Rosh HaShanah Morning
SERMON ROSH HASHANAH MORNING 5786
Rabbi David Edleson Temple Sinai South Burlington, VT
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD
In April of last year, my hardcopy of The Atlantic arrived with these words splashed across the cover: “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending.”
The subtitle was, “ Anti-Semitism on the right and the left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans—and demolish the liberal order they helped establish.”
It was a long article by journalist Franklin Foer who made the case that the post-war America I and my parents came of age in was a golden age. It was a time when public antisemitism was largely taboo, in which Jews enrolled in unprecedented numbers to Ivy League and other top universities. It was a time when Jew’s prominence in society was far greater than our numbers.
We had comedians like Jackie Mason, Jerry Lewis, George Burns, Joan Rivers, Lenny Bruce, Gilda Radner, Jerry Seinfeld, and the list goes on.
In politics, we had Supreme Court Justices from Frankfurter and Fortas, to Ginsberg and Kennedy. We had Kissinger, for better or worse, and we had people like Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug fighting for women’s equality.
In music, we had Barbra Streisand, which in gay numbers counts as a minyan. We had Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and let’s not forget the stylish Steve Lawrence and Edye Gorme. And that’s not to mention creators like Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Schwartz, Richard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.
In sciences, medicine and academics, our Nobel Prize numbers and professorships have been wildly disproportionate to our numbers.
In literature we had Saul Bellows, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Philip Roth, Arthur Miller, Alan Ginsberg, Cynthia Ozick, Marge Piercy, Adrienne Rich, and many more.
In film, we had greats like Mel Brooks, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Stephen Spielberg, Woody Allen and so so many more.
Foer believes that never has a minority had such prominence in almost every aspect of culture. There was antisemitism, but it was a mild background noise; a nuisance at worse. It certainly didn’t prevent us from building the Jewish community institutions we know today.
It was a Jewish world that he argues is now profoundly threatened. With the current convergence of antisemitism from both the left and the right, with danger rising, and with more and more Jews feeling a need to hide their identity in public, Foer believes this age is ending. I know I’ve heard that in some way from many of you. We’ve felt it.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, Sarah Hurwitz’s new book, “AS A JEW” came out. She had a very different read of the past decades.
[By the way, Sarah was Michelle Obama’s speechwriter and a few years ago published the outstanding book about her Jewish Journey, “HERE ALL ALONG” that I use as the text for my Introduction to Judaism course.]
Sarah’s subtitle is “Reclaiming our story from those who would blame, shame, and try to erase us.” In her book, Sarah argues that past decades of acceptance of Jews into American society came at a cost. While it might have been a golden age in terms of acceptance, in terms of Judaism and Jewish knowledge and connection, it saw a profound erosion in what most Jews know about our tradition.
Like me, she grew up in a Jewish family that at best went to synagogue a few times a year, mostly the High Holy Days, had a very short Passover Seder that was mostly about food, and lit candles and ate fried things at Hanukkah. She went to Hebrew school some but stopped learning as a teen and never went back.
Though at the time, she felt she was just being herself, she has now come to realize how much she went out of her way to minimize her Jewishness to other people. She would be quick to describe herself as a “cultural Jew” or an “ethnic Jew,” or a “social justice Jew”. She said this despite knowing precious little about Jewish cultural history, or that Jews span a wide range of ethnic groups, or even what Judaism really said about justice outside of some vague ‘tikkun olam’ idea that was really more about what was in vogue in liberal circles than it was about Jewish texts or ethics.
The portrait she paints of non-Orthodox Jewish America is in stark contrast to Foer’s Golden Age.
Hurwitz points out that the majority of American Jews couldn’t tell you with any certainty what the Talmud is or why it is important. Think about that. Most American Jews don’t know what the most important work of Jewish thought is, much less what’s in it.
She points out that when a Pew survey asked American Jews “which of the following are an essential part of what being Jewish means to you,” the top three were:
· “Remembering the Holocaust” at 76%,
· “Leading an ethical and moral life,” at 72% and
· “Working for justice and equality in society” at 59%.
“Caring about Israel” and “Having a Sense of Humor” came in at 45% and 34%, both ahead of “Being part of a Jewish Community” at just 31%.
“Eating traditional Jewish foods” came in ahead of “Observing Jewish Law” which was at 15%.
Notice how many of those things do not require being Jewish at all.
“Living a Moral Life” “Having a sense of humor.” “Working for justice and equality in society.”
You don’t have to be Jewish to work for justice and equality in society, and yet that is how so many Jews, particularly younger Jews see Judaism. All they take away from Judaism is Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. That is a beautiful Jewish value, that we are partners with God in making the world and human society better. Nothing wrong with that, but if that is someone’s entire Judaism, it is not much to hold on to.
So many young people, and people here seem to embrace Tikkun Olam, but seem to overlook other key Jewish values.
