Jewish Every Day:  Doing Jewish
Erev Yom Kippur Sermon, September 21, 2007
Rabbi Bruce Kadden

Is there any day when we feel more Jewish than Yom Kippur?  Is there any time of year that we more completely immerse ourselves in Judaism than the Day of Atonement?  Is there any more important day that helps us examine who we are and who we want to be?

There is no more important day in the Jewish calendar than Yom Kippur and no more important time of year than these Yamim Nora’im, Days of Awe.

But, there is something more important than your presence here today, more important than fasting and repenting.  The most important thing that we can do as Jews for our own sake and for the sake of future generations is to be Jewish every day.  Not just on Rosh Hashanah on Yom Kippur, not just on Pesach and Sukkot, not just on Shabbat, but each and every day.  For that is what it truly means to be a Jew.

To understand how and why being Jewish every day became so important, one has to go back almost 2000 years, to the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple.  That catastrophe challenged the religious leaders to reshape Judaism in order to insure its survival.

For until the year 70 C.E., Jewish religious observance was “Temple-centric.”  In other words the Temple, as the primary religious institution, was the center of religious life.  Synagogues were beginning to emerge, both in the land of Israel and in the Diaspora, the prayer service was beginning to develop, and various home observances were beginning to take shape.  But with the destruction of the Temple, the urgency for developing these rituals was greatly increased. 

According to Rabbi Reuven Kimelman, in response to the Temple’s destruction “the rabbis aimed at making life a surrogate temple by turning all of life into a religious experience.”  The dining table in the home replaced the altar in the Temple.  Preparing to eat a meal was similar to the priests preparing to offer a sacrifice.

It is almost impossible to underestimate the impact of the rabbis in the late first and second and third centuries in reshaping Judaism in light of a catastrophe that not only destroyed the central physical institution of Jewish life, but also raised challenging practical and theological questions. 

For example, how could the people effectively repent of their sins without making atonement offerings?  How was it possible to worship God without bringing gifts of produce or animals that had been integral to Jewish worship for centuries?  How can we assure for the survival of Judaism and the Jewish people without the Temple and its rituals?

According to Rabbi Kimelman, the rabbinic leaders established a Judaism on the foundations of study of Torah, prayer, fasting, practice of the commandments, and acts of lovingkindness.  Almost 2000 years later, it remains essential to the survival of Judaism that we continue to live Jewishly every day.  This evening I want to share reflections on how we might do this through study, through worship and through deeds of lovingkindness.

Talmud Torah, study, was central to the rabbis’ understanding of what it meant to be a Jew.  The rabbis insisted that the knowledge of sacred scriptures was the responsibility of everyone, not just of religious leaders. 

The centrality of Talmud Torah to Judaism is reflected in this rabbinic teaching:  “These are the things whose fruit a person enjoys in this world, while the capital remains for the person in the world to come:  honoring father and mother, acts of loving-kindness, attending the house of study morning and evening, showing hospitality to guests, visiting the sick, dowering the bride, attending the dead, praying with devotion, and making peace between a person and one’s friend.  But Talmud Torah, the study of Torah, is equal to them all.”  (Shabbat 127a). 

The rabbis considered Torah study equal to all of these other important mitzvot in great part because they recognized that it would lead to the observance of the other mitzvot.  When Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva got into an argument about whether study or doing mitzvot was more important, the majority of sages agreed with Rabbi Akiva that study is greater because it leads to practice.

In order to assure that Torah study would be a regular habit, the rabbis made it a part of the daily liturgy.  Each morning in Birchot Hashachar, the liturgy that precedes the Bar’chu, we offer a blessing, affirming that God has commanded us “to immerse ourselves in words of Torah (la’asok b’divrei Torah).”  We do not say that God commanded us to study Torah, but to be busy with Torah or to immerse ourselves in Torah.  Following this b’racha and a couple of others pertaining to Torah, we traditionally read three passages:  the priestly benediction from Numbers; a selection from the Mishnah and the paragraph from the Talmud that I quoted earlier.

Thus, those who daven Shacharit daily automatically fulfill the requirement for Torah study.  But most of us are not that disciplined.  How can we fulfill this obligation?  It is important that we set aside some time during the day to read a Jewish book or periodical, to ponder a Jewish question or issue, to spend some time reflecting on a topic of Jewish import. 

