Poast Sabatical Return; By Rabbi Denise L. Eger

It is so good to be home with all of you. I want to begin tonight with a todah rabbah. First and foremost thank you to all of you for the opportunity to be on sabbatical. Our tradition recognizes that we all need a time out to renew and refresh. The Shmittah year—the sabbatical year described in our Torah, is a sabbatical for the land to replenish the minerals and vitamins that nourish our food. For those of us in teaching and helping professions a sabbatical helps us to replenish the spiritual and educational inspiration that help to nourish our minds and souls. For me this sabbatical was overdue but very energizing and renewing. So thank you to our Temple community for this opportunity to grow and to learn, to study and connect with our Tradition, my family, the Land of Israel and God.

Thank you too goes to the rabbis and rabbinic students and lay people who helped to keep our temple programming rich and varied. To Rabbis Zach Shapiro and JB Sachs Rosen, to rabbinic Student Dean Shapiro, Cantorial Soloist Ron Galperin, Dr. Peter Kraus, our Ritual Committee chaired by Gary Wilson and its members, and our Torah study group and in particular Sam Fibish, Diane Saltzberg and Jane Drucker, to our social Action committee and chairs, to our HIV Group leaders, and to our amazing Board of Trustees who kept the home fires burning thank you.
To our wonderful staff, Nick Benko, Dara Pettinato, Suzanna Peters, Arturo Flores, and Cassie Kirschbaum our new religious school principal of course to our Executive Director Lee Werbel who handled all kinds of inquiries and issues during the summer months all the while preparing for the fall . Their attention to the day to day allowed me to truly have a break from the phone calls, and hundreds of emails and inquiries that I get daily.
And most of all to our amazing Cantor, my friend and colleague Mark Saltzman—who led this congregation with such inspiration, dignity and talent. You anchored our shul with your sacred spirituality. And you brought wisdom here on a daily basis. Thank you for all you do and for allowing me this opportunity to leave knowing our temple was in your sacred care.
As you know I spent most of the summer in Israel. Many of you expressed your worry and concern for my safety and I appreciate your love and care. It was an amazing time to be in Israel and truth is I wouldn’t have wanted to be any where else. For I could see with my own eyes, listen with my own ears to the real issues that were unfolding rather than the bias that so clearly came your way in the world media. The view we got from Lebanon and the Northern parts of Israel was a very different view indeed. I will have more to say about this during High Holy Days but for now suffice it to say, you did not get the full picture of what was happening on the ground. No one –no one expected this war. Even Nasarallah the head of the Hezbollah recently stated that if he knew Israel would have responded in such a way he would have never ordered the capture of the soldiers. -- Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev
"We did not think, even one percent, that the capture (of the two soldiers) would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude," said Nasrallah. "You ask me, if I had known on July 11... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not." (Sunday, August 27, 2006, Lebanese news station NTV)
But prior to July 12 when Hizbollah crossed the border killed 8 Israeli soldiers and captured Goldwasser and Regev, Israel was full of people and tourists.
I attended two seminars the Shalom Hartman Rabbinic Seminar and the Hebrew Union College Alumni Seminar. At the Hartman Institute 120 rabbis from all over the world and every denomination gathered to learn, and study Jewish texts. I studied with conservative rabbis from Canada and the Orthodox Hillel Rabbi from Oberlin College, with a woman rabbi born in the Netherlands but serving a pulpit in Germany, to Israeli Reform rabbis and many friends and colleagues from all over the U.S.
Our topic of study was looking at the concept of “Standing Before God”. What does it mean in Jewish tradition to stand in the presence of God? We studied Maimonides, and Liturgy, Kabbalaistic texts, and Midrash. We looked at Abraham as a model of standing in God’s presence and also how the Jews of the Enlightment era grappled with this concept.
At Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, a smaller group of alumni studied with the faculty the concept of Jewish denominationalism throughout our history. We looked at the ideas of the 12 tribes, and the Pharisees and Saducees and Zealots and even took a walking tour of the ultra Orthodox neighborhoods where one sect after another live next to each other but never worship together or study together.
During my sabbatical I had time to sit in the pews and pray rather than lead worship. I visited synagogues in Israel and here in Los Angeles seeking out and experiencing what is happening in the Jewish world beyond 1200 N. La Brea.
I thought about who we were as a community here at Kol Ami as we enter our 15th year and what might our future look like into the next 15 years.
I took time to be a more present member of my own family. Rabbinic life isn’t easy. And many days and nights I am away from my own dear ones. The sad irony that as someone who does so much to support the concept of the importance of the Jewish value of Mishpacha—the importance of the Jewish value of family, my own family often suffers when I am gone from them night after night, weekend after weekend. Having the time to bond as a family is critical to my spiritual well being.
So with family nearby, study with colleagues, living and breathing the sweet night air of Jerusalem and Israel, a bit of travel, a lot of reading and time for prayer and yes, even a little time for fun—the first half of my sabbatical comes to a close.
But with the New Year soon upon us all of us have a time to take a mini-sabbatical. These days of the final month of Elul are a time for study and reflection, meditation and prayer. In these days prior to Rosh Hashanah our tradition teaches us that we our take some time out to plumb the inner parts of our being and rectify, renew, and return to the Ground of our Being.
Even as the summer come to a close, the Jew must take some serious moments to look within and take stock of who we are and who we’ve become in this last year. But more importantly we are to be honest when who and what we’ve become may not be all that we can. We need to confront where we have missed the mark, where indeed we have erred, and perhaps caused harm to our self or others. We need to examine closely our own inner life and how it affects our outer actions.
And just like a sabbatical that renews and uplifts the holidays and their melodies, the sound of the Shofar calling to us, the nearness of friends and family, the sweetness of the apples and honey, provide an chance for changing the patterns of the past and helping us overcome the deficits that have crept into our way of being. Rosh Hashanah helps us purge the impurities from our way of life.
I want to invite you to begin a mini sabbatical in this holy season—a sabbatical of healing for your soul, cleansing for your spirit. Join us for Selichot which is Saturday Sept. 16 we will eat schmooze, study, purify our lives and pray and sing and create a sacred respite that will kick-off your High Holy Days.
So if you haven’t had a sabbatical, or a chance to take stock of your own life –a Jewish opportunity awaits you in this sacred season. Open this New Year with the blessing and harmony and wholeness that is a sabbatical for the soul—a new year of celebration with your Kol Ami community.
I am glad to be home with you. And I look forward to starting of this sacred season and the New Year with an opportunity to study and renew and refresh.
Shabbat Shalom.