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MESSAGE FROM THE RABBI

Message From The Rabbi
Rosh Hashanah Sermon 207
Rosh Hashanah Sermon 107
Rosh Hashanah Sermon 5766

Rosh Hashana 107

Let me tell you about my summer vacation. Three fun-filled weeks just Elissa and I with no cares or responsibilities in the world. We went to sleep at 3:00am and each night slept eleven uninterrupted hours of the soundest sleep you could possibly imagine. Wait that wasn’t my vacation that was a dream that I had on vacation. Seriously, we did have a wonderful vacation and I would like to tell you a little about it.

As a rabbi I spend my summer vacation always on the lookout for sermon sparking articles in the paper, sermon shaping events in the news, or sermon creating moments. Current events almost always takes care of itself in this interesting world always supplying a story or event that can be the basis of a high-holiday message. But the moments are not always so easy to come by. These moments can not be staged and sometimes you miss them if you turn away for even the briefest of moments.

You can imagine my surprise this summer when in one day I experienced two such moments. The first moment occurred of all places at a wedding. While waiting for a few last pictures prior to signing the Ketubah I noticed that a group of people were looking at me and staring and whispering. I did exactly as I had been trained in Rabbinical School and I immediately turned around to make sure that my zipper was in fact in the correct position. After confirmation I realized why they were staring and walked over to them. I look like the actor Vince Vaughn from the movie “Wedding Crashers” right. They all laughed in agreement. I told them that I get that all the time and that in fact I was once stopped on the streets of NYC and asked for my autograph. They of course wanted to know if I signed and I told them I did the only way I know how….Rabbi Joshua Z. Gruenberg.

The second moment came as I watched my son. I often find myself watching Sammy and Kayla for minutes on end just waiting for them to do something unbelievable. My mother bought a giant bubble blower for entertainment for the five children under the age of seven that were present during the Gruenberg family summer vacation. This is the biggest bubble blower that these eyes have ever seen. The size of the bubbles was probably equivalent to five basketballs. But the greatest part of these giant bubbles was the look on Sammy’s face each time one was lofted in the air. Each bubble was a proverbial Neil Armstrong landing on the moon for the first time.

In each of these moments I was struck by the wonder that I saw on these people’s faces. It is the kind of wonder with which a bride and groom look at one another on their wedding day. It is the kind of wonder that that a parent’s face displays when they look at their child for the first time or every day of their lives for that matter. It is the kind of wonder that I think we feel when we accomplish something thought to be impossible. And it is the kind of wonder that I fear we may not feel enough. The kind of wonder that gets diluted by the existential angst of every day life. The kind of wonder that I know I need to recognize more of in my life and perhaps you feel the same need.

In Judaism we are commanded to express wonder at the world and her creations whenever we see them. Berachot or blessings are designed to force us even in the most mundane moments to recognize the wonder in the world around us. For example, as you know the blessing we say when eating bread thanks God for bringing forth bread from the land. Now we know that bread does not grow directly from the ground, rather it is a long process from planting and harvesting wheat to kneading dough and baking bread. The wonder we are reminded of is at the whole process that goes into providing our most basic needs. We also express our appreciation of wonder in the blessing we say when seeing or experiencing something unique in nature, like a comet or a syzygy. In that blessing we praise God for authoring the acts of creation.

Yet there is no blessing in Judaism that is associated with as much wonder as the one we say when we see a rainbow: Zocher Habrit V’ne’eman B’vritoV’kayam B’ma-amaro. Blessed is he who remembers his covenant, is faithful to it and fulfills his promise. The source of this blessing is God’s promise to Noah and his sons that he would never again destroy the world and that the rainbow would be the sign of that promise. In fact, the Talmud tells us that we are forbidden to look upon three things because they might make our eyes grow dim, a divine prince, the Kohanim when they are praying for the community, and a rainbow.

