ROSH HASHANA-SECOND DAY—2009
ISAAC AND YISHMAEL
When you make it to both services of Rosh Hashana, you are treated to two stories from the Torah that parallel each other in some interesting ways. On the first day, we read about Hagar, the concubine of Abraham and Sarah who is sent away with her young son, Yishmael, because Abraham and Sarah were afraid that the teenager was having a bad influence on Isaac. Mother and child are sent into the wilderness, they are out of water and food and just as it seems the young boy will die of thirst an angel appears pointing to a well nearby from which they are both sustained and revived. In gratitude, Hagar gives the well a name, "BE'ER LACHAI RO'EE", which literally means "the well of the living God who sees me." A modern scholar, however, prefers to understand the name of the well as meaning, "at the bottom of the well, when I am at the lowest point of my life, when I feel helpless and abandoned, I met God and learned that God cares about me."
On the second day of Rosh Hashana, we read one of the most challenging stories in the entire Bible—the story of God's command to Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice on a nearby mountain. Although the text of this story does not reveal anything about what Abraham may have been thinking, it does tell us that he prepared to fulfill that command, and was just about to sacrifice his beloved son, when at the very last minute another angel intervenes and stops him. Abraham calls this particular place,
"ADONAI YIR'EH", literally meaning, "the mountain where God is seen." But, again, that same modern scholar who re-translated Yishmael's well, chooses to re-translate Abraham's mountain into, "at the highest point of my life, the day when my child was returned to me safe and unharmed, I felt I had seen the face of God."
It is simply too difficult for me to pass up the temptation to read in between the lines, to connect the dots, to ask the question—what do these two stories have to do with each other and why were these the ones selected to be read on these two days of Rosh Hashana? Here is my interpretation. In the first story Hagar claims to see God in the well. In the second story Abraham claims to see God on the mountaintop. What I think these two stories are telling us is this: we see, feel, and experience God from the lowest points of our lives, and we do so from the highest points of our lives.
There are many reasons that so many of us come to shul on Rosh Hashana but one of those reasons is that we are seeking God. We are looking for connections, for a sense of belonging, for an experience of something beyond ourselves, and, many of us are doing so from our personal mountain tops and many others from the bottom of their pit.
This past year has been one of the most challenging ones in any of our memories. The economic instability and uncertainty has wreaked havoc in many of our lives. Some individuals in this room today saw their life savings or their retirement packages dwindle dangerously low. Others suffered major losses in the stock market and for many, their children's college funds were what took the hit and they do not know how they will cover college tuition. Some of our fellow congregants have lost businesses that they spent their entire lives building up, only to see it collapse overnight. Some are the undeserving victims of their employers' need to downsize in order to stay afloat, and their personal wages are either dramatically lowered or their particular position is eliminated. The empty pit that others are sitting in today, has nothing to do with money. For some, they are in a deep pit because their husband or wife woke up one day and informed them that they wanted a divorce, and it may have come from left field. Still others are reeling from a recent diagnosis for a family member or for themselves, and it often comes without warning.
Isn't it interesting that most folks find themselves questioning God's existence or God's reality when we are down in the pit, but rarely do we question God's existence when we are on the mountaintop. That, I think is the message of the combination of these two texts to be read on Rosh Hashana. It is as if our sages are telling us, as this new year is about to begin, know in advance that stuff happens—good stuff, bad stuff. Know in advance that there is so much over which we have absolutely no control. We may be forced to deal with all kinds of adversity, the likes of which we might deserve and we might not, but we will face those situations anyway. We may be challenged with tragedies and sorrows and problems that we simply never anticipated, never saw coming, never had an opportunity to plan for, but we will face them, and we can and we will face them and overcome them and emerge whole and strong, because that is the call of Hagar to see God in the depths of the pit, that is the religious inclination to see God in the midst of darkness and despair. But we also encounter God in our celebrations and triumphs. The second story is summoning us to the mountaintop to recognize the mystery of God's work in this world when things go right, when life is wonderful, when we are experiencing absolute joy, that can be as mystifying as the deep pits of despair. The same mystery that causes us to be in awe and in wonder about the Nature of God when things go wrong is equally perplexing when things go right! That God that we encounter whether in the bottom of the pit or on the top of the mountain will probably NOT look like an old man in a white robe and with a white beard. That God will more likely look like your neighbor, your friend, your fellow congregant who comes over to your house with food and with compassion and with friendship when you are down and when you are on top of the world. The well that Hagar and Yishmael see in the wilderness is described in a very significant way. The text does NOT say that God suddenly created a well in the middle of the desert. What it says is that God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. Taken literally, God didn't make the well right there on the spot. The well was already there. It was God's presence with her, God's comforting, encouraging, loving presence that enabled her to see what was already there and that she has the power within her to face her crisis and overcome it and to defeat it. That, I believe is what our Sages understood about these two stories and that is why they selected them for our Torah readings on these two days of Rosh Hashana—it is the power of friendship, the power of caring, the power of love that every one of us has within us to give—that is the work of God in our lives, and sometimes, we only get to see or experience that power as we find ourselves in the lowest part of the well and sometimes we see or experience it when we are on the top of the mountain.
