THE POWER OF PRIDE

As many of you know, this summer, we fulfilled my promise last Rosh Hashanah to have a campaign against antisemitism that included signs on local buses. With a generous donation from someone who is not Jewish but who wanted to help us fight antisemitism, a small group of us worked with a graphic artist to create our Halt H8 campaign. In doing this, we were also fulfilling something we’ve heard again and again in conversations with groups of congregants as we worked on our strategic plan for the coming years: you want Temple Sinai to be more visible in the community and be a leader in the local community. I’m very proud that we were able to do this.

The feedback from the larger community was excellent. As a direct result of those buses, several leaders in the community and in the schools reached to me to talk about how to better fight antisemitism.

SHABBAT CHAZON

And on the seventh day the waters of the Flood came upon the earth… All the fountains of the great deep burst apart,

And the floodgates of the sky broke open.

(The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.)

That same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, went into the ark, with Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons— they and all beasts of every kind, all cattle of every kind, all creatures of every kind that creep on the earth, and all birds of every kind, every bird, every winged thing.

BECOMING VISIBLE

The cover story in this week’s Jewish Journal is about Ben Freeman, a British activist for LGBT and Jewish causes. In the story, he recounts how much he hated being treated as ‘other’ as a young gay man and that he internalized this as shame about being gay. In his later teens and early 20’s, he began a journey from shame to pride in being gay, and one of the key moments was listening to Harvey Milk, the first elected openly gay person, speaking about the importance of pride and the legitimacy anger at oppression. For Ben Freeman, the shift toward pride was one of the most meaningful experiences of his life. What a simple, yet incredibly difficult thing it can be to simply be proud of who we are in all our parts.

KOL YISRAEL ARAVEN ZEH BAZEH כל ישראל ערבין זה בזה

(on the occasion of Lior Todd’s bar mitzvah)

Lior, as we gather here for Shabbat on this absolutely beautiful Vermont day, and as we begin to celebrate your becoming bar mitzvah, we also know that in Israel, over 1000 missiles have been fired from Gaza, and Israel has responded with air raids and the assassination of key terrorist leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. We gather on Shabbat to enjoy a bit of peace and wholeness, but we know that tonight, many people in Israel welcomed the Sabbath in bomb shelters and that the people of Gaza who have little power to control the terrorist groups that have hijacked their homes are also waiting anxiously to see where the next explosion is.

SING GOD A NEW SONG

Today I was having lunch with a new member here, and he was sharing what their family does on Friday nights. They light candles, have a few moments of silence, and then they do a practice called “Rose, Bud, Thorn,” where they share one thing that is blossoming and beautiful in their week -the rose, one thing that is an emerging area that with care might bloom- the bud, and one thing that isn’t going so well – the thorn.

I thought this was a beautiful Shabbat practice, and it fits with my theme for tonight which is “Sing God a New Song.” The “Bud” is exactly what I was thinking of, so at lunch when he described this, I wanted to share it.

#WINNING

This week, it has been interesting to compare what happened in the Vermont Statehouse yesterday and what we see happening in the national Capitol this week. In the Vermont statehouse where I was honored to give an invocation for the inauguration yesterday, there were three parties represented, and the administration includes members of all three parties. There was also more than civility in the ceremony – there was visible connection and respect across our partisan lines and our principled disagreement.

IF YOU CAN’T FORGIVE OTHERS, START WITH FORGIVING YOURSELF.

We all know the High Holy Days are a time for apologizing, asking for forgiveness, and finding the strength to forgive others. It is not such an easy thing to ask for forgiveness and it is not such an easy thing to forgive somebody that has hurt you and let you down. It is particularly challenging to forgive someone else for doing something you would never do, or can’t imagine you would ever do. It is particularly difficult to forgive someone else for doing something you would never be able to forgive yourself for doing.

THE LONELINESS OF BETRAYAL

Last night, I shared a story about when I was in India in 2013 and there was one of the first social media blow ups about Israel and Gaza, and I lost about 20 friends I thought were good friends in the span of two weeks. What I didn’t share was how it hit me in the moment and this morning, I want to start there.

The Metamorphosis of Antisemitism

When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect. He was lying on his back – which was hard, like a shell – and when he raised his head a little he saw his curved brown belly segmented by rigid arches atop which the blanket, already slipping, was just barely managing to cling. His many legs, pitifully thin compared to the rest of him, waved helplessly before his eyes. “What in the world has happened to me?” he thought. It was no dream……

When I was an adorable, relentless very flouncy four-year-old, I insisted on wearing my sister’s cheerleading skirt to kindergarten every day for two years. I could not imagine then that when I was older, all my favorite sci-fi shows would feature openly trans characters, or that Laverne Cox would be the sexiest woman on Orange is the New Black, or that RuPaul Charles would be a national treasure.

Rabbi Hillel famously said: Al Tifros min ha Tzibur - Do not separate yourself from community.

הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּפְרֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר

On June 19th, 1865, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army took control of the federal troops on Galveston Island and made this proclamation:  

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."

The celebrations that followed became what we now know as Juneteenth.

On June 19th, 1865, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army took control of the federal troops on Galveston Island and made this proclamation:  

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."

The celebrations that followed became what we now know as Juneteenth.

On June 19th, 1865, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army took control of the federal troops on Galveston Island and made this proclamation:  

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."

The celebrations that followed became what we now know as Juneteenth.

Upon my couch at night, in a dream

I sought the one I love—

I sought, but found him not.

“I must rise and roam the town,

Through the streets and through the squares;

I must seek the one I love.”

I sought but found him not. Song of Songs 3:1-2

Among the most famous of Jewish philosophers and theologians is Franz Rosensweig. Born in Germany in 1886 to an assimilated non-observant Jewish family, Franz was exposed to traditional Judaism by his uncle and asked for Hebrew lessons. He never became observant and went to medical school in Berlin. While there, he began to actively pursue conversion to Christianity, and committed to be baptized to his cousin who had converted, but first, he said he needed to delve into Judaism so he would at least know what he was giving up. In this mode, he went to High Holy Day services, and on Yom Kippur in 1913, had a powerful religious experience in synagogue, a revelation of some sort. It became clear to him that he was existentially and unchangeably a Jew and there was no leaving it. He decided that Judaism was rightly concerned about real life, this life and the way we can best live it. He became one of the most famous Jewish philosophers of the past several centuries, and was a star in the school of Wissenschaft der Judenthums, or the academic graduate study of Judaism that is the intellectual basis of what would become Reform Judaism.

This week’s portion, B’Chukotai contains a section of blessings and curses. The Torah sets it up as an either-or; either we will be good and be blessed or we will be bad and be cursed. I think as modern people, we know that blessings and curses don’t come so neatly separated in our lives, but often blessings and curses come at us together and in ways that are deeply entangled.

Many people, from Rabbi Hillel on, have tried to sum up Judaism in one sentence. Of course, when you try to boil down an ancient, evolving, complex tradition into one sentence, you inevitably leave something crucial out. If you focus only on tikkun olam or peace, you miss peoplehood. If you focus only on peoplehood, you miss our profound literary tradition. If you focus on Talmudic thinking and law, you miss Jewish secular culture. Even Hillel saying Torah could be summed up in the line, “that which is hateful to you, do not do to another,” really leaves out some crucial things that make Judaism, well, Judaism, and not some universalistic ethic or philosophy.

In Judaism, we believe that not doing something, standing by silently when action is needed – we believe that is just as wrong as doing a harmful action. The person who says nothing, does nothing is responsible along with the person doing the bad action in the first place.