Sermons

Shanah Tovah

Happy New Year Everyone!

For the last three years I have had a unique view of the Jewish People.  First, as President of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, the Western Region and largest Region of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.  I led more than 450 Reform rabbis from Vancouver to El Paso, from Utah to New Zealand.  And for the past two years as President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, sponsored by The Los Angeles Jewish Federation but serving rabbis of all denominations, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, from San Luis Obisbo to the Mexican Border. It was unique in that I was the first woman ever to do so.  And it allowed a type of conversation that hasn’t happened before.

 I have had a chance to visit congregations, talk with rabbis serving in schools and Hillels on college campuses. I talked with rabbis who serve in our federal prisons and chaplains in hospitals and young rabbis who are chaplains in the military and have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I have communicated regularly with the senior rabbis of the largest congregations with large rabbinic staffs and rabbis of small solo pulpits, rabbis who work in Jewish education, rabbis who are counselors or work in Jewish organizational life, with retired colleagues, with rabbis who teach in day schools and university, rabbis who are unemployed because of the changing nature of the economy and its impact on the Jewish institutional world.  I have had a chance to talk with them about their lives and the life and state of the Jewish People.  
            One of the continuing conversations among rabbis of all stripes from the most liberal to the most stringent is a conversation that I would like to share with you this morning.   “What is the State of the Jewish People? Can the Jewish People Survive? And can the Jewish People be One?”

During my term as President of the Board of Rabbis the continuing theme that I believed that was symbolic of my tenure as the first woman and first lesbian to ascend to be chair of the board was the idea of Klal Yisrael—the universal principle of the People Israel.  That despite our differences in the way we sing or pray that there is more that connects us than divides us. We can argue over Torah interpretation.  This is what our ancestors did and this is what is recorded in the pages of Talmud.  But most importantly the principle of Klal Yisrael means first and foremost that we are one People. We must care for one another for our fellow Jews even as we are concerned about the fate of all humanity; That we Jews have a responsibility to one another.   Kol Yisrael arvaim ze bazeh- That to survive in this fast paced contemporary setting that is the 21^st century we have to opt in –to one another. 

But there are those who disagree. 

Many believe that the Jewish world like the larger world is more fractious, more divided and less connected than ever before despite technology.  Many believe the gap between the haredim, our Orthodox religious fundamentalists and those of us on the progressive wing of Judaism is insurmountable. Many in the Jewish world including sociologist Steven Bayme believe the divisiveness we see over the role of the modern state of Israel and our beliefs about how to bring peace to that troubled spot is emblematic of the vast divide.  His contention is  that we cannot speak civilly with one another shows that we are not one. And therefore we cannot care for one another. 

The divided nature of the Jewish people and Jewish community is further disconnected along generational lines according to research. Young Millennial Jews want no part of established institutions instead preferring to create their own connections but then find that they are unsustainable financially and fleeting at best. In an article this summer in the Jewish Daily Forward, “Funding Jewish Peoplehood, Misha Galperin the new CEO and President of Jewish Agency International Development writes:  :

(Read more: http://forward.com/articles/139464/#ixzz1Yu5sMU00)

 “Having been raised in a world of pluralism and tolerance, Jews younger than 45 do not necessarily privilege their Jewish brothers and sisters above others when it comes to friendship, marriage, volunteerism and charitable giving."  

Increasingly we then must ask Can the Jewish People be one?  And Is there even a Case for Jewish Peoplehood?

For millennia we have referred to our group-as the Jewish Nation  Am Yisrael.  The Nation of Israel-not Israelis-citizens of the modern state of Israel although the Jewish ones are too part of Am Yisrael.  But beyond the idea that Judaism-is a religion-we Jews  have believed that we have a connection that goes deeper.  That is yes, in part biological but not exclusively biological because we welcome those who choose Judaism.  We are a group with a shared ancient history and myths and legends collected in the narratives of our group-in the Torah, and the Bible, in our Talmud and Midrash.  We are a group that has core values and ideals that have been passed l’dor vador-from generation to generation, even as each generation has made its own mark to shape those values and ideals.

We have a sacred language – Hebrew- even as we spoke the other languages of the world.  And we have had a tie to a sacred place – Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. The land of Zion – a place in our history which was real and from which we were forcibly exiled time and again-finally to return in recent memory of the 20^th century. 