Our synagogue has suffered from this economy just as each of our families have suffered. If you are struggling to pay your bills, the likelihood is that your mortgage and electricity bills will be paid before your synagogue dues. In this past year more and more of our families have not been able to pay their dues or tuitions or fees, all of which is what keeps our synagogue afloat. There are, at least, two different ways that we have to deal with that reality. The first one is that for some of you, and I do not know who you are, or to what extent this is true for you—there are some of our families who, thankfully, have not suffered too much economically. And frankly, we need your help. We need you to help us out by making significant donations to our shul this coming year and by making a commitment to consider a multi-year obligation. What if, for example, 3-5 families got together and asked themselves, what does it cost us to run and operate our Youth Groups—all the salaries, all the supplies, all the costs of running the incredible programs that Chalutzim and Kadima and USY have over the course of a year, the programs that attract dozens and dozens of our kids to come here and enjoy being here, making lifelong friends in a wonderful Jewish atmosphere and environment, and ask the questions—what does all that cost—how much does that take up of our synagogue budget and what if those 3-5 families decided—we will donate that amount collectively to the synagogue so that the youth group piece of the budget is covered. And what if 10-15 families who are all friends and who care about B'nai Aviv got together and found out what it costs to run the Religious School and they committed themselves to donate that amount of money for the next few years. And if another group did that for ECEC, and another group really cared about our religious services and took upon themselves the responsibility to cover the costs of the Ritual line of our budget. You get the idea. It was just a few years ago that we were seriously considering expanding our physical plant. And just as we were about to launch the fund-raising campaign, the economy tanked, and the demographics of our community began to change with fewer young families moving in to Weston, and more and more families deciding to move out. This is the reality we must face. So rather than the usual fundraising program where you get to pay for a room or a wing of the building, I would hope that some of you might be willing to put your names on a program rather than on a brick, and maybe that's how we can re-build our fiscal strength. It can't and won't happen without your help. Please think about these ideas as you go through the next few days and as you prepare to come back here next week, on Yom Kippur, when your synagogue president will be making his appeal to you for funds.
Our shul is facing a difficult time—thankfully, we are not quite at the point that Hagar was at—we have not reached the bottom. We are challenged but not desperate. We are nervous but not about to close up. We are concerned, but we are also a community of accomplishment and of hope. As Hagar felt the presence of God at a low point in her life, we too can feel God's presence in our lives as we climb out from the depths of this challenge and discover new sources of strength, resolve, uplift, and enthusiasm right here in this room, in the hearts and consciences of our own congregants who may be inspired to help us hope by hoping for your help.
Clearly what I have mentioned so far can only be done by those whose checkbooks are able to make a difference. The second thing that we need and which can be done by every single person here is simply this. Come into this building without the chips that sometimes sit on some of your shoulders. I have heard raised voices making demands. I have heard raised voices complaining about this or that policy, or about this or that requirement, or about this or that expectation. I have heard people say, "You can't make me do this, I am not Orthodox", as if being Orthodox was such a sin. I have heard people say, "You know I am really Reform," as if that somehow means they don't have to do anything Jewish in their lives. I have heard people say, "if I don't get my child in the class I want I will quit this synagogue." Do any of you really think that all we do here is try to figure out what things we can do to make you miserable? Do any of you really believe that if there are so many square feet in a classroom, and it is completely filled already with bodies and desks and supplies in it, that we can simply stuff one more body in there? Do you think we enjoy saying "no" to you? Do any of you whose voices are sometimes louder than they need to be think that by shouting at someone, you are more likely to get your way, or that because of your shouting, we will ignore the same request made by someone else who is not shouting? Can we all try hard to agree that we are all on the same team, and that what all of us care about is making your family happy and satisfied and content, but that we also have an obligation to raise a generation of young Jews to be knowledgeable about their heritage, involved in their Jewish life, making commitments to keeping this enterprise called Judaism alive for another generation, that we want your children to love being Jewish, and that means, among other things, caring deeply and passionately about Israel, finding the study of Torah exciting and challenging, enjoying the cultural aspects of Judaism such as music and Israeli dance, finding the mysteries of the Hebrew language to be fun and entertaining, that learning our history, our past, is part of what assures us of a future, that we want to encourage all of our children to explore the nature of their own Jewish identities, and to learn about our religious traditions, such as Shabbat and keeping Kosher, not in a forceful or take-it-or-leave-it way, not to belittle what any of you choose to do or not do in your personal lives, but to simply know what these practices are about, simply because they are part of who we are as a People.
What it comes down to my dear friends, is this—we are all stressed out by the economy, by the politics of the day, by tensions within our homes, and from outside our homes. And it should not come as a surprise to anyone that this is part of the culture in which we live. In just one week, three major incidents involving public outbreaks of shouting and of disrespect. A major tennis champion yells and curses at the line judge during a world-class championship match. Then on an awards show broadcast to the entire world, a very well-known entertainer walks on stage while the winner is giving her acceptance speech, and this other guy feels he has the right to interrupt her, grab the microphone and say to the whole world, "You are good, but this other singer should have won." And if those two incidents were not enough, the President of the
For those of you who are facing this New Year at the bottom of your well, let's hold hands and climb out from there together, and for those of you who feel you are at the top of the mountain, let's celebrate your good fortune together. Wherever you happen to be, let's all remember that life is a journey, not a destination. The future is unknown and can be scary or it can be an adventure. By facing it together we share our strength, our skills, and our energy so that we can continue on the path ahead with confidence, with faith, and with hope. I believe that every problem has a solution and that every challenge is an opportunity. Let this year be one of seizing those opportunities for growth, accomplishment, and success for ourselves, for our congregation, and for the world.
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