I remember as a kid when I would be in Israel with my father and the Kohanim would bless the congregation and he along with the other fathers would cover their sons’ faces with their tallis. I always tried to peer through to see the Kohanim standing up with their hands like this and their faces completely covered, but I never had enough guts. I think that like the early rabbis I was somehow afraid to look at all the wonder that was to be contained in the priestly blessing or in the appearance of a rainbow.

But very easily blessings can lose their ability to keep us mindful of wonder. Often times, the more we see or experience something, the less we are able to see the wonders within. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel the noted Conservative Jewish Philosopher once wrote:

“There is a danger in the prayer of empathy, the danger of relying on the word, of depending upon the text, of forgetting that the word is a challenge to the soul rather than substitute for the outburst of the heart. Even in prayer of empathy the word is, at best, the inspirer, not the source. The source is the soul, and prayer as a way of speaking is a way that leads nowhere.”

Heschel is teaching us that saying blessings, just reciting the words is simply not enough-we must open up our souls long enough to allow them to be moved. In other words, we must not just witness, but pursue the wonder in a moment and feel compelled to utter a blessing in thanks. We must make ourselves available to sensing wondrous moments and seeing wondrous things, otherwise prayer and blessings, and life for that matter become common and void of meaning.

The High Holidays are filled with moments that are supposed to illicit a sense of wonder out of all of us. In a way it is almost as though we are forced to appreciate the wonder that is the High Holiday spectacle each year. The sight of the Hazzan in full white garb as he or she prepares the entire congregation for the Musaf service. The taste of the honey’s sweetness is supposed to cleanse our palates preparing us for the wondrous possibilities of a brand new year. Perhaps for some of us the wonder is best embodies in the strength and seriousness of the words before you in the Mahzor, that constantly remind us that this is our chance for repentance. I always listen during the high holidays with wonder at the power and beauty of the collective voice of our community as we join in Tefillah and in penitence together.

But nothing peaks our awareness of wonder during this season more than the blasts of the Shofar. The Shofar is meant to awaken all who hear it to the new year coming and to our obligation to repent for past wrongdoings.

But I think that there is more to it than that. The blasts of the Shofar are meant to awaken us not only to repentance but more importantly to human ability; to the idea that we have the ability not only to repent, but to atone- to make right what previously was done wrong. What is more wondrous than the human ability to look at one’s self, take stock, and change the future for the better. This all became clear to me a few years ago in an episode that I have shared with many of you.

As I was about to blow the Shofar one Rosh Hashanah morning a woman in the front took out a garbage bag full of balloons and handed a balloon to each of the hearing-impaired people sitting in the front row. Each time I blew into the Shofar they clutched the balloons tight and felt the vibrations on their individual balloons. Everyone standing in that room at that time had an expression of wonder at the fact that deaf people had just fulfilled the mitzvah of hearing yes hearing the Shofar. Their wonder was not at the person blowing the shofar, but rather at the human capacity for creativity and to overcome what might seem like an insurmountable hurdle.

I would like to draw your attention to three incredible human feats of action over the past year that I hope will draw out for you the same wonder that it has for me. Wesley Autrey is a 50-year-old construction worker and Navy veteran who was coming home one day with his daughters when he saw a man having a seizure on the subway tracks below. Faced with a split-second decision to make he jumped down and laid on top of the man until the speeding train unable to stop had passed them by. Inches from his own death he saved the man and managed to let his daughters know that he was ok. Afterwards when interviewed about the ordeal Autrey said, “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help, I did what I felt was right.”

I am not suggesting that we express wonder at doing the right thing whatever the definition may be. I do express wonder at his selflessness and bravery at a time when anything less would have resulted in the death of a twenty-year old student. That is wondrous no matter how many examples we see.

Next year at this time we will undoubtedly talking about a presidential election…without of course endorsing any candidate. But this year I want to focus specifically on a few of the candidates without even touching any of their policies. As the primaries begin in a few short months three of the candidates begin with a real chance to make presidential history. One is a woman, one is African-American and one is a Mormon. Or perhaps we should stand in wonder that the one person who has not said if he is running yet outpolls many in his own party, and is the Jewish mayor of New York city. Or we should stand in wonder that No one who has occupied our top office has ever represented any of these groups. It seems at times we are the most advanced country in the world and others that we still live with an old world mentality.

