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Rabbi Stein's Sermon - Kol Nidre Service

Rabbi Stein's Sermon - Kol Nidre Service

Rabbi Peter W. Stein
Temple B’rith Kodesh
Rochester, New York 

Kol Nidre 5779
September 18, 2018    

One of the very first friends I met when I began college…who now serves as Cantor at a Conservative synagogue… was the great granddaughter of Eliezer ben Yehuda.  Ben Yehuda is a remarkable figure in the modern Zionist story.  He was part of the group of pioneers that worked to create the modern state as a place of hopes and dreams.  In particular, Ben Yehuda was focused on language. 
 
Ben Yehuda’s stance was that Hebrew should be the spoken language of a Jewish state.  This may not seem notable to us today, when millions of Israelis speak Hebrew every day and modern Hebrew is studied around the world.  Books, newspapers, movies, and so much more are in Hebrew…and we hardly take note. 
 
But when Ben Yehuda began his efforts, Hebrew had not been used as a living conversational language in many centuries.  Not only wasn’t there knowledge, there wasn’t even an active vocabulary. 
 
And yet, by sheer force of will, Ben Yehuda made it happen…in his home and eventually throughout the land.  And Israel and the Jewish world have been transformed as the language of the Bible became the language of the 21st century. 
 
I lift up the story of Eliezer ben Yehuda today because it provides us with an important lesson and challenge...to see the world as it can be, and to take the steps necessary to create it. 
 
This is famously proclaimed by Theodor Herzl, who said, “Im tirtzu, ein zo agada: If you will it, it is no dream!”  David Ben Gurion framed it that if you want to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.   
 
Tonight is a night for dreaming, for seeing the world as it can be.  And tonight is a night for asking what we need to do to make it so. 
 

Over the summer, many of us read an important new book by the Israeli author and teacher Yossi Klein Halevi.  Entitled Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, he offers an eloquent reflection on how Israel is…and how it could be. 

Klein Halevi writes “Zionism was the meeting point between need and longing.  And when need and longing collided – as they did at a crucial moment in early Zionist history – longing won.1

The modern Zionist movement acted against all odds, challenging us not to accept the world as it is.  This is an attitude, a world view, that is significant in many ways, going far beyond just what happens in the land of Israel. 

On Rosh HaShana, I asked a question about our state and city: what is the New York we want to see?  What is the New York we dream of? 

I ask the same question tonight about Israel, a place that serves as a spiritual home even for so many who live so many miles away.  What is the Israel we want to see?  What is the Israel we dream of? 

My hope is that we will see our spiritual home as it can be, and we will take steps to make it so.                                                           

I dream of Israel as a place of equality, for all who live there. 

I dream of Israel as place of dignity and opportunity, for all who live there. 

I dream of Israel as a place where each and every person has the ability to pursue religious expression. 

As I share this dream, I am mindful that it has been 25 years…a quarter of a century almost exactly to the day2… since Prime Minister Rabin stood on the White House Lawn with President Clinton and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.  On that day, Rabin said “Enough of blood and tears.  Enough…We, like you, are people…who want to build a home, to plant a tree, to love, to live side by side with you in dignity, in empathy, as human beings…We are today giving peace a chance.” 
 
Sadly, tragically, so much has transpired to move us away from this dream.   
 
And yet, we must continue to dream.  Continue to find ways to express our hope that there will be a future filled with peace. 
 
How is this dream becoming a reality?  There are many examples, that demonstrate progress and also how long the road will be. 
 
One example: a group called Road to Recovery.  Today, amid one of the most deeply-rooted political and cultural conflicts, Road to Recovery is bridging the divide with an initiative of hope.  This organization is a nonprofit organization of volunteers who believe that peace among Israelis and Palestinians can only come about through engagement and personal involvement, placing humanity before politics. 
 
The deep-seated barriers of distrust that exist between Palestinian and Israeli societies only serve to perpetuate the conflict.  The Road to Recovery volunteers seek to break down these barriers on a personal level, transporting Palestinian patients on round-trips from the West Bank and Gaza to hospitals throughout Israel for treatment, hospitalization and check-ups. 
 
In a region that is so complex and so bitterly divided, it is an example of a simple act of kindness that has a significant impact. 
 