     But for most of our history we were a nation without borders.  We were a nation, a group , an ethnicity, that went beyond geographical considerations because of the exile of the Jews. That is how we can lovingly play that important Jewish parlor game---Jewish geography! I know you have all done it…Do you know so and so? Their family came from…. Not even six degrees of separation when we are talking about Jews. 
       In Hebrew the word Peoplehood is ammiyut…. And this idea has struck a deep chord among us –that somehow, beyond a religion or faith (as is sometimes used by Christians) beyond nationality or ethnicity (since we also hold passports from the modern nations of the world), beyond clan or tribe since ten of them where carried off in exile by the Assyrians, somehow we the Jewish people with our shared stories, values, and in previous generations mission if you will; survived despite the pogroms, and attacks, exiles, and holocausts.  We the Jewish People, a nation within a nation, are still here.

            Alan Hoffman, director of education for the Jewish Agency of Israel offered an explanation of Jewish Peoplehood in an interview in Shma magazine:

The unique character of Judaism, the combination of religion and ethnicity was shaped by the formative experience of living in Diaspora unconnected to soil and boundaries so typical of most other nations.  We are therefore a spiritual community, a sociological entity, a series of ethnic islands, a conglomeration that is difficult to pry apart.

The notion of a Jewish “People” in relationship – something larger than individual existence gives many Jews a sense of connectedness to a bigger something which is especially important as collective bonds weaken in the general society and also among Jews.  But a danger lurks if this becomes a diluted lowest common denominator concept, not nearly as powerful or robust as Jewish religious identity or national identity.” (As quoted in the “The Case for Jewish Peoplehood, Can we be One?” Brown and Galperin, Jewish Lights, 2009 originally in Shma 37,2006 “Challenging Peoplehood” Berrins and Hoffman, http://www.shma.com/2006/10/challenging-peoplehood/)

The worries of the rabbis I talk to echo Hoffman’s questions.   The rabbis ask – are we at that point… that our robust identity as the Jewish People is fading as our shared mission, values and ideals and facility with our shared language hold less sway.

Robert Putnam in his famous book, “Bowling Alone” recognized that we are often less socially connected than ever before.  From research of over half a million interviews Putnam concluded that we are more disconnected from family and institutions that ever before.  If we believe Putnam, and Jewish demongraphers like Steven Cohen, the old structures, like Peoplehood, are falling. There are simply less Jews.  We don’t reproduce. We don’t raise our children Jewishly.  We move in and out of the larger cultural so freely that when we can make decision about identity, when we have the individual autonomy to choose Judaism and identification we often don’t choose at all. We say we don’t “believe in God” so why engage in acts of belonging.  We fall in love with someone who isn’t Jewish and so we see ourselves outside the tent or we are pulled outside because we don’t want to rock the boat.   

As political scientist Daniel Elazar describes, “The Jewish community is a “unique blend of kinship and consent.”  (p. 41,The Case for Jewish Peoplehood)

As Erica Brown and Misha Galperin write  in their book “The Case for Jewish Peoplehood “Jews no longer share a common language of ritual practice and Jewish law nor are we joined by a shared insecurity of oppression or persecution.   In the absences of these historical markers, the Jewish community of the 21^st century is struggling for a shred language of anything.”

  In other words, when you have the choice to opt in or easily opt out and when we no longer can speak to one another across the great divide of Jewish texts and literacy what will be the future of the Jewish People?   Are we merely left to some gustatory sense of Jewish life—bagels, corned beef and hummus? Or is there something deeper that ought to connect us?

My contention is and was that we hunger for more than a shared recipe.  We hunger for deep and meaningful connections and spirit.  But this doesn’t just come wafting down from heaven… rather it comes from a sense of mutual responsibility and mutual concern.  It comes from an attitude of commitment and connection and inspiring one another to build bonds of profound strength even when the world is in turmoil.  And perhaps because the world and the economy is in such turmoil we need the safety and sacred space of the Jewish People more than ever before.   I believe the bonds of Jewish Peoplehood are not just passive but must be actively nurtured and we once again as a sacred community we must find a shared language of mission and values and yes, faith in the enduring principles of Judaism.

This is the challenge I place before as this New Year begins.  How will we bridge the great divide between our concerns and our our actions?  How can we as a Jewish people gathered at the New Year here with our loved ones take one step to strengthen our own personal connection to the Jewish people and therefore uplift the Jewish project?  What are you willing to do to learn and speak this shared language of the Jewish spirit?

On the one hand I hear so often “Rabbi I want spirituality. I want connection.  I want to live a life of meaning.”  But I see so few of you willing to engage in the process that can provide the depth and breadth of that platform to stand on.   Ironically, the pathways to building that deeper sense of order, meaning and spirit are exactly the things that will bolster and help the Jewish people endure!  They actually go hand in hand!