We might decide to read part of the weekly Torah portion, perhaps with commentary, or choose a significant Jewish book and read a page or two, or if we are quite ambitious, a chapter a day. 

You might be aware of a practice called Daf Yomi, which involves studying a daf of Talmud, a double sided page from the Talmud every day.  Needless to say, this requires incredible discipline.  Yet there are thousands of Jews throughout the world that are able to do this.  It takes more than seven years to make one’s way through the whole Talmud; a couple of years ago, when the cycle was complete, a community celebration was held in Madison Square Garden and in other communities to mark the occasion.  And the next day, many of the participants started over.

Most of us would not be able to maintain such discipline, but each of us does have the ability to increase our study of Torah, so that we are always learning, always growing, always becoming more knowledgeable Jews.  Start slowly.  Find something that you really want to learn more about.  Or explore one of the many sites for Jewish learning on the internet. 

In addition to personal daily study, consider taking a class to increase your Jewish learning.  If you don’t know Hebrew, learning Hebrew; if you know some Hebrew, take one of our more advanced Hebrew classes.  Or volunteer to teach a class through our adult education program.  One of the best ways to increase one’s knowledge is to teach a subject.  The rabbis insisted that Torah study would lead to doing other Jewish acts; they recognized that learning was the key to Jewish growth and involvement.

Besides studying every day, it is important that each of us commit ourselves to some type of daily prayer or meditation.  Traditionally Jews are required to pray three times a day:  morning, afternoon and evening.  Often, the afternoon and evening services are timed to follow one another, the former immediately prior to sunset and the latter immediately after sunset.  And although the rabbis encouraged one to pray with a minyan if at all possible, they allowed for individual worship, as long as one did not need to say kaddish, which could only be recited with a minyan.

Once again, not all of us are disciplined enough to pray the entire service once a day, let alone two or three times.  But certainly we can all set aside some time each and every day to pray.  We might choose selected prayers from the liturgy for reading and reflection.  Or we might set aside some time to meditate, which is another form of prayer.  Families with young children might want to introduce the Sh’ma and other prayers as part of a bedtime ritual. 

And all of us should consider saying appropriate blessings before and after we eat a meal and on other occasions.  The significance of saying a blessing before doing an act is to spend a few moments reflecting on what we are about to do, to acknowledge it as a significant Jewish act, and to show our appreciation for the opportunity that awaits.

The rabbis introduced blessings, encouraging each Jew to say 100 a day, so that we would not take for granted what would otherwise be ordinary, routine actions.  They developed a formula for these blessings:  Baruch atta Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam/Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe.  Most of us can recite these words in our sleep.  But what do they really mean?  What is their purpose?

Think of these words as reminding us of three things: 

--how fortunate we are to have the wonderful gifts that God has bestowed upon us;

--how wonderful it is to live in a world that provides us with so much;

--and how important it is to take time and reflect before we plunge ahead with our next activity.

How easy it is to sit down and eat without thinking about how amazing it is that food grown in so many different places by so many different people has made its way our table with the help of so many others.  How easy it is to forget that every day, not only halfway around the world but in our own community there are many who do not have enough to eat.  How easy it is to do what we do without taking a moment to think about what we are doing.

Saying a blessing responds to each of these concerns.  It allows us to reflect on all who helped bring our food to our table; it reminds us not to forget our responsibility to those who may not have enough to eat; and it forces us to pay attention to what we are doing.  It makes us slow down and pause and think, things that we often forget to do in our hectic world.

Those who have been members of the Temple for a number of years remember Rabbi Glickman’s Mountain Bracha Society, which introduced the blessing we say when we see a large mountain such as Mount Rainier.  This blessing, like so many others in Jewish tradition, remind us of just how incredible our world is. 

Yom Kippur is a day for reflecting on sins, and one of the greatest sins that most of us commit is taking things for granted.  We wake up in the morning, go about our daily tasks, whether going to school or work, or volunteering, or taking care of children or parents and at the end of the day crawl into bed, often exhausted.  Most of us have a routine that helps us get through the day and week, but how many of us have integrated into that routine opportunities to reflect on all of the incredible things we encounter on a daily basis?