Another example: a group called Abrahamic Reunion.  I had the privilege of meeting one of their leaders earlier this summer, a Muslim Sheik who was born and raised in the Galilee.  This group works to create interactions between Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze.  Their founding principles start with the following: to share the belief in one God by understanding one another’s religious customs, spiritual practices, prayers and values.  They aspire to use religion as a force for peace and to “relate to all as though they are our own family.” 
 
I share these two examples because of something I observed about my own learning and teaching in regards to Israel.  So often, our attention is focused on unfortunate realities.  We discuss the discrimination shown at the Western Wall towards women and non Orthodox Jews.  We rightfully lament the lack of equality for Reform synagogues.  This summer we despaired as a Conservative rabbi was taken from his bed by the police before dawn, simply because he had officiated wedding ceremonies outside of the standards of the ultra Orthodox chief rabbinate.

We importantly struggle with issues of dignity, respect, and equality for the Palestinian population, and with safety for every person who lives in the region.   

Especially from so far away, even as we focus on difficulties, we must also lift up successes, and help with efforts to go from strength to even greater strength.  We must remember that Israel is a place where the founding example of Ben Yehuda and Herzl still endures: a place that teaches us all to see the world as it can be and urges us to act to make it so.

Turning once again to Yossi Klein Halevi’s book, he writes that, “Ultimately, peace is about mutual respect.  Israelis need to treat Palestinians with dignity.  The truth is, that for many Israel Jews, treating others with respect can be a challenge.  Israel is a restless society of uprooted and re-rooted refugees and children of refugees...we are a people in a hurry to compensate for our lost centuries of nationhood.”3

I speak about Israel tonight, specifically at this time of Kol Nidre, because this is when we reflect on our values and priorities.  How do we remember those “lost centuries of nationhood” without using them as an excuse to prevent the flourishing of equality?

Maintaining an attachment to Israel, even from afar, is a way of honoring our history – from biblical times to the existential struggles of twentieth century. 

Maintaining an attachment to Israel, even from afar, allows us to connect to a place built on dreams, and to make those dreams a reality.

I will be in Israel in January with a group of rabbis.  The theme of our mission is “Israel: Innovation, Change and Creativity.”  We will spend time in dialogue with a variety of aspirational leaders.  One meeting is with the leaders of a project called Roots.  This project “draws together Israelis and Palestinians who, despite living next to each other, are separated by wall of fear – not just of each other, but of the price of peace.”  Their stance is that without building trust, the suspicions between these two communities will suffocate the political peace agreements.

I look forward to bringing home the fruits of this dialogue for our own reflection, as we seek to engage with Israel with that attitude of creativity and courage.

The medieval sage Yehuda HaLevi (no connection to the authour I mentioned earlier) famously proclaimed Libi bemizrach, my heart is in the East, and I in the uttermost West. 
 
If our hearts are in the east, it is with our hearts that we should offer tsedakah and political support to those doing the hard work of creating equality in the land of Israel. We will do this by sharing the good news, telling the hard truths, and seeing the challenges as opportunities to engage in right and good action. 
 
With our hearts in the east, we should live by the example of that place, adopting the attitude that we are never limited by the world as it is, but should work to create the world as it should be.

When we do this, we will not despair.  Debbie Friedman, the great singer-songwriter of our generation, considered this through a historic lens…the experience of the sorrowing Israelites driven from the Land of Israel to exile in Babylonia.  Inspired by Psalm 126, the verse that says “those who sow in tears will reap in joy”, she wrote, “It’s the song of the dreamer, from a dark place it grows.  Like a flower in the desert, the oasis of our souls.  Come back, come back where we belong, You who hear our longing cries.  Our mouths, our lips are filled with song.  You can see our tear-filled eyes.”4

Even across the ocean, we can maintain a profound connection to the oasis of our souls.  My prayer this night is that the land will be an oasis for all its inhabitants, a place of peace for people of all identities who seek to make a life there, and an example of how we all should never accept the world as it is, but rather should persist in the vision of how it should be. 

 

1 Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi, p. 35
2September 13, 1993 speech at the White House
3Ibid, p. 145
4Sow in Tears by Debbie Friedman, as cited in Mishkan HaNefesh, Yom Kippur volume p. 123
 

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