And so in this respect I propose the following and challenge every member of this congregation to engage in three acts this coming year that will deepen your connection to the Jewish People.  I challenge you to take one of the myriad of Adult Education opportunities before you.   At Kol Ami we are offering more adult learning than ever before.   There will be text study in the form of monthly Bible encounters, Jewish current events, Torah chanting classes, author presentations and even a trip to Israel.  There is monthly family learning with our children.  In the busyness of our lives I challenge you to go deeper to learn at an adult level something more about your Jewish life, challenge your mind and challenge your soul with learning about who you are amongst this people.

The second challenge to you this New Year’s Day is to engage in acts of religious life.  Whether that is come to some of our holy day celebrations like Sukkot or Simchat Torah, Chanukah or Yom Ha-aztmaut or light candles in your home each Shabbat.  Do something affirmative that connects you ritually to the ancient life of the Jewish people. 

Ritual is hard.  It is harder still when we are single or don’t have traditional families.   But the disconnect builds when we lazily give in to a rhythm of secular life.  I challenge this community and congregation to do more than just the High Holy Days but to explore your Jewish spirituality through affirming Jewish timeless acts. 

The third and final challenge I make to you on this New Year’s Day in the name of preserving Jewish peoplehood is to engage in the call of the Prophets:  To Do justice-to engage in acts of Tikkun Olam consciously as a Jewish Act.  Fill up those brown bags that our ushers give out for Sova.  Walk with Team Kol Ami in the AIDS Walk.   Help us donate solar cookers in Africa with Jewish World Watch.  Work with other people of faith to stop the political initiative that would nullify the Fair ACT signed this summer by Governor Brown that would keep gay people invisible in the discussion of history.

Many of you serve on non-profit boards or volunteer your time with great organizations.   But how many of you do this as a conscious Jewish act?  How many of you do this as a true Mitzvah-a command to heal our world?  How many of you place your service-sacred service in the context of your Jewish values and ideals rather than just a sense of noblesse oblige.

What are you willing to do to ensure that this eternal people-the Jewish people survives?  What are you willing to do in this New Year to deepen your connections and deepen your spirituality?  What ways are you willing to opt in to help build the case for the Jewish people as an eternal people?  The more we engage; the more opportunities to create shared conversations among the various groups within Jewish life today.  We have made great strides. We sit at tables where once we did not.  But we risk something greater if it is only rabbis having this conversation-this is a shared enterprise-the life of the Jewish people.  And we need you in not only the conversation but in the effort to shape the future!

On one of our Torah covers is a phrase from Pirke Avot:  Marbeh Torah; Marbeh Chayim-the more Torah the more Life.  Engaging in Torah, in Study, in practice, in song and prayer, in acts of justice enriches our individual lives and it enriches and sustains the life of the Jewish people.

So hear the call of the Shofar this year as a call home to the Jewish People. Hear its blast enticing you to help the eternal values and principles of Jewish life and identity be brought into our daily consciousness and daily actions.  Hear the Shofar awakening you to the urgency of the task and urgency of the hour.

Eli Eli Shelo yigamer L’olam…. O God, My God I pray that these things never end- the sand and the sea, the rush of the water, the life of the Jewish People. 

Ken Yehi Ratzon.

So may it be God’s will.

Happy New Year Everyone!

For the last three years I have had a unique view of the Jewish People.  First, as President of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, the Western Region and largest Region of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.  I led more than 450 Reform rabbis from Vancouver to El Paso, from Utah to New Zealand.  And for the past two years as President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, sponsored by The Los Angeles Jewish Federation but serving rabbis of all denominations, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, from San Luis Obisbo to the Mexican Border. It was unique in that I was the first woman ever to do so.  And it allowed a type of conversation that hasn’t happened before.

 I have had a chance to visit congregations, talk with rabbis serving in schools and Hillels on college campuses. I talked with rabbis who serve in our federal prisons and chaplains in hospitals and young rabbis who are chaplains in the military and have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I have communicated regularly with the senior rabbis of the largest congregations with large rabbinic staffs and rabbis of small solo pulpits, rabbis who work in Jewish education, rabbis who are counselors or work in Jewish organizational life, with retired colleagues, with rabbis who teach in day schools and university, rabbis who are unemployed because of the changing nature of the economy and its impact on the Jewish institutional world.  I have had a chance to talk with them about their lives and the life and state of the Jewish People.  
            One of the continuing conversations among rabbis of all stripes from the most liberal to the most stringent is a conversation that I would like to share with you this morning.   “What is the State of the Jewish People? Can the Jewish People Survive? And can the Jewish People be One?”

