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Kol Nidre 5769 - Yom Kippur 2008
“What Am I? Chopped Liver?”
Kol Nidrei 5769 –Yom Kippur 2008
In the thirty second chapter of the book of Genesis, there is a very famous story about the patriarch Jacob. Jacob is about to meet his brother, Esau, for the first time in twenty years. He had stolen the birthright years ago and was absolutely terrified that his brother would kill him. Therefore, he sends his family to the other side of the river and lays down for what could very well be the last night of his life.
Then a very strange scene occurs. The Torah tells us that “25Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 26When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. 27Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 28Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” 29Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.”
I think that for Jacob the meaning of this passage is a reassurance that God will be with him as he faces the challenges of reuniting with his brother. It is apparent however, that Jacob is not merely wrestling with any regular person, but with some divine being or angel. The name Jacob was given to him because he had tried to hold on to his twin brother Esau’s heel at birth in order to pull him back into his mother’s womb in order that he, Jacob, could be the first born. The name Jacob therefore comes from the word “heel.” Indeed, for most of this life up until this point, Jacob has been a “heel,” a conniver, a person who seems to be willing to do anything to get ahead not because he was mean spirited, but because he was young and did not understand that we are all connected to one another.
After wrestling with the angel, Jacob’s name is changed to Israel. The name Israel literally means “God wrestler.” What an amazing point this story tells us about our people, the Jewish people who are known as Am Yisrael, or the people of Israel. We are the people who are to be God wrestlers. We are the people who are not afraid to ask the difficult questions of life. We are the people who know that there are no simple answers nor only one way to look at the world.
One of the most sacred books in all of Jewish tradition is the Talmud. The Talmud was compiled approximately 1500 years ago. The most interesting thing about Talmud study for me is that the Talmud records the questions which the rabbis asked about Jewish law and theology. It also recorded the various answers that were given, recording both the majority and the minority opinion. The key here is that there was not always a simple answer to every question. The process of wrestling seemed to get the rabbis closer to the truth.
But sometimes, there simply is not an answer to every question. Our tradition stresses that we must respect the different ideas that our colleagues have, not only respect them, but include them in our holy books.
Our tradition acknowledges that life can be a challenge and difficult to understand. Why, for example, is it that sometimes parents have to bury their own children? Why do accidents happen? Why does Genocide occur? Why is it that one and one half million children were murdered in the holocaust? Why does evil exist? Why does it seem to be so difficult to save our planet from what I would call global scorching? Why do financial crises always seem to hurt the poor and the elderly the most? Why is it that my house avoids a tornado when my neighbor’s is destroyed?
These are only a few of many questions. The point is that Jews have never been afraid to ask the difficult questions in life, even if there are not always easy answers. As a people, we have never claimed to have all of the answers, but we do seem to be able to claim to know what most of the questions are. I have often told people that if they are looking for simple answers to difficult questions, they need to look elsewhere. Indeed as Jews, we are the God wrestlers not the simplistic answerers.
Because of this, we believe that only God is the absolute source of truth. Those who, as humans, claim to know God’s will absolutely frighten us. We have been victims of persecution by such people for many centuries. When someone says to us or often to our children, “You are not going to heaven because you do not believe in such and such,” we are scared and find such intolerance problematic.
By contrast, we realize that each of us, each group, each faith or religion, has a part of the overall truth of the creator of the universe. Therefore, tolerance of other religions is a fundamental Jewish value and has been from the very beginning.
I have often taught that just as there are many roads and highways by which one can travel to Greensboro, so are there many roads towards pleasing God or to entering heaven.
We live in interesting and challenging times. Everyone is concerned about what’s going on in our country. It’s wonderful to live in times when everyone is engaged about our upcoming elections. And I respect everyone’s good intentions to do what he or she believes is best for this country. However, I really want everyone to remember our tradition about respecting the other’s view. We have 2000 years of rabbis arguing with each other and it is recorded in our Talmud. However, when one rabbi attacked the person rather than the idea of the person, the rabbis quickly berated the level of argument. I hope within our community and our country we use the Talmudic style of arguing, making sure that we maintain a level of respect for difference.
