Jews are behind this Great Replacement. The man who shot up Tree of Life synagogue said this explicitly. He was upset that Tree of Life synagogue supported HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He wanted to stop the Jews from bringing in these people. And so he murdered 11 Jews at Shabbat morning prayers at a synagogue not far from the synagogue I used to serve as a rabbi.
Jew haters exist on both the left and the right. Both have a binary view of the world. Jew haters on the left sees a world of oppressor and the oppressed. Israel and Jews are the oppressors. Jew haters on the right see a world of native-born Americans and immigrants and people of color seeking to replace them. And Jews are behind this Great Replacement. What both these views have in common is how they simplify their view of the world. There is no nuance, no attempt to understand complicated issues, whether the politics of the Mid-East or the politics of immigration. Both are complex issues that need Critical Thinking. And sadly, I see little critical thinking by the left or by the right today.
People who want to hate Jews will always find a reason to hate Jews. I think of the story of the antisemite who walks into a crowded bar and sees a Jewish man sitting in the corner. He shouts to the bartender, “Drinks for everyone except that Jew.” After everyone gets their drink, the Jewish man says “thank you.” That makes the antisemite mad, so he shouts again, “A second round of drinks for everyone except that Jew.” The Jewish man says, “Thank you.” Now the antisemite is really angry. “A third round of drinks for everyone except that Jew.” Again, the Jewish man says, “Thank you.” Finally, the antisemite asks the bartender, “Why does that Jew keep saying thank you.” “Simple,” answers the bartender. “He owns the bar.”
What should be done about the growing antisemitism in this country, whether from the progressive left or the reactionary right. The answer is not to hide our Judaism. Journalist Bari Weiss, author of the book How to Fight Antisemitism, teaches that we need to be proud, public Jews. We need the world to see our Jewishness, and yes, our Zionism, and learn from it. It says in the Passover Haggada, b’khol dor vedor omdim alenu l’chaloteinu. “In every generation they rise up against us to try to kill us.” But we are still here. Jews continue to flourish all over the world. And Israel, although it is a painful time, continues to flourish. Israel is not going anywhere and Jews are not going anywhere.
To prove the point of being a proud Jew, let me share a true story. In 1991 Michael Weiser took a job in Lincoln NE as the cantor of the local synagogue. He immediately began to receive harassing phone calls from Larry Trapp, the Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Trapp was a vicious antisemite, but also an amputee stuck at home. Trapp made harassing phone calls and sent hate mail. Weiser would hang up on him. But one day he tried a different tactic. He took the initiative, called Trapp, and asked if he needed anything. Could he pick up groceries for him? Thus began a series of conversations between the cantor and the Klansman.
Weiser and his wife did some errands for Trapp and brought him gifts. They cleaned up his apartment. Slowly but surely, Trapp’s attitude began to change. They invited him to their congregation. In June 1992 Larry Trapp converted to Judaism. He died three months later, holding hands with the cantor and his wife. It is a true story, an amazing story, teaching the miracle of atonement and redemption. People can change. And an entire nation can change. The left can change, giving up their simplistic ideology that sees Jews and Israel as oppressors. And the right can change, giving up their simplistic ideology that sees Jews as leading the great replacement. Life is far more complex and nuanced.
I mentioned yesterday that life is complex and humanity is complex. Humans are neither all good nor all evil. We each contain a yetzer hatov, a good inclination, and a yetzer hara, an evil inclination. They struggle within us. As the Talmudic rabbi Ben Zoma famously taught, aizei hu gibor? Hakovesh et yitzro. “Who is strong? The one who controls his or her evil inclination. World events must be seen as complex and nuanced, like people must be seen as complex and nuanced. A simple binary view of the world, whether by the left or by the right, is wrong, and must be challenged.
Today is the second day of Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana celebrates the birthday of the world. God created a complex and beautiful world. It is vital that we recognize the complexity of that world and that we think about critically about all issues. We need to be proud Jews and let the world know that there is no room for Jew hatred, whether from the left or from the right. May God help us see the great wisdom that Judaism has given the world. May we all be written on this Rosh Hashana for a good new year, and let us say
Amen.
