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I want to share a true story about David Gregory, former host of NBC’s Meet the Press, the television forum for national and world leaders. This story came to me in two parts. The first part came from one of my teachers, Dr. Erica Brown, a leading Jewish educator; the second part came from David Gregory himself.
While many clergy who lead congregations have to write sermons on a weekly basis, the High Holidays tend to be my one big opportunity to offer a sermon each year. As such, the sermon occupies a fair amount of my attention from about the beginning of the summer.
Tonight is Kol Nidre, the eve of Yom Kippur, the most solemn service of our year. And yet, it can be the most hopeful, because it offers the possibility of a fresh start, all failings forgiven.
Whether or not we’d use the term, all of us are seekers. As Psalm 42 puts it, “As a deer pants at water brooks, so does my soul thirst for God.” Medieval mystic Avraham Ibn Ezra used these words in a chant, tzama nafshi: “my soul thirsts.”
Our theme for this year’s cycle of High Holy Days is “Seeking.” As we begin our journey through these 10 days of reflection and transformation, I want to offer a kaleidoscopic of God images – images of a multi-faceted power unseen with the eyes, calling us to seek that which is sacred. The liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur offers us a palette of verbal faces – images of God – that can help us relate to the Divine from deep within ourselves.
It is a joy to share some words of Torah with all you on this Shabbat- Shabbat HaGadol, it was named. The Great Sabbath. The Rabbis of old named this the Great Sabbath because it is the one that comes just before our holy festival of Passover. Tonight is indeed the Shabbat before the beginning of Passover, just a week away.
In this village, our spirits really do become parts of each other: I can see the joy in your eyes, reflecting the joy in my own eyes. This mingling of joy amidst joy is what I hope for all of us each Shabbat. Thank you for helping make today’s Shabbat one I’ll remember for a lifetime.
I am privileged to participate in Rabbis Without Borders, a project of CLAL: The National Center for Jewish Life and Learning. Rabbis Without Borders is a group of select rabbis dedicated to innovation and national service, and we had our annual conference last week.
It takes a village to raise a rabbi. While in a literal sense my ordination comes from ALEPH, the seminary of Jewish Renewal, in the truest sense my ordination comes through Temple Beth-El of City Island – through you.
As we approach the High Holy Days and the end and re-start of the annual Torah cycle, we encounter in this week’s Torah portion (Netzavim) pivotal words that we will revisit on Yom Kippur afternoon. Almost predictably, these words are about the teshuvah (spiritual return) that is the focus of these days of meaning.