This reached a new level of absurdity when the actress Hannah Einbender felt compelled at the Emmy’s last week to say that as a Jew she was obligated to stand up for Jewish values and distance herself and Judaism from the ethnonationalist state of Israel. She’s a lesbian, and she seems to miss what those she is supporting, including Hamas, would beat or execute her just for that. And yes, she’s a Jew and I’m glad she wants to live by Jewish values. Yes, helping the poor and the oppressed is a Jewish value.
But You know what else is a Jewish value? Keeping Shabbat.
You know what else? Peoplehood.
You know what else? Honoring Parents and teachers, and not just the ones you agree with.
You know what else? Being part of a synagogue, being in the Jewish community, helping wash and prepare the dead for burial, visiting the sick.
These are all core Jewish values.
As my Tim said the other day, “it’s hard to defend Jewish values if you don’t know what they are.”
And the most important Jewish value is studying classic Jewish texts like Torah and Talmud. Notice that did not make the list of what is core to Jewish identity. Think about that for a moment. Think about that in your own life.
The rabbis say text study is most important because it trains us to think and it leads us to do all the other commandments.
Yet, I get a very strong sense that Einbender and the other Tikkunistas haven’t really studied Jewish texts as all, or if they did, only the ones that agree with them. Nonetheless, they feel quite comfortable being the spokepeople to the world about what Judaism is and isn’t.
Judaism has a lot more complexity and gravity than a bunch of bumper stickers and a love of pickles or a tendency to interrupt.
And it happens that Jewish texts have a much more complex and nuanced approach to question of nationalism and state than this binary good-vs-evil reductionism that is in vogue in universities these days.
In Judaism, we are asked to learn to balance competing values, not to choose the one we like and ignore the rest so we can feel righteous and fit in with our other righteous friends.
What Hurwitz, Horn, and many other Jewish leaders pointing out can be described as “thin Judaism,” in contrast to a “thick Judaism,” one where there is a deep level of Jewish learning and cultural creation and engagement.
Since this is our time of reflection, or making a ‘cheshbon nefesh’ or personal inventory, let me ask you: is your Judaism thick or is it thin? Is our Judaism at Temple Sinai thick or thin?
“Thin” Judaism might be sufficient for first or second generation Americans in a time of tremendous acceptance, when the need was to be fully American, but in times like these, it makes it much harder to be resilient and solid as Jews. If we don’t know why our tradition is so profoundly wise and valuable, how are we supposed to root our lives in it?
As Hurwitz writes,
Cultural Judaism isn’t all that helpful when your spouse dies or you are wrestling with a difficult ethical decision or you are feeling lonely or like your life is meaningless. It turns out that Jewish Mother jokes are of limited use when countering the most serious challenges of being human. In those moments you could really use a loving community and thousands of years of wisdom from your ancestors.
I think that the last two years we have been going through is a very good reason for us to consider this new year as a year of Jewish study. Of course, I’m a rabbi. But more and more, I and many others see the “thinness” Jewish study and knowledge as a crisis.
My theme this year is chazak chazak v’nitchazek, Be strong and let us strengthen one other. I deeply believe that the best way to do that besides being in Jewish community is to engage more deeply in Jewish study.
So many Jews seem to forget that just as meditation is a key spiritual practice in Buddhism, learning together is one of the central spiritual practices of Jewish tradition. There is something profound about learning, exploring, debating with other Jews here and now, but also in dialogue and conversation with generations of people who have done the same and whose insights are recording in commentary, in modern writings, and in the pages and margins of the Talmud –
-The Talmud, for those who might have forgotten, is the many volumed central collection of arguments about Jewish law and practice collected in the great rabbinic academies in Jerusalem and Babylon after the destruction of the Temple until the sixth century or so. The Talmud is the foundation of Jewish life, law, practice, ethics, and is renowned for its inclusions of all sides of an argument, and the use of questioning to explore the law and its larger meanings. -
This would be a great year to lean in to some new Jewish learning and in thickening your Judaism as a response to what we are facing.
Sarah Hurwitz’s journey began with an Intro to Judaism course at a Reform synagogue near the White House. I’m starting an Intro to Judaism course on Sunday afternoons starting on October 19. If you want to get a crash course on basic Judaism but from an adult, philosophical, and wide-ranging approach, consider joining us.
Or come to our outstanding Saturday morning Torah study, or our Wednesday history group.
Or come to the classes we’ll be offering in the Spring at our Temple Sinai University series. Or to Brunch and Learns that I plan to hold in the Spring on a range of Jewish topics, using classic texts as our jumping off place.
And if none of that sounds good, create your own chevruta, find a study partner or two and dive in. Start a Jewish book group. Join one that we will be having.
We’ve just redone our Library so come check something out on our new electronic system. We have classics and we have new books and if there is a Jewish book you want to read with others, we will make sure it is in the library. We will have books shelves in the hallway by the bathroom that include some of the core books on Jewish study and the books that are Jewish thought leaders are discussing right now. This will include books we agree with and books we don’t.