KOL NIDRE 5785 – 2024
VICARIOUS ATONEMENT
There is a story about a little boy with a bow and arrow shooting at the side of a barn. A passer-by looks and notices that every single arrow is a bullseye. He is amazed. He asks how the boy manages to shoot every arrow into the center of the target. The boy answers. “It is simple. First I shoot the arrow, then I draw the target.”
In Judaism, the word for sin chet as in al chet is an archery term. It means to miss the mark, to shoot an arrow that falls short of the target. Of course, if you draw the target only after you shoot the arrow, then nothing is a sin. Every act is justified. But we all sin. As the book of Ecclesiastes teaches, “There is no man who is good on the earth and does not sin.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) If you have gone through the past year with no sins, never going down the wrong path, I excuse you from Yom Kippur. You are free to go home and not fast. But we all sin. How do we become at one with God again. That is what the word “atonement” means – at-one-ment, being at one with God.
I want to begin with three stories from my own past, all of them true. Story #1 – It was about 20 years ago in my former synagogue in Tamarac. At that time, we were a bar mitzvah mill, with one or two bar or bat mitzvahs every week. A man came to speak with me before his son’s bar mitzvah. He told me that he did not believe he could be called to the Torah. He shared that he had been in the military special forces, and during his service had broken every law in the Ten Commandments. He felt deeply guilty. God would never forgive him. How could he be called to the Torah?
I said to him, as a father can you imagine anything your child would do that would make you reject your child, not forgive your child. He said “no.” I responded, God is just like you. God is a parent. There is nothing you could do that would make God reject you and not forgive you. As we say on Yom Kippur, k’rachem av al banim, richam Adonai al yiraiav. “As a father is merciful with his children, God is merciful with us.” The man felt at peace and took an aliya at his son’s bar mitzvah.
Story #2 – This story goes further back to when I was a rabbi in Pittsburgh. It was the day before Yom Kippur and I was driving through the city running errands, searching on my car radio for anything interesting. I found a radio station featuring a cantor singing a beautiful kol nidre. So I listened. A few moments later the announcer came on. “Tonight, Jews throughout the world are going to gather in synagogue. They are going to fast, to beat their chests, and to ask God to forgive them for their sins. It is their holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. But they are mistaken. It is not going to do them any good. For without belief in Jesus, they will never find forgiveness for their sins.” I had found a Christian radio station.
I have asked Christian friends whether they truly believe this, that God will not forgive us for our sins. Their answer is that true forgiveness, true atonement, requires a sacrifice. In ancient times an animal was sacrificed – a goat. But now they have Jesus who made the sacrifice to carry away their sins. They ask me, how can you hope to find forgiveness without a sacrifice?
Story #3 – This one goes even further back, when I was a freshman in college. I was in a dorm at the University of California, San Diego. It was a lonely time. I did not yet have a car and there were far more boys than girls in my college. One of my dormmates offered to take me to a meeting across town at San Diego State College, a much bigger college with, in all honesty, more girls. We drove the forty-five minutes and went to a meeting on campus. I quickly learned the purpose of the meeting. It was a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting. The speaker was quite succinct. God is up here (lift hand) and because of our sins, we are down here (lower hand.) We are separated from God. We need someone to take away our sins so we can lift ourselves up towards God. Stand up if you will accept Christ into your lives? The people around me stood up. Some people looked at me. I did not grow up in the most religious home, but I knew enough not to stand up. Needless to say, I did not go to any more meetings at San Diego State with my dormmate.
All of these are true stories. They raise the same question: we all have sinned in our lives. What do we need to do to get back into God’s good graces, to find atonement, to be forgiven and find peace with God? My Christian friends have a point. In the Bible a goat does carry away our sins bringing vicarious atonement. A goat was chosen by lots to carry away the sins to Azazel, an untranslatable word often meaning into hell. In truth, the goat was sent off into the wilderness and pushed over a cliff. The English word “scapegoat” comes from this ritual. The High Priest would make three confessions, one for himself and his family, one for his fellow priests, and the third, placing his hand on the goat, for all the sins of the Jewish people. The High Priest would use the real, unpronounceable name of God. Pronouncing the name was only permitted once a year on this occasion. In fact, we reenact this entire ritual tomorrow afternoon during Musaf. The cantor plays the role of the High Priest. But he doesn’t pronounce God’s name. Once the Temple was destroyed, the ritual disappeared. There is no animal to carry away our sins.