During my term as President of the Board of Rabbis the continuing theme that I believed that was symbolic of my tenure as the first woman and first lesbian to ascend to be chair of the board was the idea of Klal Yisrael—the universal principle of the People Israel.  That despite our differences in the way we sing or pray that there is more that connects us than divides us. We can argue over Torah interpretation.  This is what our ancestors did and this is what is recorded in the pages of Talmud.  But most importantly the principle of Klal Yisrael means first and foremost that we are one People. We must care for one another for our fellow Jews even as we are concerned about the fate of all humanity; That we Jews have a responsibility to one another.   Kol Yisrael arvaim ze bazeh- That to survive in this fast paced contemporary setting that is the 21^st century we have to opt in –to one another. 

But there are those who disagree. 

Many believe that the Jewish world like the larger world is more fractious, more divided and less connected than ever before despite technology.  Many believe the gap between the haredim, our Orthodox religious fundamentalists and those of us on the progressive wing of Judaism is insurmountable. Many in the Jewish world including sociologist Steven Bayme believe the divisiveness we see over the role of the modern state of Israel and our beliefs about how to bring peace to that troubled spot is emblematic of the vast divide.  His contention is  that we cannot speak civilly with one another shows that we are not one. And therefore we cannot care for one another. 

The divided nature of the Jewish people and Jewish community is further disconnected along generational lines according to research. Young Millennial Jews want no part of established institutions instead preferring to create their own connections but then find that they are unsustainable financially and fleeting at best. In an article this summer in the Jewish Daily Forward, “Funding Jewish Peoplehood, Misha Galperin the new CEO and President of Jewish Agency International Development writes:  :

(Read more: http://forward.com/articles/139464/#ixzz1Yu5sMU00)

 “Having been raised in a world of pluralism and tolerance, Jews younger than 45 do not necessarily privilege their Jewish brothers and sisters above others when it comes to friendship, marriage, volunteerism and charitable giving."  

Increasingly we then must ask Can the Jewish People be one?  And Is there even a Case for Jewish Peoplehood?

For millennia we have referred to our group-as the Jewish Nation  Am Yisrael.  The Nation of Israel-not Israelis-citizens of the modern state of Israel although the Jewish ones are too part of Am Yisrael.  But beyond the idea that Judaism-is a religion-we Jews  have believed that we have a connection that goes deeper.  That is yes, in part biological but not exclusively biological because we welcome those who choose Judaism.  We are a group with a shared ancient history and myths and legends collected in the narratives of our group-in the Torah, and the Bible, in our Talmud and Midrash.  We are a group that has core values and ideals that have been passed l’dor vador-from generation to generation, even as each generation has made its own mark to shape those values and ideals.

We have a sacred language – Hebrew- even as we spoke the other languages of the world.  And we have had a tie to a sacred place – Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. The land of Zion – a place in our history which was real and from which we were forcibly exiled time and again-finally to return in recent memory of the 20^th century. 

     But for most of our history we were a nation without borders.  We were a nation, a group , an ethnicity, that went beyond geographical considerations because of the exile of the Jews. That is how we can lovingly play that important Jewish parlor game---Jewish geography! I know you have all done it…Do you know so and so? Their family came from…. Not even six degrees of separation when we are talking about Jews. 
       In Hebrew the word Peoplehood is ammiyut…. And this idea has struck a deep chord among us –that somehow, beyond a religion or faith (as is sometimes used by Christians) beyond nationality or ethnicity (since we also hold passports from the modern nations of the world), beyond clan or tribe since ten of them where carried off in exile by the Assyrians, somehow we the Jewish people with our shared stories, values, and in previous generations mission if you will; survived despite the pogroms, and attacks, exiles, and holocausts.  We the Jewish People, a nation within a nation, are still here.

            Alan Hoffman, director of education for the Jewish Agency of Israel offered an explanation of Jewish Peoplehood in an interview in Shma magazine:

The unique character of Judaism, the combination of religion and ethnicity was shaped by the formative experience of living in Diaspora unconnected to soil and boundaries so typical of most other nations.  We are therefore a spiritual community, a sociological entity, a series of ethnic islands, a conglomeration that is difficult to pry apart.

