Bet Mishpachah D'rash: Rosh Hoshana Second Morning 5763

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" LINK="#000000" VLINK="#000000" ALINK="#000000"> <CENTER><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=20% VALIGN="TOP"> <A NAME="top"> <P> <B><a href="http://betmish.org/text/rhii5763drash.html">Text-Only Version</a></B> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/index.html">Home</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/whatsnew.html">What's New</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/calendar.html#July8">Coming Events</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/drashot.html">D'rashot</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/do.html">What We Do</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/who.html">Who We Are</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/contact.html">Contact Us</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/archives.html">Archives</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/links.html">Links</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/member.html">Membership</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/credits.html">Credits</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/addbook.html">Guest book</A></B></BIG> </FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="80%> <CENTER>    <table border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center"> <a href="http://betmish.org/index.html" target="_top"><IMG border=0 src="http://betmish.org/images/banner2.gif" align=center height="104" width="512" hspace=5 alt="Bet Mishpachah banner"></a> </td> <td align="left"> <font size="-5"><a href="http://betmish.org/child/descriptions/banner.html">Banner<br>Description</a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"> <p><font size="-1"><i>Washington, DC's Egalitarian Synagogue</i><br> <i>Embracing a Diversity of Sexual and Gender Identities</i></font> </p> <p> <b><font face="Arial"><font size="+1">Rabbi Bob Saks<br> </font></font></b><br> <font face="Arial"><font size="-1"><i>Founded in 1975 by Members of the GLBT Community<font color="white" size="-4"> </font></i></font></font></p> </td> <td align="left"> <font size="-4" color="white"> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> <center><h1><span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Rosh Hoshana</i></span> Second Morning <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>D'rash</i></span> 5763</h1> <br>Marcia Levy <br>Copyright ©2002</center> <P>According to tradition, we're told that King Solomon wrote this morning's <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Haftorah</i></span>...which talks about the Israelites building a beautiful Tabernacle. They have finally come to The Promised Land after 40 long, hard years in the desert. It is here, in the Tabernacle, that they will worship their new God. The God of Moses. The God who has given them the essence of Jewish life: The Ten Commandments. But...worshipping this new God will be easier said...than done. <P>Remember, that in the Wilderness, God has spoken to Moses. He commands Moses to go up on Mount Sinai to receive these Ten Commandments. Two simple stone tablets that basically encompass all of God's teachings. But down on the ground, the people are creating an idol to worship. A golden calf. Something solid. Something they can see and touch. They've spent generations among the Egyptians. Living among the many Egyptian idols. Building their sacred pyramids. They cannot...will not...deal with this God of Moses'. A sole God...and an invisible one, at that. This is looking like a very serious problem. <P>But, after the construction of the Tabernacle, God recognizes and understands the difficulty. The people need a means of transition from that myriad of Egyptian idols to this one true God. As the prophet, Kalil Ghibran, says, "Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is its twin". <P>So God decides to come into the Tabernacle in a raging pillar of fire by night and in a thick, massive cloud by day. Yes, these are more tangible signs of God's presence. But the people can't go into the fire to see God. And the cloud is heavy, opaque, seemingly unpenetratable. What the people want to be simple, God has made complicated. While the people want to see God clearly, God is playing "hide and seek". <P>Solomon, ever the mediator, tries to smooth things over between the people and God. "The Eternal", he says, "Has spoken." God has chosen to dwell in this thick cloud. But, the thick cloud will dwell in the Tabernacle forever. <P>This, in and unto itself, will make the Tabernacle a sacred place. A spiritual place. A holy place. A place in which the people will always be connected to God. In other words, seeing is not necessary to believing. Solomon, the wise man, says that the people must take it on faith that God dwells with them in the Tabernacle. <P>Now, we all know that this is but one of a multitude of portions in the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Torah</i></span> and the Prophetic Works. These texts tell us about the history of the Jews and their ongoing journey to God. They're told in a certain way to teach us certain things about our ancestors and ourselves. <P>So, why is this story about God's appearance told in this way? What does it mean to us? Well, like our ancestors, we're a sensate people. We yearn to see God. We yearn to certify who and what God is. And here's God, engulfed in a cloud. A literal cloud in the Tabernacle. A figurative cloud in our lives. God is like some illusive quarry that we have to "hunt down". So, some of us say, "This is too hard. Who needs God anyway?" Then, we spend an inordinate amount of time spiritedly defending our position. Yet, in truth, we would give up that spiritedness in a New York minute for a spirituality that we could really believe in. <P>But, let's say, for a moment, that we all agree that we don't need God. Can we all agree that we do need goodness in our lives? Well, the German word for "good" is "Gott". In this scenario, goodness could equal God. God could equal goodness. But...Good or God is still theoretically in that cloud for us. How in the world do we get to God? <P>Speaking in the Hebrew, <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Yud Hay Vuv Hel</i></span>, God says, "I will be what or where I will be". If that's the case, God's goodness could move out of that cloud and go toward the goodness in us. If we are open-minded...this Godly goodness could come right inside our hearts. <P>In his 12th Century prayer, the Spaniard, Yehudah Halevi, implores... <ul><P>"Eternal One, where can I find You? <BR>Your place seems hidden and afar! <BR>But how can I not find You? <BR>Your splendor fills the earth! <P>I find You within me--- <BR>You---the One who made the earth from nothingness. <BR>Even though You are exalted above us... <BR>You are nearer to us than our own bodies and souls. <P>I have sought to approach You; <BR>With all my heart, I called to You. <BR>And when I went out towards You, <BR>I found You coming towards me.