Many Orthodox Jews still participate in a ritual of vicarious atonement. Men swing a rooster and women swing a chicken over their heads, transferring their sins to the bird. They then slaughter the bird and give it to the poor. The whole ritual is called kaporas. Many of you may have participated in it. I have a friend who invites me every year to join him at Chabad for kaporas. And every year I turn him down. I no longer put my sins on a scapegoat. I do not swing a rooster about my head. I do not believe Jesus died for my sins. So how do I find atonement? How do I know that God will forgive me?
Jewish tradition has a brilliant answer. It is the word teshuva, often translated repentance but meaning return. It means returning to the path we should have followed to begin with. To mix our metaphors, it means shooting the arrow again but this time hitting the target. It means a real change in our behavior. Teshuva is open to us every day of the year. But the ten days from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur are known in our tradition as aseret y’mai teshuva – “the ten days of teshuvah.” This is the time to return to the correct path.
Judaism even lays out how we return to that path. The first step is recognition that we are responsible for our lives, that we cannot blame someone else. Whenever I speak about taking responsibility, I am reminded of one of my favorite Midrahsim, Rabbinic tales. After Cain kills his brother Abel, after God says “where is your brother Abel?”, Cain answers “Am I brothers keeper?’ The Midrash teaches that Cain says it was not his fault, it was God’s fault. Cain says to God, You are to blame. You should have been my brother’s keeper. It is like a thief who robs goods out of a storehouse. The thief then confronts the watchman and says, “This is your fault. I am a thief. I was doing my job. You are a watchman. Why were you not doing your job?”
We humans love to blame someone else. My parents made me do this. My spouse made me do this. Poverty made me do this. The devil made me do this. God made me do this. I once visited a man in jail for beating his wife. He told me, “What can I do? God made me with a bad temper. It’s God’s fault.” It is easy to blame someone else. But we cannot do teshuva until we take responsibility.
But taking responsibility is not enough. We must seek forgiveness of those who we have hurt by our behavior. The Talmud is clear. Yom Kippur atones for the sins between a person and God. But Yom Kippur does not atone for the sins between a person and his or her fellow, until they ask forgiveness. We need to approach people we have hurt through our actions and ask for forgiveness.
In my family we have a tradition that I have practiced throughout my marriage. On Yom Kippur Eve, when we light candles, my wife and I ask forgiveness for anything we may have done to hurt each other in the past year. I also bless each of my children. I ask forgiveness for any wrong I might have done to them in the past year. The idea is to wipe the slate clean, to use Yom Kippur as a time to start over. After the Day of Atonement, we will not raise old hurts and sins. We must begin anew.
After taking responsibility and seeking forgiveness, there is a third step, perhaps the most difficult. We must resolve to change our ways. We must become a new person. We must take control of our lives. The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides taught, what is true repentance? It is facing the same opportunity to commit the same sin, but this time you are a different person. You have changed your ways. When I teach this to children, I imagine a child walking home from school and passing a candy store, and each day shoplifting a candy bar. If one day the child passes the school and sees a security guard, so decides not to shoplift, that is not teshuva. But if the child decides to change his or her ways, goes to the candy store to pay for all those stolen bars, and no longer shoplifts, that is teshuva. The child has become a new person.
We can become at one with God again. We can find forgiveness. In fact, Judaism goes even further. When we decide to get on the correct path and return to God, God also seeks to return to us. There is a Hasidic parable that makes this point clearly. A king became so angry with his son’s behavior that he chose to exile him from the palace. He sent his son to live with peasants on the distant outskirts of the kingdom. Then one day he heard that his son had decided to make the difficult journey and return to the palace. The king said to his courtiers, “My son is on his way to return to me. I will travel and meet him halfway.” So too when we return to God, God seeks to meet us halfway.
