Yom Kippur
Sermon by Rabbi Jennifer Hartman
2018/5779
Every year in late October, I wake up extremely early and drive to Armstrong High school to attend the New Hope Prayer Breakfast. Started by the current mayor of New Hope, the breakfast is meant to honor all of the religious backgrounds that are represented in the suburb. Every year I dread this day because I am NOT a morning person (although Fred is working very hard to make me one!), and it is always cold and I don’t particularly like the cold. Yet every year once I enter the auditorium and am embraced by the warmth and kindness of those in attendance, I am reminded of why I attend. I always find inspiration, both from my colleagues and from the students who participate in the morning program. A few years ago, the program honored a particularly inspiring high school graduate.As he approached the podium, I saw a handsome young man in his early 20s who needed some help finding his way to the lectern. Once settled, he began to tell us his story. Elias was driving home from college in North Dakota a few years ago, when, out of nowhere, a car driving at full speed in the wrong direction, struck his car head-on. The next thing Elias knew, he was lying in a hospital bed, barely able to move and unable to see. Elias had been hit by a drunk driver, rendering him blind.
Over the days and weeks and months that followed, the swelling in his body went down, the bones healed, and Elias was even able to attend the court hearing of the drunk driver and find forgiveness. But he never regained his eyesight. So began Elias’s arduous and painstaking task of learning how to navigate the world without the ability to see. He has not given up on any of his dreams, they are just taking a bit longer to reach. Today, he happily lives on his own, in a townhouse in Brooklyn Center. He is finishing his master’s degree in education and he is a student teacher working with middle school band students. He still loves to play music and, if I remember correctly, he has a girlfriend.
At the end of the program I approached Elias and asked if he would be willing to come and speak to our 7th grade students. He agreed without hesitation. When the students entered the room and saw the guest speaker they questioned what he was doing there. When they learned he was going to tell them about how he became blind they were surprised.He did not fit any of their preconceived notions of a blind person! They were in awe of his incredible determination.
Evelyn Glennie is a Grammy-winning percussionist and composer – who, due to a genetic abnormality, was almost completely deaf by the age of 12. Evelyn remembers that year, when her music teacher expressed concern with Evelyn’s ability to play given her disability. The teacher’s logic was understandable: one cannot play music without hearing it. How would Evelyn be able to hear the music she was playing? The teacher did not understand that Evelyn could hear the music with her entire body as she could feel the vibrations from her head to her toes.Evelyn’s resolve forced the teacher to devise a new lesson plan. They soon began each lesson tuning drums. Rather than hear the tone, Evelyn needed to be able to feel in her fingers the very subtle changes in pitch. Her teacher started Evelyn with the kettle drum, the most difficult to tune, understanding that once she mastered this instrument the rest would become easier! During her lessons, Evelyn put her hands on the wall of the music room, and would "listen" to the sounds of the instruments. In this way she connected with those sounds far more broadly than simply depending on the ear. Because of course, the ear is subject to all sorts of other factors: The room one happens to be in, the amplification, the quality of the instrument, the type of sticks – they're all different.
As Evelyn grew older and honed her craft, she decided to audition for the Royal Academy of Music in London. At her audition the admissions committee said they would not accept her because they did “not have a clue about the future of a so-called 'deaf musician.’” She could not accept that and said to them, "Well, if you refuse me for those reasons, as opposed to the ability to perform and to understand and love the art of creating sound – then we have to think very, very hard about the people you do actually accept." And as a result of her challenge to the admissions council, as well as her two outstanding auditions, Evelyn was accepted into the program. Furthermore, this incident impacted music institutions throughout the United Kingdom.A law was passed that made it impossible for an institution to refuse an applicant on the basis of their physical limitations. The admissions committee needed to listen to every single applicant play before deciding to accept or reject them. This led to much more diversity in professional orchestras throughout the world.[1]
Shaquem Griffin is a rookie linebacker, drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in this year’s NFL draft. He is NOT your typical football player. Due to a pre-natal condition, Shaquem’s hand was amputated when he was 4 years old. He nevertheless grew up to star for his high school in track, football, and baseball before winning an athletics scholarship to the University of Central Florida alongside his twin brother. In 2016, Shaquem was named American Athletic Conference defensive player of the year. Shaquem drew national attention at this year’s scouting boot camp when he bench pressed 225 pounds 20 times using a prosthetic hand. He followed that up by recording a 40-yard dash time of 4.38 seconds, the fastest time ever by a linebacker. When asked about his success with only one hand he responds: “People all get tackled the same.” Shaquem has never had much patience for perceived limitations, and has overcome the challenges that could have stood in his way.