The notion of a Jewish “People” in relationship – something larger than individual existence gives many Jews a sense of connectedness to a bigger something which is especially important as collective bonds weaken in the general society and also among Jews.  But a danger lurks if this becomes a diluted lowest common denominator concept, not nearly as powerful or robust as Jewish religious identity or national identity.” (As quoted in the “The Case for Jewish Peoplehood, Can we be One?” Brown and Galperin, Jewish Lights, 2009 originally in Shma 37,2006 “Challenging Peoplehood” Berrins and Hoffman, http://www.shma.com/2006/10/challenging-peoplehood/)

The worries of the rabbis I talk to echo Hoffman’s questions.   The rabbis ask – are we at that point… that our robust identity as the Jewish People is fading as our shared mission, values and ideals and facility with our shared language hold less sway.

Robert Putnam in his famous book, “Bowling Alone” recognized that we are often less socially connected than ever before.  From research of over half a million interviews Putnam concluded that we are more disconnected from family and institutions that ever before.  If we believe Putnam, and Jewish demongraphers like Steven Cohen, the old structures, like Peoplehood, are falling. There are simply less Jews.  We don’t reproduce. We don’t raise our children Jewishly.  We move in and out of the larger cultural so freely that when we can make decision about identity, when we have the individual autonomy to choose Judaism and identification we often don’t choose at all. We say we don’t “believe in God” so why engage in acts of belonging.  We fall in love with someone who isn’t Jewish and so we see ourselves outside the tent or we are pulled outside because we don’t want to rock the boat.   

As political scientist Daniel Elazar describes, “The Jewish community is a “unique blend of kinship and consent.”  (p. 41,The Case for Jewish Peoplehood)

As Erica Brown and Misha Galperin write  in their book “The Case for Jewish Peoplehood “Jews no longer share a common language of ritual practice and Jewish law nor are we joined by a shared insecurity of oppression or persecution.   In the absences of these historical markers, the Jewish community of the 21^st century is struggling for a shred language of anything.”

  In other words, when you have the choice to opt in or easily opt out and when we no longer can speak to one another across the great divide of Jewish texts and literacy what will be the future of the Jewish People?   Are we merely left to some gustatory sense of Jewish life—bagels, corned beef and hummus? Or is there something deeper that ought to connect us?

My contention is and was that we hunger for more than a shared recipe.  We hunger for deep and meaningful connections and spirit.  But this doesn’t just come wafting down from heaven… rather it comes from a sense of mutual responsibility and mutual concern.  It comes from an attitude of commitment and connection and inspiring one another to build bonds of profound strength even when the world is in turmoil.  And perhaps because the world and the economy is in such turmoil we need the safety and sacred space of the Jewish People more than ever before.   I believe the bonds of Jewish Peoplehood are not just passive but must be actively nurtured and we once again as a sacred community we must find a shared language of mission and values and yes, faith in the enduring principles of Judaism.

This is the challenge I place before as this New Year begins.  How will we bridge the great divide between our concerns and our our actions?  How can we as a Jewish people gathered at the New Year here with our loved ones take one step to strengthen our own personal connection to the Jewish people and therefore uplift the Jewish project?  What are you willing to do to learn and speak this shared language of the Jewish spirit?

On the one hand I hear so often “Rabbi I want spirituality. I want connection.  I want to live a life of meaning.”  But I see so few of you willing to engage in the process that can provide the depth and breadth of that platform to stand on.   Ironically, the pathways to building that deeper sense of order, meaning and spirit are exactly the things that will bolster and help the Jewish people endure!  They actually go hand in hand!

And so in this respect I propose the following and challenge every member of this congregation to engage in three acts this coming year that will deepen your connection to the Jewish People.  I challenge you to take one of the myriad of Adult Education opportunities before you.   At Kol Ami we are offering more adult learning than ever before.   There will be text study in the form of monthly Bible encounters, Jewish current events, Torah chanting classes, author presentations and even a trip to Israel.  There is monthly family learning with our children.  In the busyness of our lives I challenge you to go deeper to learn at an adult level something more about your Jewish life, challenge your mind and challenge your soul with learning about who you are amongst this people.

The second challenge to you this New Year’s Day is to engage in acts of religious life.  Whether that is come to some of our holy day celebrations like Sukkot or Simchat Torah, Chanukah or Yom Ha-aztmaut or light candles in your home each Shabbat.  Do something affirmative that connects you ritually to the ancient life of the Jewish people. 

Ritual is hard.  It is harder still when we are single or don’t have traditional families.   But the disconnect builds when we lazily give in to a rhythm of secular life.  I challenge this community and congregation to do more than just the High Holy Days but to explore your Jewish spirituality through affirming Jewish timeless acts. 