For God to meet us halfway, we need to change. I am reminded of a humorous story. The jury had been deliberating for twelve hours, but they finally came to a verdict. The defendant was on trial for multiple bank robberies. The defendant stood next to his attorney as the jury foreperson read the verdict. “We the jury find the defendant – not guilty.” The defense attorney started to hug his client. But the defendant said to his attorney, “I don’t understand. Does this mean I have to give back the money?”
Today it is Yom Kippur. Our tradition calls it the white fast. Why? Because Isaiah says that even if our sins be red as scarlet, God will make our sins white as snow. God will forgive us. God will give us atonement. That is what our tradition teaches. But it will only happen if we take responsibility for our sins. It will only happen if we will learn to forgive one another. And it will only happen if we truly seek to change our ways. May we truly learn to be at one with God this Yom Kippur. And may we truly learn to be at one with each other this Yom Kippur. May God help us with that effort, and let us say
Amen.
YIZKOR 5785 – 2024
EMBRACE LIFE
There is a story about a man who goes to his doctor and says, “I am in my early sixties and want to live a long time, into my nineties or even one hundred. What do I need to do?” The doctor replies, “Do you ever smoke? Perhaps a good cigar?” “Never,” the man replies. “Do you ever drink, maybe a good glass of Scotch?” “Nothing, only a sip of Manischewitz Friday night.” “Do you ever eat red meat, perhaps a juicy steak?” “Never, only an occasional piece of chicken.” “Do you ever travel to exotic, fascinating places?” “I once went to Orlando.” “Do you ever drive a fast sports car?” “No, just an old Toyota.” Finally the doctor answers, “So you never enjoy a good cigar, a glass of Scotch, a juicy steak, exotic places, a fast sports car. So why would you want to live to 100?”
Of course, the message of the story is not just to live but enjoy the pleasures of life. This is said explicitly in a rather risqué (sorry) lyric of George and Ira Gershwin’s great show Porgy and Bess. (You know I must quote a musical.) The drug dealer Sportin’ Life sings, “It ain’t necessarily so, it ain’t necessarily so, the things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, it ain’t necessarily so. Methus’lah lived nine hundred years, Methus’lah lived nine hundred years. But who calls dat livin’ when no gal will give in to no man what’s nine hundred years.” Judaism is not just about life but about embracing living to the fullest. The Talmud teaches, atid adam yitein din v’cheshbon al kol ma sh’rata eino v’lo achal. “in the next world each of us must give an accounting for every permitted pleasure we did not enjoy.” (Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 4:12)
Of all the great religions of the world, none reaffirms life in this world like Judaism. That is why the Torah teaches, “choose life.” That is why we say over and over during the High Holiday period, zochreinu l’chaim Melech hafetz b’chaim, v’katveinu b’Sefer Chaim l’mancha Elohim Chaim. “Remember us to life, O King Who loves life, and write us in the Book of Life for your sake, O God of Life.” We Jews emphasize life. We give donations in multiples of eighteen, because the word for “life” chai equals eighteen. Judaism speaks of embracing life in this world.
To see this most clearly, simply compare Judaism to the other great faiths of the world. In the East, Hinduism speaks about escape from this world, from samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth, to finally reach moksha or blessedness beyond this world. Life in this world is a trap from which we long to escape. Regarding Buddhism, let me speak to my friends who tell me they are Jew-Budes, Jews who embrace the Buddha. Buddhism teaches that life is suffering, suffering is caused by embracing the things of this world, so we can only avoid suffering by letting go. Do not become too attached to anything in this world.
My synagogue in Tamarac sits next door to a Buddhist Temple. They let us use their parking lot of the High Holidays. One day we did a joint program. One of their leaders spoke and I spoke. I spoke about how Judaism, with all due respect, differs from Buddhism. Buddhism teaches us to let go of the things of this world; Judaism teaches us to embrace the things of this world. That is why the great Rabbi Milton Steinberg, after suffering a heart attack, gave one of his most famous sermons, “To Hold with Open Arms.” In Judaism we embrace the things of this world, even if we do so with open arms.