In 1991, the greatest American rabbi of the twentieth century, Abraham Joshua Heschel, was walking across a bridge over the Mississippi River. Halfway across, he stopped looked at the little island in the middle of the river. Later that day, he wrote the following which is entitled “No Religion Is An Island.”
No religion is an island;
there is no monopoly on holiness.
We are companions of all who revere the Holy One
We rejoice when God’s name is praised.
No religion is an island;
we share the kinship of humanity,
the capacity for compassion.
God’s spirit rests upon all, Jew or Gentile,
man or woman, in consonance with their deeds.
The creation of one Adam and one Eve promotes peace.
No one can claim: my ancestry is nobler than yours.
There is no monopoly on holiness
there is no truth without humility.
We are diverse in our devotion and commitment.
We must be united in working for the reign of God.
There can be disagreement without disrespect.
Let us help one another overcome the hardness of heart,
opening minds to the challenges of faith.
Should we hope for each other’s failure?
Or should we pray for each other’s welfare?
Let mutual concern replace mutual contempt,
as we share the precarious position of being human.
Have we not all one Creator? Are we not all equal children?
Let us not be guided by ignorance or disdain.
Let lives of holiness illumine our paths.
God is open to all who seek the Holy One.
Let our deeds reflect that we share the image of God.
Let those who revere the Holy One speak one to another,
leading everyone to acknowledge the splendor of God.
These teachings and beliefs are extremely important in our time. We live on a wonderful blue green spaceship which we call earth. We are all part of this spaceship and dependent upon it. By upholding the best of its teachings, that part of its teaching which connects to the eternal truth, I feel that each religion has to be a productive organ in the entire body. Truly our existence on this planet is dependent upon our seeing ourselves as part of the organismic whole. Each religion represents a different organ of the body and must by its teaching help insure the health of the overall body. Just as a body needs blood, lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, a brain etc, so does our world need each religion.
Once I realized this, I began to ask myself, “What organ of the body should the Jewish people become at this time?
When we want someone to notice us, we as Jews will often say to that person, “What am I? Chopped liver?” Maybe here is one answer, but it is not that we as Jews are to be chopped liver. Rather as Jews, maybe we could become the world’s liver. The liver is the organ which purifies the blood. An improperly functioning liver leads to great lethargy. Those who have liver disease even have a great deal of difficulty walking around the room. The liver is called Kaved in Hebrew. Kaved means “heavy.” Indeed perhaps the liver is so heavy because of its role in purifying the blood! There is indeed a heavy burden in being a Jew.
Our world is indeed in peril at this time and in need of purification. Each year or so, another large sheet of ice the size of Manhattan breaks off of the Greenland or Antarctic ice shelf. We are running out of oil and T. Boone Pickens is correct when he says that we cannot drill our way out of our problem. Our supply of fresh water is being depleted as are the stocks of fish from the ocean from which many of the poorest on the planet derive sustenance. Frustrations with economic disparity have led to an increase in terrorism, war and genocide. Frighteningly, we seem to focus just on the welfare of our generation and ignore the task of building a livable and humane world for our children. As Americans, we are saddling future generations with great debt, debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.
All too often, we react to such problems with fear rather than commitment to doing something which would improve the situation. All too often, we allow pessimism to overshadow hope.
That, my friends, is not the Jewish way. On this day, let us resolve to become the liver for our world. Let us renew ourselves to the sacred task of being a child of God and as such God’s partner. Become involved in our community.
The Unetaneh Tokef prayer says that three things, “Repentance, Prayer and Charity temper Judgment’s severe decrees.” This is certainly the major theme of this day.
The first thing is teshuvah or repentance. We repent when we acknowledge that we have done wrong. We need to be honest and specific. In other words, we should not say “I have not been as good a parent, son, daughter, spouse or business partner as I could have been, but rather with more specificity. We should say something like, “I am sorry for the time last week when you needed me to really pay attention to you and listen to you and I did not.” Then we do what we can to undo the damage that we have caused. We ask for forgiveness and resolve not to sin in this way again. The rabbis tell us that we have repented totally when we find ourselves in the situation where we can do the sin again and we refrain from doing so. If we are to be the liver, then we will need to cleanse ourselves through teshuvah, repentance.