Recently, Shaquem was at his nephew’s football game when he saw a young boy on the field who was missing a hand. Shaquem called him over and introduced himself. The boy could not believe he was meeting a real NFL player and that this player was also missing a hand. The boy looked down to hide his tears of gratitude and awe. The one-handed linebacker nudged his little chin upward. “Don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do,” Shaquem said.
Torah teaches us that we are not to curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind. Elias, Evelyn and Shaquem had significant obstacles in their way. Each of them could have let these obstacles dictate their future. Elias could have decided he was no longer able to become a teacher.Evelyn could have listened to that first music teacher of hers, accepting that since she could not hear with her ears, she could not become a musician. Shaquem – knowing that NEVER before had an athlete without both hands played in the NFL – could have easily given up on his dream. No one would have blamed them for taking a different path. These three people took the commandment from Leviticus one step further.They made sure not to put a stumbling block in front of themselves. They did not allow fear, insecurity, or societal norms to determine their destinies.They looked into their hearts and they found the courage and the determination to follow their own path.
Yom Kippur is the time when each of us is called on to uncover our unique trail, and to evaluate our lives in order to find motivation to move forward. The prayers and the choreography of the service are meant for us to feel the awe of our final days on earth. For example, we rise for Kol Nidre and face the empty ark – as if we are staring into an empty casket – to ask forgiveness for the promises we made, but did not keep. We are to ignore our bodily needs like food and water. We do not look for refuge in alcohol, social media, TV, or music. This is the day when we look squarely at who we are and the stumbling blocks in our way. This is the day we begin to remove those blocks, and Judaism is here to help us with this work.
Judaism is the “satellite navigation system” of the soul, and these High Holy Days are a gift that allows us to stop and see whether we need to change direction.Maimonides, the renowned middle ages philosopher, once said the following regarding the blowing of the shofar:“It is God’s wake-up call to all of us.Without it, we can sleepwalk through life. We waste time on things that are urgent but not important, things that promise happiness but fail to deliver.”
How many of us have experienced this sentiment firsthand? How many of us follow the path directly in front of us, rather than stopping, taking stock, and reevaluating in order to follow our own route? How many of us feel constricted by handicaps that are not visible but we feel intensely? Jewish tradition gives us many examples of people who overcame obstacles, and fought for their goals.
We only need to look to Moses to comprehend how hard this can be. In the Torah, Moses is described as being heavy of tongue. Yes, the greatest orator of our tradition had a speech impediment. He overcame not only this handicap but also his intense shyness to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and speak the beautiful poetry and prose that fill the book of Deuteronomy.
Or we can look to one of the greatest teachers and rabbis of our tradition, Rabbi Akiva, who was born into an extremely poor family and remained illiterate into adulthood. Yet, he had a thirst for knowledge and, with his wife’s encouragement, he finally took the journey to the closest academy to learn Torah at the age of 40. He excelled in his studies. He quickly became a prolific writer and famous teacher with over 12,000 students. We still learn from Rabbi Akiva today, almost two THOUSAND years after his death.
God commands us: Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. While this sounds like an easy charge it can be the most difficult as it not only applies to our neighbor but also to ourselves. It was not easy for any of the people I’ve described today to overcome their challenges. It took courage, fortitude, and the support of their communities.Yet, each one of them knew they had to pursue their dreams. They could not live lives unfulfilled regardless of the physical and emotional barriers in front of them. In removing these barriers they brought inspiration, knowledge, and great change to themselves and their communities. These changes have improved the world for all of us.In today’s day and age we have the technological innovation to make almost anything possible. It is up to us to find the resolve to remove the physical and emotional obstacles that stand in our way.
Over a year ago, when Thomas Friedman was here for our Voices series, he charged us saying: For the first time in history all of us together can fix all of the problems in our world. I challenge each one of us, in this New Year 5779, to heed his call and pay attention to the commandment of our tradition. May we each work to remove the stumbling blocks in our lives so that we can not only fulfill our greatest potential, but also bring inspiration and transformation to our world.