What about the religions of the West? Both Christianity and Islam speak constantly about getting into heaven. In fact, the great scientist Galileo, when asked how he can embrace both science and religion, famously said, “Science is about how the heavens work, while the Bible is about how to get into heaven.” As I drive around past churches, I will often see signs, “Sermon Topic: Will You Get Into Heaven?” I have never driven past a synagogue with a sign announcing the sermon topic, “Will You Get Into Heaven?” Yes, Judaism believes in heaven. We will sing about Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, shortly in our Yizkor prayers. But Judaism is how to live in this world.
Judaism constantly reaffirms life. That is why every Jewish parent wants their child to grow up to be a doctor. Some of our greatest philosophers including Maimonides and Judah HaLevi were physicians. (“Sorry mom and dad, I became a rabbi instead. I heal souls instead of bodies.”) We heal so that we can better live in this world. There is a story about a wealthy man who filled his life with acts of tzedakah, charity. It finally came time for him to leave this world. He promised the rabbi he would try to communicate from heaven. Sure enough, after he died, the rabbi felt his presence and received a message from the next world. “Are you heaven?” the rabbi asked. “Yes,” answered the man. “Do you like it up there?” asked the rabbi. “I hate it,” answered the man. “Up here, there are no opportunities to do charity.” It is in this world, among the living, that we can do mitzvot. That is why, when we die, we are buried in a tallit with a fringe cut off, making it non-kosher. We cannot do mitzvot in the next world. We need to do mitzvot while we are here, living in this world.
Of course, Judaism has another fascinating teaching about this world. We say it every Amidah, every daily prayer. God will bring the dead back to life. You can believe this literally or not. But it is a powerful idea. Whether we come back through resurrection of our body as Orthodox tradition teaches, or through reincarnation into another body, as kabbalah teaches, Judaism teaches that we are coming back. We have work to do in the world of the living. We cannot finish our work in heaven. God sent us to do our work in this world of the living. As Rabbi Tarfon said in Pirkei Avot, Lo Aleicha hamelacha ligmor v’lo ata ben horin l’hiabtel mimena. “It is not your responsibility to finish your work, but no are you free to avoid it altogether.” (Avot 2:16)
Judaism is a religion that embraces life. As I have often said, we live on a planet filled with the miracle of life. Let me share a memory that I have often shared in many sermons over the years. I grew up in Los Angeles. It was known for its horrible forest fires. I have memories of entire hillsides devasted, everything burnt to the ground, dirt and ash everywhere. But within a few weeks a miracle would happen. On that same barren hillside small sprouts of green would appear. Plants would start to grow, and then trees, and then animals would appear. Where there was death, life would reappear. Within a year or two, you would never know that the hillside had burnt. There is a force of life at work in the universe. That force of life, what the philosopher Henri Bergson called an élan vital, is at work. Bergson wrote a book in 1907 called Creative Evolution, that described this force of life. To Jews, that force of life points to the presence of God in the universe.
When I think of those barren hills after the fire and then the hills covered with green a few months later, I think of a Rabbinic teaching regarding two mountains next to each other, Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses divides the Jewish people into two groups. Half stand on Mt. Gerizim and they hear a series of blessings. Half stand on Mt. Ebal and they hear a series of curses. The Midrash says that Mt. Gerizim which received the blessings was green and lush. Mt. Ebal which received the curses was barren of life. The symbolism is clear, life and death are next to one another. Life receives a blessing while death receives a curse.
The two mountains next to each other give a powerful message. If there is a force of life in this world, there is also a force of death in this world. What is death? Death is entropy, the way everything eventually breaks down. Death is the second law of thermodynamics, built into the universe. Perhaps the best description of death is my favorite poem, William Butler Yeats The Second Coming, written between the two World Wars. To quote part of the poem, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere.”