The third and final challenge I make to you on this New Year’s Day in the name of preserving Jewish peoplehood is to engage in the call of the Prophets:  To Do justice-to engage in acts of Tikkun Olam consciously as a Jewish Act.  Fill up those brown bags that our ushers give out for Sova.  Walk with Team Kol Ami in the AIDS Walk.   Help us donate solar cookers in Africa with Jewish World Watch.  Work with other people of faith to stop the political initiative that would nullify the Fair ACT signed this summer by Governor Brown that would keep gay people invisible in the discussion of history.

Many of you serve on non-profit boards or volunteer your time with great organizations.   But how many of you do this as a conscious Jewish act?  How many of you do this as a true Mitzvah-a command to heal our world?  How many of you place your service-sacred service in the context of your Jewish values and ideals rather than just a sense of noblesse oblige.

What are you willing to do to ensure that this eternal people-the Jewish people survives?  What are you willing to do in this New Year to deepen your connections and deepen your spirituality?  What ways are you willing to opt in to help build the case for the Jewish people as an eternal people?  The more we engage; the more opportunities to create shared conversations among the various groups within Jewish life today.  We have made great strides. We sit at tables where once we did not.  But we risk something greater if it is only rabbis having this conversation-this is a shared enterprise-the life of the Jewish people.  And we need you in not only the conversation but in the effort to shape the future!

On one of our Torah covers is a phrase from Pirke Avot:  Marbeh Torah; Marbeh Chayim-the more Torah the more Life.  Engaging in Torah, in Study, in practice, in song and prayer, in acts of justice enriches our individual lives and it enriches and sustains the life of the Jewish people.

So hear the call of the Shofar this year as a call home to the Jewish People. Hear its blast enticing you to help the eternal values and principles of Jewish life and identity be brought into our daily consciousness and daily actions.  Hear the Shofar awakening you to the urgency of the task and urgency of the hour.

Eli Eli Shelo yigamer L’olam…. O God, My God I pray that these things never end- the sand and the sea, the rush of the water, the life of the Jewish People. 

Ken Yehi Ratzon.

So may it be God’s will.

Shanah Tovah.  Happy New Year.  It is good to see you all again.

It is hard to believe that a New Year has arrived.  Where did the old one go?  Were we not just here together in this place?  I don’t only mean the physical space of Immanuel Presbyterian : but in this spiritual place-of reviewing and examining our deeds. Reviewing and examining who we’ve become and imagining who we would like to be.  It seems we just were doing this very task not a few months ago.

That is what this holy day period is about—Imagination and creativity.  Beginning today and for the next ten days you have a chance to make yourself over; to re-imagine yourself; to create yourself anew.  You have Divine permission to rid yourself of that which holds you back, or that which you see as personal flaws.  Most of us work out physically trying to re-shape our bodies or keep our health at optimum levels.  But during this season we are encouraged to  re-shape your character and the inner you during the Ten Days of Awe.  You have permission and holy encouragement to become the person that you can imagine!

Several weeks after a young man had been hired he was called into the personnel director’s office. “What is the meaning of this?” the director asked, “When you applied for this job, you told us you had five years’ experience. Now we’ve discovered this is the first job you’ve ever held.’

“Well,” the young man replied. “In your advertisement you said you wanted somebody with imagination.”

Today God wants you to use your imagination and your creativity. Rosh Hashanah calls out to you to be a person with imagination!

 In other words: Imagineering is not just for Walt Disney.  Perhaps you are not familiar with the Imagineers.  But this is a creative group within the Walt Disney Company. It is the design and development arm of the company and is responsible for much of the Walt Disney theme parks, everything from layout to rides.  The term imagineers however was not coined by Disney. Rather it came from ALCOA, the Aluminum Company of American in the 1940’s to describe engineering and imagination. This term was adopted by Disney a decade later.

But this term describes exactly what we are to do during this holy day time.  We are to re-engineer ourselves.  We are about to take out the flaws and the errors and the mistakes and work out a new formula for success.  We are to imagine how we ought to be in the world and how we ought to get there.

Thus think of yourself beginning tonight –as an Imagineer.  You hold the key to your future in your hands by the introspection that you do. It is time to redraw the lay-out and improve yourself.  Rosh Hashanah is about renewing the commitment to overcoming character flaws, correcting mistakes and sins, tossing out bad habits and the dedication to imagine a new life, a life that is more just and ethical.  It is time in this New Year for a new you.