The great Israeli writer and leftist, Amos Oz and his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger wrote that “Judaism is not a bloodline. It’s a text-line.”
So as People of the Book, let’s lean into text this year. Despite the rumors, we can’t control the world, but we can control how we react. If nothing else, read at least two Jewish non-fiction books this year. You can do that.
But it’s not just about text learning that can help thicken our Judaism. because that is not how some of us learn
Consider joining our Mission trip to Israel that leaves the end of April. We will have more info sessions in the coming weeks and we have great speakers and experiential learning set up for us there.
And I’m excited that Temple Sinai, in the upcoming DOROT capital campaign will include a few ways to help our young families and our teens thicken their Judaism. We will be raising money to help young parents take learning trips to Israel or other Jewish places together. Those sorts of trips create profound connections and shift are sense of who we are and what we can do. The Momentum trip that ten of our moms took a couple of years ago has already had a profound impact on our community. Imagine if we did a Reform-focused learning trip every year or every other year. In ten years, we would have 100 members that had engaged in deeper Jewish learning and connection.
Now, we have an excellent Religious school here, and I am so proud of what we’ve created here. But there is a profound limit on what you can teach in two hours per week, and before age 13. Our campaign will include creating classes for teens, teen trips to Israel and scholarships for Jewish summer camps.
Why Israel and Jewish summer camps to “thicken” our young people’s Judaism? Because the data are very clear that those have the best record at creating strong Jewish connections, identity and resilience.
· Adults who attended Jewish summer camp are 21% more likely to consider being Jewish to be a very important part of their identity, and former campers are 55% more likely to feel an emotional attachment to Israel as an adult. They are 37% more likely to attend synagogue regularly.
Those who go on Israel trips like Birthright are 150% more likely to serve in leadership roles in Jewish organizations than Jews who didn’t go. They are much more secure in their connection to Israel even when critical. 84% of alumni raise their children as Jews, and alumni are more than twice as likely to celebrate their child's bar or bat mitzvah.
And I want all our parents of teens nearing college age to consider encouraging your teen to do a gap year or semester in Israel. There is really nothing more effective than solidifying the sense of peoplehood and Jewish living and study than that.
This sort of engaged Jewish learning and text study is having a new golden age these days. Far from seeing doom ahead, thought leaders and Hurwitz, Dara Horn and others see great hope in the new energy and institutions focused on Jewish learning that is serious, challenging, and open to various levels of practice and ways of doing Jewish. In newer learning centers like Hadar in New York, Pardes in Jerusalem, or the Hartman Institute where I study these days, they see an emerging desire to engage more deeply with Jewish tradition, thought and text because the thin Judaism we have been living leaves us unsatisfied.
I have a good friend who grew up deeply engaged in the New York Yeshiva world until he realized he was gay and came out. He married one of our best friends, so once I asked him why he didn’t go to to a Reform or Conservative synagogue that would accept his gayness. He looked at me with the look you get when you eat something bad, and said, “Skim milk.”
There is a famous story in the Talmud – the core collection of arguments about Jewish law and practice - where Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Reish Lakish were study partners and their arguments were epic. When Reish Lakish died, Rabbi Yochanan was inconsolable. His friends and students feared he would die of grief. They got him another very nice study partner but Rabbi Yochanon hated it. “He just agrees with me” he said with disgust. Reish Lakish would challenge Yochanon’s every point with 24 points. And Yochanon would answer back with 24 arguments and Reish Lakish would then challenge each of those. This argument deepened their thinking and enriched their understanding.
Think about how powerfully counter-culture that is in today’s world. Argument as a way of growing, becoming closer and being spiritual. Would that we had such a culture today instead of the powerful deity we call Algorithm dividing us into echo chambers of outrage and stupidity.
So this year, when I again offer a “Taste of Talmud” class, it would be great if more than five of you signed up.
Speaking of Talmud, in traditional Judaism, when you finish studying a tractate of Talmud, you say a long prayer called the Hadran. The first paragraph reads:
We will return to you, Tractate ____ and you will return to us; our mind is on you, Tractate ____, and your mind is on us; we will not forget you, Tractate ____, and you will not forget us – not in this world and not in the next world.
We will not forget you and you will not forget us. About a text. Isn’t that something. Our tradition sees these texts as a living thing that we are in relationship with, in partnership with, is a profound central part of Judaism. We are a text-line, not a bloodline.
And you know what we say when we finish studying a book of the Torah as we will in two weeks?
Chazak Chazak v’nitchazek
Strong. Strong. A we will be strengthened, or as Dan Nichols translates it: Be Strong and let us strengthen one another.
In this new year, let us study and grow so that we may be stronger and that we may strengthen one another and become more resilient in the face of all that is happening.
Say it with me: CHAZAK CHAZAK V’NITCHAZEK.
Ken Y’hi Ratzon.