There is a force of life in the world, but there is also a force of death in the world. I think of the story of the Christian preacher in his big Church speaking to the Sunday School children. “Tell me children, if you go to church every week, will you get to heaven?” The children respond, “No.” “If you work in the church soup kitchen, will you get to heaven?” The children respond, “No.” “If you study your scripture every day, will you get to heaven?” The children respond, “No.” Finally, the preacher asks, “So how do you get to heaven?” The children are silent, until one little girl meekly says, “You have to die first.”
There is a force of life and there is a force of death. Jews have embraced the force of life. Sadly, there are people who embrace the force of death. We saw this embrace of death one year ago this week. We saw it last year on October 7 according to the secular calendar, Sh’mini Atzeret – Simchat Torah according to the Jewish calendar. That is the day when Hamas terrorist poured across the border with Israel with the intention to murder, rape, and kidnap Jews. Over 1200 Israelis were murdered including hundreds of young people attending a music festival. It was a music festival that celebrated love and peace, but the terrorists were not interested in love and peace. They were interested in murder and mayhem. Women were raped and babies were tortured. More than 100 Israelis are still held hostage in the tunnels under Gaza one year later.
The forces of death sought to overwhelm the forces of life. And so Israel has been thrust into a war with those who seek to destroy her, Hamas to the south, Hezbollah to the north, the Houthis from Yemen, and now Iran, speedily developing nuclear weapons. Iran is a force of death. For those who have forgotten what Iran is capable of, remember the Fatwa from Iran, to kill the author Salman Rushdie. In 2022 at Chautauqua, a center for lectures and the arts in New York State which I have attended, Iran almost succeeded. A terrorist stabbed Rushdie multiple times. He lost an eye and almost died. Iran was behind it. It was the force of death unleashed.
Iran and its surrogates are sources of death. But what about Israel? Has not Israel killed civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. Hasn’t the world accused Israel of genocide, calling President Biden “Genocide Joe” for supporting Israel. Sadly, when you go to war, there are innocent casualties. People die. The Palestinian death toll is tiny compared to Germans killed in Dresden or Japanese in Hiroshima during World War II. Do not get me wrong; every loss of life is sad. Nonetheless, in a war to fight evil, a war of the forces of life against the forces of death, innocent people will die. Israel has never celebrated civilian deaths and has done everything to avoid them. Compare that with Hamas. A terrorist grabbed the phone of one of his victims and called his parents in Gaza, bragging that he killed ten Jews. His parents praised him. No Israeli would dream of doing that.
The goal of Iran and its surrogates is not only the death of Israelis, not only the death of Jews. It is the death of Israel. The want to wipe the nation of Israel off the planet. They have explicitly said so. In response, I must quote the words of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. He spoke these words at an AIPAC convention. “How likely is it that, after 2000 years of exile, our people should come back to our land and there – having stood eyeball to eyeball with the Angel of Death in Auschwitz a mere three years earlier, in 1948 said, despite the worst crime of man against man, lo amut ki-echyeh, I will not die but I will live. Israel is the greatest affirmation of life in the whole of Jewish history.”
There is a force for life in the world and there is a force for death in the world. The Jewish people have always chosen the force of life. Israel’s enemies have chosen the force of death. Who will win? On Passover, we sing Chad Gadya, which ends with a verse, V’ata HaKadosh Baruch Hu v’shachat l’malka hamavet, “Then came the Holy One and slew the Angel of Death.” In the end, life will always overcome death. The Torah says, “I place before you life and death, therefore choose life.” Israel’s enemies have chosen death. Let us choose life.
We are about to begin our yizkor prayers. Judaism teaches that when we say yizkor in this world, we help the souls of those who are no longer with us in the next world. While in life, we can help those who have died. Again, we see the importance of life. We remember the deeds that our loved ones did in this world. And we pray that some day their souls will return to continue the good work. For life is about perfecting this world
Let us live lives of joy and commitment. Let us enjoy every legitimate pleasure God gave us to enjoy in this world. Let us embrace life, even in the face of death. And let us always choose life, as God writes us in the Book of Life, and let us say,
Amen.