Rosh HaShanah: A Day to Regroup

Sermon by Rabbi Jennifer Hartman
2014/5775

There is so much going on in the world today. Most of the events are terrifying. There is the threat of ISIS, the conflict in the Ukraine, anti-Semitism and racism. This summer planes fell out of the sky, we learned more about the ever warming planet and Israel engaged in operation project edge. Add to all of this our everyday fears and worries - balancing work and children, paying our rent or mortgage, saving for college and retirement. We are concerned about our kids’ birthday parties, our jobs, making our relationships work. Just thinking about all of this makes my anxiety rise. How is yours doing?

I hope that most of you have your cell phones with you today. I would like you to take them out and turn them on! Yes! I know this is the exact opposite of what you were asked to do when you walked into the Sanctuary this morning, but I would like for us to be in conversation with one another. On the wall behind me you will see a number. During my sermon I am going to ask all of you a few questions. I would love for you to text your responses to the number. For those of you streaming this service, please participate also! If the technology works the way it is supposed to, and we all know that this is a big if, your responses will appear, anonymously, on the wall behind me. In this way we will all be able to share our thoughts and feelings and hopefully learn a bit more about our community.

Here is my first question for all of you: I wonder, what did I miss? What is making your blood pressure rise? What is keeping you up at night? What event in our society is making you want to lock your door, close your blinds and shut out the world?

Are you getting more and more stressed as the issues come streaming in? I know that I am and the more stressed I become the less I am able to confront any one issue. I think that looking to the wisdom of Judaism may help us to center ourselves in a society that seems to be spinning out of control. When we turn off the noise, the competition, the 24 hour news cycle, the doubts about ourselves and our families that social media and pop culture put in our heads, we are able to focus on our priorities, our values, our beliefs. We are able to return to the core of who we are as individuals.

We are taught in Genesis - God created the world in six days. God rested, blessed and hallowed the seventh day as holy time thus creating tranquility, serenity and peace. The Talmud teaches that Shabbat was God’s precious and guarded treasure, which God gave to the Jewish people as a gift. God gave us a time to reconnect, renew and refocus after a week of toiling. God understood people need this time to be productive, creative, and generous during the week.

Another question: How do you relax? How do you unplug? - Share this with us?

At the end of June my grandmother died, 24 days shy of her 92nd Birthday. As I watched my family during the funeral and the days that followed I was amazed by what my grandparents created. My grandparents had four children, twelve grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. They built a large, tight knit and Jewishly committed family! Of my grandparents’ dozen grandchildren some of us went to day school and some to supplementary school, some of us went to Jewish overnight camp, some spent extended periods of time in Israel and some went for only a short period of time. However, all of us had Shabbat dinner every Friday night. All of us gathered around our respective tables to bless the candles and the wine and to say the Motzi. All of us missed social outings in order to be with our families, to talk to our parents, to refrain from fighting with our siblings and to play with our cousins. We all laughed a lot, ate too much and knew, without question that we were Jewish and that Judaism was completely connected to our family and both of these came before everything else. It is this connection and commitment that has lead to Jewish weddings and Jewish babies, to Rosh Hashanah services and Passover Seders, to great-grandchildren going to day school.

There is a famous quote by the Israeli author Ahad Ha’am that says: “More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.” The regulation of time through the laws of the Sabbath gave the Jews the chance to regroup in communities at the end of every week, and that regrouping sustained their Jewish identity. As the ancient historian Philo taught, Shabbat does not have us abstain from work in order to instill laziness within us. Shabbat is intended to allow us to have time to relax from continuous and unending work. Our bodies and our minds need regularly scheduled breaks from labor. Giving ourselves this time to rest allows us to collect our strength and reenter our daily routines with better concentration and effectiveness. This was so true for my family. Our shared Shabbat experience made us stronger and more able to confront adversity both individually and together.

What is your favorite memory of spending time with family or friends? Please share with us!

Every Friday night my grandmother stood in front of the large, bronze Shabbat candlesticks that her mother brought to America from Russia. She said the blessing and then she closed her eyes, rubbed her hands together, and prayed silently for a few moments. It did not matter how much chaos was taking place around her, she was able to shut out the world and be alone with her thoughts, with her ancestors and with God. I knew, from a young age, that I was never to interrupt this ritual. When she finished she went back to the business of feeding and taking care of her children and grandchildren. Yet, now that we all saw the candles were lit, we all felt a little calmer - the sacred time of Shabbat permeated our home.

As Abraham Joshua Heschel so eloquently states: “Six days a week the spirit works under strain, beset with worries, enmeshed in anxieties - on the seventh day we are given a respite from this”. It is a time for us to be together, to talk to one another, to linger around the table longer than we ever would during the week and to relax.

Growing up the Shabbat table was where we connected, nurtured our family relationships, and learn about the world. At the Shabbat dinner table my politically diverse family argued vehemently about the Middle East peace processes, presidential candidates and domestic policy. We rarely agreed but that did not keep us from having the conversations. At the Shabbat table we learned about our history, hearing stories about our great grandparents, aunts, and uncles, their lives in Sioux City, Iowa, Aberdeen, South Dakota and Trenton, New Jersey. At the Shabbat table we learned to be proud of our roots and our heritage. Our stories informed our sense of self. There we shared triumphs and joy – successful report cards, promotions at work, engagements – and sorrow and pain, moments of heartbreak, divorce, and the death of family or close friends. It was at this table, at which we were all expected to be, that we understood completely we were not alone and perseverance through the hard times was our ONLY option.

Do you have a Shabbat memory? What is your favorite one? Please share it with us!

When we allow it to, the traditions, teaching and rhythm of Judaism keep us grounded when we feel pulled in many directions. The Torah reminds us from who and where we come, teaching us that every family has trials, but it also has joyous moments. Judaism gives us hope when we think things will never improve. We see this strongly in the symbols of Rosh Hashanah- a round challah to show that things are ever changing and evolving; honey to remind us that life is sweet, pomegranates whose many seeds remind us of the power of mitzvot to bring healing to the brokenness in our world. The holiday of Passover takes us on the difficult journey of becoming a free people, and teaches that after very cold, very bitter winters, spring does indeed come. Judaism brings us home to our community and our family by demanding that we mourn and rejoice with others. We are to say Kaddish with a minimum of ten people and we are also commanded to rejoice with the bride and groom. Shabbat helps us to regroup and refocus, brings us together to reconnect and reaffirm. In this way it helps us to gain perspective because we can take a deep breath and sit with our thoughts rather than have to react immediately in our society that seems to never stops moving.

I am not originally from here. I no longer have my Grandmother to make me matzo ball soup or my aunts are not in Minneapolis to make challah, brisket and blond brownies. I no longer open the door to my childhood home to the smell of roasted chicken and potatoes. It is hard for me to prepare Shabbat dinner. It takes planning ahead. It means inviting friends before their calendars get booked. It means preparing meals ahead of time. It means eating dinner late. Too often all of the preparation and planning feels overwhelming. I get stuck in the notion that if I can't do it big then I should not do it at all. That is not the purpose of Shabbat.

Shabbat is not about being extravagant, it is about being together so that we are better able to face challenges. The world is less scary, change seems possible, the work feels lighter when we open our homes and fill our tables with loved ones and friends, with people new to the community and those we want to get to know. So, I challenge you this year - light Shabbat candles, light them more than once, and see where that leads you. Now, turn off your phones :)