The second thing is Tefilah or prayer. For me, prayer is more than lip service. We pray not only when we try to talk to God. Our grandparents knew that the path to sincere prayer was through the study of Torah. It all begins with education. According to the rabbis, parents are required to study Torah even before their children do. The so called “car pool tunnel syndrome,” the syndrome wherein parents drop their kids off without being concerned about their own Jewish education, would have been an anathema to our grandmothers and grandfathers. But most importantly, we are depriving ourselves of not becoming the best person we can become. Our tradition is incredibly relevant to our lives especially in such turbulent times. It is very comforting to feel that we have a tradition that has grappled and wrested with questions that continue to confront us. You do not have to go through life with all it’s hardships alone! You not only have this community but you have hundreds of generations of accumulated knowledge to help and teach you.
Our future is at stake and depends on our ability to educate ourselves and our children. Jewish education must become more affordable on all levels. If we can assume that it is important for us to have a future as a people here in the United States and especially in these difficult times, more charitable resources will need to go to Jewish education instead of some other worthy causes. More charitable dollars will need to remain here in Greensboro in order to support an affordable Jewish education for our children. This is so critical at this time and is so important if we wish to be a viable force in cleansing our country and our world.
Finally, charity or Tzedekah is the third way in which we can avert judgment’s severe decree. Acts of Tzedekah are not merely done on an individual level, but on a communal one. Here as I mentioned on Rosh Hashanah, I am so very proud of the work that we have done this year and will do next year. This fall Rabbi Koren will be taking twelve students from Temple Emanuel on a work-study mission to New Orleans. Our recent Run for Shelter to eliminate homelessness, which began at our historic Greene Street campus, was a tremendous success. Mitzvah Day, our Corners of the Fields High Holy Day food drive, our Mitzvah Garden and our work at the Greensboro Urban Ministry and the Welfare Reform Liaison Board, all help to show that the Jewish community here at Temple Emanuel cares about making Greensboro a more compassionate and livable place for all of its inhabitants.
The respect for Temple Emanuel in the greater community is very high. I am receiving more calls than ever from community organizations and associations asking for input and involvement.
In general the faith community here in Greensboro is very disunited. Presbyterians do not know Episcopalians who do not know Baptists etc. In addition, the faith community is racially segregated as well. In wishing to be part of the answer to this problem, I am honored to be leading an historic and unprecedented trip of 25 Greensboro clergy to Israel. This trip received great support from various community foundations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and is designed not only to educate about Israel and the Middle East, but also to break down the barriers which exist between various clergy and faith institutions in Greensboro.
We can and should do more. More of us and more of our children should be involved in such activities. I recently mentioned to high school students that college admissions counselors see many applications with good grades, sports and drama, but very few with community service. Community service, as a fundamental Jewish value and as a part of their college resume, would go a long way towards setting them apart and helping them to get into the school of their choice.
Indeed according to the prayer, acts of charity and social justice can really help us to avert what seems to be a severe decree for our nation and our world. As Jews, now more than ever, it is incumbent upon us to take the lead, to be the agents of purification and repair, to be the liver of the organismic whole.
So again, as the Unetaneh Tokef prayer says, three things, Repentance, Prayer and Charity can indeed temper Judgment’s severe decrees.” This is certainly the major theme of this day and should be our goal for tomorrow and this year.
The liver is called Kaved in Hebrew. Kaved means “heavy.” But the word for liver, Kaved, can also be read as Kavod which means “honor.” Without the liver, the whole cannot live. Indeed, its work is dirty and heavy, but if done properly it cannot only purify and repair the body, but also bring Kavod, honor to itself.
Together, let our task this year be to become agents of healing, change and purification for our families, our congregation and our world. May we not only bring honor to ourselves and our congregation, but to the entire Jewish community.
Amen
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