We Jews do this remembering on Rosh Hashanah because this is the celebration of the creation of the Universe. Just as God created the world on Rosh Hashanah we are now creating our world anew!  Just as God imagined and engineered the universe with a Bang! We imagineer our lives for the coming year. 

We Jews say this is Yom Harat Olam-the Day the World was conceived.  And today I am asking each of you to reconceive your world.  How might you live a more holy life? How might you re-think troubled relationships? How might you stop those bad habits that detract from the quality of your daily life? How might you reinvigorate your life with direction, heart and Jewish ideals?

          But to reimagine ourselves we first must encounter our own story: As Muriel Rukeyser says: “The universe is made of stories, not atoms” 

We have to tell the story of ourselves.  Our Bible does that.  It tells stories: stories about people’s lives. Your ancestors’ lives.  Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah, King David, Queen Esther, The Torah tells the story of the Jewish People.  It doesn’t sugar coat the story.  Our ancestors lives are on display flaws and all.  Abraham defends strangers but not his own son to God.  Sarah is jealous of Hagar. Rebekkah urges her son Jacob to deceive his father, King David commits adultery with Queen Bathsheba and has her husband killed.  And yet he is still known as the greatest king of Israel for his other achievements.  Our stories, Jewish stories tell it like it is, successes and achievements and trouble spots as well.  Stories are the heart of our lives.

     Our holidays do the same. At Passover we sit down to a Seder meal and retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt and we act out that story through traditional questions, foods and songs. 

But on Rosh Hashanah if you don’t tell your story, if you don’t really know your own story-how can you imagine your future?  What is the story of you? Tonight on Rosh Hashanah I want to urge you to think about your own narrative.  The story of the last year as well as the story you want to unfold in the New Year.

According to a “Story Based Strategy for Change by Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsbouorgh (http://smartmeme.org/downloads/smartMeme.ReImaginingChange.pdf)”

A Harvard University evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker argues that stories are essential to human learning and building relationships in social groups. There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the neurological roots of both storytelling and enjoyment of stories are tied to our social cognition.

.         In one widely cited 1944 experiment, psychologists Fritz Heider and Mary-Ann Simmel showed subjects “an animation of a pair of triangles and a circle moving around a square,” and asked what was happening. The subjects’ responses (i.e. “The circle is chasing the triangles.”) revealed how they mapped a narrative onto the shapes. Numerous subsequent studies have reiterated how humans, as social creatures, see stories everywhere.  

                   In other words we make up stories to explain our world, to synthesize it, to make sense and order of our lives.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are here to help us explain our story –to ourselves and others.  We are to try and figure out why we became who we did in the last year, fix it, edit our behaviors, and change our story. We have the power to re-write our story.

          Is it any wonder that one of the important images for the High Holy Day Season is “Sefer HaChayim?” The Book of Life?  We know that we are supposed to place our story and inscribe our name in the Book of Life. In the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16b) we learn

R. Kruspedai said in the name of R. Yohanan:  On Rosh HaShanah, three books are opened-- one with the names of the completely wicked, one with the names of the completely righteous, and one with the names of those who are neither completely righteous nor completely wicked.  The completely righteous:  their verdict—life—is written down and sealed at once.  Those neither completely righteous nor completely wicked:  their verdict is suspended between New Year's Day and the Day of Atonement.  (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur)

If they are deemed to deserve it [by resolving to repent], they are inscribed for life; if [they fail to repent] and therefore deemed not to deserve life, they are inscribed for death.

This tradition is there to teach us that we have the power to change the story, change that inscription, change the outcome!  We have to engineer that change through our intentions and our deeds and sincere repentance.  This idea that it rests with us-is reinforced in our liturgy—We say Teshuvah, tefillah utzedakah—Repentance, prayer and charity avert the decree.  We have tools on our Jewish tool belt to assist us in this process of changing, and of reimagining our lives, and re-writing our story in the Sefer HaChayim- the B ook of Life.

          The Rabbis understood that this was a metaphor-to help us re-imagine who we were to be in the coming year.   The Sages understood that human beings, created in the image of the Divine One had creative powers herself-to create our realities, our path ways. 
          But to do so we had to visit the past, know our story, and then re-write its plot!

So if you have veered from the good during the past year. If you have hurt with words or deeds others or yourself, over the course of the next Ten Days-you have the ability to change the story-change your story in the Book of Life. 

You can create a good outcome –when you see the good in your story, in yourself and in others.

