By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, Caliornia — The maggid [preacher] of Chelm was returning home from a neighboring village where he had just preached a sermon. On the way, he was overtaken by a farmer whose wagon was piled high with hay.
“May I offer you a ride?” asked the peasant courteously.
“Thank you,” replied the maggid, climbing aboard the wagon. It was a warm, sunny day and soon the preacher fell fast asleep. But when he arrived in Chelm, he could not find his notebook, in which he kept his themes and parables.
“I must have lost it in the hay!” cried the maggid, greatly distressed. “Now some cow or goat or ass will eat it and become familiar with all my best sermons!”
The next evening, at the synagogue, he strode to the bimah [pulpit] and glared at the congregation.
“Fellow citizens of Chelm,” he proclaimed, “I have lost my notebook in a load of fodder. I want you to know that if some dumb ox or ass ever comes to this town to preach, the sermon will be mine, not his!”
Most rabbis can probably identify to some extent with the Maggid of our story,
Most congregants probably think that writing sermons about the Rosh Hashanah holiday is easy. Actually, given the plethora of themes one can choose from, it is not the case at all. Using recycled sermons can diminish the power of one’s delivery. Personally, I always look to create new sermons based on certain perennial themes, e.g., time, sweetness, communal solidarity, Israel, being Jewish in the 21st century, etc.
Had Socrates been Jewish, I think he would have loved Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Socrates believed that “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
For a Rosh Hashanah sermon to be effective, I think it is vital that the rabbi keep out political themes that can alienate or polarize a community at a time when the rabbi ought to unite the community.
President Obama had the habit of speaking to many American rabbis and instructed them what to speak from the pulpit. When I heard him make these proposals, I felt he had crossed a red-line. Rosh Hashanah must transcend the daily political concerns of politicians. Rabbis need to focus on how their people can become better human beings, better Jews, and not function as lobbyists for any political party.
And while many rabbis take pride in focusing on social issues de jure, I think there is a positive way to introduce the themes of their concern.
Here are some positive suggestions: All lives matter. And who can express this thought better than Martin Luther King himself, who said,
- When we let freedom ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state, and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.
Themes that divide the nation based on racial differences can never lead to anything good. All it will do is set one brother against another.
There are many topics rabbis and Jews across the denominational lines can discuss, provided they have the intestinal fortitude and honesty to raise these issues.
Let us agree that the Jewish community must stand united about their ancestral homeland that we have been privileged to witness and enjoy: the State of Israel.
Jewish critics of Israel today often use Judaism to condemn Israel when it defends itself from missile attacks from Gaza, accusing Israel of using “excessive force.” Some rabbis will create a moral equivalence between the terrorists and the State of Israel, which is only trying to defend its people. Unfortunately, Jews turning against other Jews is nothing new. We saw it almost 2000 years ago when we fought Rome; we also saw it when 13th-century Jewish heretics like Pablo Christiani used their identities to argue for the conversion and abuse of European Jews, as evidenced by the accounts of the disputations.
And when it comes to Jews standing up for their fellow Jews, our spiritual leaders’ silence is often deafening. In New York, woke politics has led to a new bail reform law that has led to the release of violent criminals who have vandalized New York synagogues.[1]
As the columnist, Jonathan Tobin wrote, “One New York case involved Jordan Burnette, a 29-year-old African-American, who threw rocks shattering windows and doors of several synagogues. In one case, he was confronted by volunteers who turned out to defend their shul, and he threw rocks at them before fleeing.”[2] One would think that the Anti-Defamation League, which continues to pose as the defender of the Jewish community against anti-Semitism, would have said something about the Burnette case.
Guess again. Antisemitism is a problem from the right as well as from the left.
In the woke-sensitive culture of our time, the ADL was missing in action.
Lady Justice is supposed to be color-blind, and so should the rabbis and its Jewish community leaders. Standing up for one’s community is a wonderful theme for a Rosh Hashanah holiday.
We cannot make moral excuses when crimes are perpetuated against the Jewish community in particular. And yes, there have to be consequences—regardless of one’s color, ethnicity, or religion.
Let’s call it Morality 101.
As rabbis, perhaps more of our colleagues should rethink what Hillel said: If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
Put in modern terms: When is enough going to be enough? How many more synagogue attacks are we willing to look the other way because of our leaders’ woke leftist feelings?
In short, if rabbis want to talk about uncomfortable topics on Rosh Hashanah, addressing the problem of antisemitism is an important theme. The High Holidays demand that we come together as a people and learning how to think and act in the interests of Jewish continuity is certainly worth discussing this time of the year.
NOTES
[1] New York courts prove that woke politics endangers Jews (jns.org)
[2] Ibid.
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Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista and the author of numerous books on biblical subjects. He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com