I don’t ask you to wonder the fact that finally a woman, a Black man, a Mormon or even a Jew might be elected president. Rather I ask you to stand in wonder of all the people before them who fought tirelessly to help pave the way for this opportunity. I ask you to stand in wonder at the ultimate sacrifices made by people like Jimmie Lee Jackson, Charles Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, whose lives were taken from them over forty years ago because they were Black and tried to help their brothers exercise their right to vote. I ask you to stand in wonder of all the immigrants who braved unspeakable danger and hardship coming to this country so that future generations would have a world of options in front of them even becoming the president of the United States.

The final human moment, more a collection of moments, that I look upon with wonder from this previous year is you. Each and every one of you sitting here today and every one who helps make our community what it is. Let me explain as I think that Elissa, Sammy, Kayla and I have been fortunate enough to benefit from who this community is and what it stands for in moments of joy and sadness too. This past May when Kayla was born our community sprung into action. Lead by our caring community we did not have to worry about meals or any necessities as we spent our first month as a family of four. The gifts that came for Kayla were beyond our wildest imagination, but that was not the end. People showered Sammy with gifts to help with the impending attention stealer I mean new sister that he would have to adjust to. Elissa and I have known that we love this place and have felt love here since we came, but for my son to be able to feel that touches me on a profoundly deep level and I can’t begin to fully express our gratitude.

Now we are facing a challenge in our family. Elissa’s mother was recently diagnosed with cancer and we have a long fight ahead of us. But we are buoyed by two things as we approach this battle that we know will be successful. We are supported by my mother-in-law’s great strength and determination that she will win this fight and live a long and wonderful life. We are also supported by the strength and compassion that CSI has shown us and we know will show us as we deal with this difficult situation.

I stand in wonder of you that you have a created such a tight knit community that is there for one another during the most difficult times and certainly during the joyous times as well. I stand in wonder of the sacred community that has been built here with a foundation of social justice but also a commitment to Jewish observance. I also dream with wonder about our future together as we continue to strengthen and insure our community’s future.

But I want to get back to the bubbles. Yes the bubbles. When I watched Sammy this summer look at these giant bubbles of soapy water I realized that big events, the greatest people are easy to look at and stand in wonder. Their actions and appearance by their very existence demand a certain level of wonder in even the most hardened of people. What I need to do is to force myself to stop and take time to stand in wonder of things that I may have seen a thousand times but that now I take for granted. I need to remind myself that things that I now look at as ordinary are in fact extraordinary despite how many times they happen or how many times I see them.

Every day I need to stop and if but for a second look on in wonder as my children grow up and develop a little more each day. Every day I need to stand in wonder of nature and all of her wonderful phenomena, and because of that moment I need to do more to treat her a little better as well. Finally, at the very least I need to take a moment every day to look at the modern world with a little wonder. There is so much that is good and right about this world yet we focus and stand in wonder of the bad news far more than the good. The world is a miraculous place, and might be a little more so if I do my part to marvel and wonder at the good instead of fixating on the bad.

My prayer for us as we celebrate this high-holiday season is that some of this is resonating with some of you. That you join me in my ongoing personal attempts to appreciate and express more wonder in this world. Not only at the magnificent, but also at the seemingly mundane. Not only at what might seem like the extraordinary, but also the ordinary which is extraordinary but might have been dulled by constant exposure. I know that as we enter the new year that doing this will not cure all ills and not solve all problems, but I am confident it will make life a little brighter, a little more enjoyable, and at the very least a little more wondrous.

So I wish you a Shanah Tovah U’Nifla’ah- a good and wondrous new year.

Shanah Tovah

Rabbi Joshua Gruenberg