</ul> <P>Then Halevi asks...and answers...this question: <ul><P>"But can God really dwell among us? <BR>Can we understand You, <BR>We whose foundation is dust? <BR>Yet You, Holy One, make Your home here, <BR>Where we sing Your praises and Your glory."</ul> <P>Well, on <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Erev Rosh Hoshana</i></span>, our <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Mahzor</i></span> refers repeatedly to what the Kabbalists teach us. The Kabbalists...a group of medieval Jewish mystics...believe that, at the time of Creation, the light of God became mixed with...and embedded into...the physical world and all the people in it. Since that time, these sparks have yearned to be connected again to the source of light from which they came... the light of the Divine. <P>In the 16th Century, in the town of Safed in Galilee, Rabbi Isaac Luria gathers his community of initiates around him. As a response to one of the most catastrophic upheavals in Jewish history...the Inquisitorial persecution of the Jews of Spain...they begin to compose the astonishing works that make up the Lurianic <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Kabbalah</i></span>. <P>This <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Kabbalah</i></span> tells us that those brilliant sparks emanating from God have been covered up by a long history of human misdeeds. Humanity must peel away these dark layers so that God's light may once again be revealed. <P>But, in the 20th Century, the great Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, expresses a different viewpoint. Yes, God's light is hidden. But Buber believes that it is actually a negative act to look for God. He says that, in our self-absorbed personal search, we would ignore the world. Buber says that our job as Jews is <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Tikkun Olam</i></span>, the healing of the world. <P>He believes that we will truly find God in the spaces "in between" our good deeds. It will happen when we enter into a genuine dialogue with others. When we really hear another, soul to soul. When we really feel not only another's joy...but another's pain. And, most of all, when we respond to another with true love and understanding. <P>In this spirit, Buber tells the following story: The Rabbi of Kotzk asks his students, "Where is the dwelling place of God?" His learned students laugh. One student responds by saying, "What a thing to ask, <span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>Rebbe</i></span>. Is not the whole world full of God's glory?" The Rabbi answers his own question. He says, "God dwells wherever a person lets God in." <P>In other words, there's no need to keep struggling inside that heavy cloud...or spend time peeling away dark layers...trying to find God. God can emerge from that cloud and from under those dark layers and find us. That is, if we wish to be found. It is we who have made it complicated. It is God who has made it simple. It is we who have been playing "hide/and/seek". It is God who will emerge to be seen clearly. <P>Our sages also tell us this. The more we do good deeds in the world, God's presence becomes more visible to us. Well, if this is true...then why bother to come here today? We could do good works out in the world. But, we could commune with God by ourselves...in our homes! <P>Yes, throughout this service, we've described God. We've talked to God. We've heard God talk to us. And, we‘ve been in God‘s presence. But, we could stay home and do all of these very same things...alone. <P>Well, we could also listen to a piece of music at home. Yet we still go to the concert. We could read a play at home. Yet we still go to the theater. There's just something deeply profound about sharing such moments with like-minded others. In places built for their very purpose. <P>So we sit in this chosen sanctuary, surrounded by our families of origin and our families of choice. Worshipping together. Marveling at the awesome beauty of the service together. Increasing the power and the glory inherent in the High Holy Days experience...by being together. <P>How do we truly know we are in God‘s presence, here and now? Well, doesn't the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Torah</i></span> tell us that we are created in God's image? Take a moment before this service ends. Look closely at the person seated next to you. I believe you'll find God reflected back at you in their eyes. <P>There's a wonderful series of stories that I've recently read in <i>The Washington Post</i>. A series you may have been inspired by, too. <P>The stories are about Ben Carson. Carson was days away from facing surgery for prostate cancer at Johns Hopkins. But Carson is a famous pediatric neurosurgeon, author and inspirational role model at Hopkins. And Dr. Carson is legendary for his dedication to his young patients. <P>Carson is so dedicated that he scheduled a grueling and stressful brain operation on 15-year-old Caroline Schear, just before his own surgery! Caroline had been in unremitting pain for two years. Carson believed that she had suffered much too long. But the condition was rare. The work was tricky. The terrain was high-risk. Yet, because of the will of the surgeon and the skill of the surgeon...the surgery was successful. <P>Caroline's father said, "It's like a miracle. She got her life back. Carson was the only one who would do anything about her pain. Other doctors kept saying, 'Oh, you're only a teenager. You're just under stress.'" <P>Caroline was amazed that Dr. Carson was able to operate on her when his own life was threatened and his own surgery was so near at hand. <P>Caroline said, "He's incredible. He's so humble. I don't know what it is about him, but he's just like an everyday person you'd see in the grocery store. You wouldn't think he's this world-famous surgeon. He's like the closest thing to God, the way he helps people." <P>Martin Buber would say, "Caroline, you met Dr. Carson in one of those spaces "in between". And there you found God...healing the world." </TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER> <P><HR> <p align="center"><FONT face=Arial><small><small><b>For a description of any of the graphics on this page, click on the D next to the graphic. <BR>For more information, contact our office at <a href="mailto:office@betmishpachah.org?SUBJECT=Request for Information from Web Site">office@betmishpachah.org</a><br> Send comments about this site to <a href="mailto:webweaver@betmishpachah.org?SUBJECT=Comments About Web Site">webweaver@betmishpachah.org</a>.<br> Copyright 1996 - 2008 Bet Mishpachah.</b></small></small></FONT> <CENTER><font face=Arial size="-1" color="#999999"><small><small><P><b>This page last modified on Sunday, May 18, 2003 at 08:01 PM EDT.</b></small></small></font> </CENTER> </body>