For it is that Good—The deeds of a righteous and good life that will transform not just our own lives but the life of the world.

The Talmud shares this tale:

One day Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai gathered his disciples around him and said to them, “I have a very important task for you. I want you to go out into the world and search out

the ways of men to see what is truly good in humanity. Then return to me and tell me what you have found.”
     As always, the disciples did as their teacher asked. They walked among people of every class and occupation, every background and lot in life. After a time, when each believed that he had found what was truly good in people, they returned to the rabbi to report what they had learned.

“So tell me,” said Rabbi Yochanan, first addressing Rabbi Eliezeer. “What have you found to be truly good?”

“A good eye,” Eliezer replied. “For those who have a good eye have an eye for the suffering of others. So they are led to be generous.”
“Well said,” the teacher nodded.

“And you, Rabbi Yehoshua, what have you found to be truly good?” 

“A good friend,” he answered. “A man should not only cultivate a good friend but should himself be a good friend. That is how life takes on value. For a friend has no price and is more precious than gold.’
“You too have spoken well.” The rabbi answered. Then, turning to Rabbi Yose, he asked, “What have you learned?”

“I have learned, “said Yose, “that a good neighbor is truly good. A person cannot live in isolation from others but needs company in order to be truly good. It is from a good neighbor that we learn how to be a good neighbor.”

“We all may learn from what you have learned,” Rabbi Yochanan commented. “But I wonder what Rabbi Shimon has found to be truly good.”

“I have found that the person who looks ahead and attends to the consequences of her actions is truly good,” said Rabbi Shimon. “Our deeds create angels for good or for evil, and the angels we create go out into the world to do good or evil. Thus our every move, our every thought, disturbs the entire universe and affects human lives.’
“What you say is profound,” said Rabbi Yochanan. “Listen well all of you, to Rabbi Shimon. 

But we have not yet heard from Rabbi Eleazar.”

The disciples and their teacher turned to Rabbi Eleazar, prepared to listen to his discourse on what is truly good in humanity. But all he said was: “A good heart is truly good.”

At this their teacher smiled and declared, “I prefer the worlds of Eleazar ben Arach to all of your words combined. In his words are contained your words. A good heart sees rightly, and seeks out other human beings, loving our neighbor, as the Torah commands us; And a good heart looks not only ahead but also above, loving God as the Torah commands us as well. Yes, Rabbi Eleazar has spoken well.”  

A Good heart is the goal of this Holy Day season-to bring out your sacred story and uncover your good heart.  A heart that is open to the possibility of love and faith and kindness even in a world that is tough and angry and cruel.   A faith-filled life, a life where the Source of all Breath is honored and recognized has at its core a good heart. 

When we share our own narrative, and tell our story we bring out from the edge of darkness the good that lives in us. Sharing the narrative helps us reflect on making the changes that will help us reinstate that good heart towards all people. 

          When our stories are suppressed, when we can’t tell the truth of our lives, then the dark shadows of shame take hold.  The dark shadows keep us in its grip and keeps us from full participation in the world. It keeps us from wholeness, keeps us held down.  That is why we must reach out to the person sitting in the back row who is alone.  We have to acknowledge their humanity and their story. We can’t just look past people because then we ignore their story.  The homeless person on the street, do not avert your eyes because she has a story too.  The Jewish thing is to acknowledge the story and in the process we acknowledge their humanity. For we are all created in the Divine image.  You are as well. You have a story too.

Because when our stories are quashed the world is diminished and our worlds are diminished.  When our sacred stories are covered up, hidden then we cannot know what it means to come close to God and others.  But when our own sacred stories are brought to light, shared, told, and retold, and even re-written then that honesty and hopefulness allows us to let out our good hearts. 

          That is the beauty of of the sacred narrative-because it will transcend time.  It will be shared lador vador—from generation to generation as part of the collective memory of our people, of your family, of this community.  So write your story, share it, shape it in these holy days-erase that bad habits, correct the traits that have marred your soul.

Rosh Hashanah and these Ten Days of Awe and the process of Teshuvah-of turning our lives around is about bringing to light our story of self and working to bring our good heart back!

          So at this season of turning, at this season of re-imagining and rewriting, seek out the good heart at the kernel of your existence and bring that heart to the foreground.  Let the light of your good heart shine into the New Year and help change the direction- from sin to wholeness; from fear to courage; from weakness to strength; from despair to hope once again.

Ken Yehi Ratzon.

Shanah Tovah.  Happy New Year.  It is good to see you all again.