Whether the sun is brightly shining or the rain is falling, the incredible world we live in is doing what it does so that we can survive.  Nature sometimes gets our attention when a wind storm knocks down trees or a flood brings death and destruction.  There are earthquakes and tornadoes and hurricanes and other disasters; but most of the time the weather is boringly normal and we don’t think about it.  Yet the rain and the sun allow crops to grow and nature to flourish and life to go on. 

In August, I had the opportunity to participate in the wilderness experience for the American Leadership Forum, a week at a ranch in south central Washington near Mt. Adams.  It was an incredible experience for a lot of reasons, but the best part was having the opportunity to be out in nature.  It had been too long since I had been outside for such an extended period of time.  We took a long and challenging hike on Mount Adams, in awe of the beauty of our surroundings; we saw mountain goats and other wildlife, what was left of a glacier and incredible rock formations.

The following day we had an extended solo experience, spending hours alone in silence.  I was fortunate to claim a prime spot with a view of Mount Adams on one side and a vast forest with Mount Hood in the background on the other. I could have spent the whole time in awe of the beauty of nature, but ended up spending the time writing and writing and writing, mostly about the experience that our group had together that week, but also about what being alone and silent allowed me to notice.

One of the poems I wrote said:       

When the voices stop
            and the words cease
            silence brings
            the gift of feeling the wind
            the gift of hearing the birds
            the gift of seeing the beauty
            the gift of realizing our breathing
                        sustains us
                        soothes us
                        refreshes us
            and allows us
            to enjoy this incredible world;
            to live each day,
            to sleep through the night,
            and to awaken re-souled. 

That experience taught me how important it is it to get out in nature and to remind ourselves on a daily basis of this incredible world by taking the time to look around, to smell the roses, to see the mountain and to offer praise to God who created them all.

Besides studying and praying every day, we also need to do g’milut chasadim, acts of lovingkindness on a daily basis.  Our world is broken; there are broken people, who suffer from disease, poverty, or a lack of human contact.  There are broken places:  polluted rivers and streams, deforested mountains, poisoned ground.  On a typical day, I get e-mails or regular mail about such challenges as AIDS in Africa and human trafficking, about victims of terror and environmental disasters.  I am sure that many of you do as well. 

Our congregation has chosen a number of projects to be involved with:  the Jackson Street Food Bank, Cascade Blood Bank, the Hunger Walk.  This spring, for the first time we will participate in the Phoenix Housing project which houses homeless families in congregations and other institutions throughout this area.  Together with St. Andrew’s we will feed and house these people for a week.  I have become involved with the Global Neighborhood Project which is reaching out to AIDS victims and their families, particularly children in Lesotho, Africa and hope to invite Pastor Dean Curry who is spearheading the effort to speak at a service later this fall.

There is so much that needs to be done and so little time.  Each of us can do only so much, but individually and together we are working to make this world a better place.

But is it really possible to do tikkun olam every day? 

We can begin by committing ourselves to setting aside some money each day, whether it is a few pennies or the change we have left in pockets at the end of the day, for tzedakah.  It is especially important that we teach our children and grandchildren the importance of helping others, beginning with setting aside some money.  There are traditional times to give tzedakah:  before Shabbat and holidays, in honor of a simcha or in memory of a loved one, but what is most important is developing the habit of giving tzedakah on a regular basis.

We ask all of our Religious School students to bring keren ami each week, so that they will develop the habit of giving.  Each month students choose between three organizations as the recipient of their funds.  We also encourage our students to bring non-perishable food for the food bank whenever they come to the Temple so that they will make the connection between Judaism and helping others.

Starting at a young age helps develop life-long habits.  If we get used to doing something, it is hard not to do it.  Whether it is studying or praying or doing acts of kindness, each day we have the opportunity to do something that matters. 

Why did the rabbis insist that we make a regular habit out of these practices?  Why is it so important to do them each day?  I’m not sure that they really believed that it was absolutely crucial to do each of these every day.  But they knew that we were creatures of habit, and if we skipped one day it would be easy to skip another day and then another and another. 

Rabbi Harold Kushner reminds us that a musician practices each day so when it comes time for a concert he or she will be able to perform well.  An athlete, too, practices and practices and then practices some more so that come crunch time he or she will come through.  That is the reason, Rabbi Kushner explains that our tradition insists that we pray and study and do acts of kindness on a regular basis.  For there will come a time where we really need to do something, when all of a sudden we are faced with an overwhelming challenge, whether it is cancer or the loss of a loved one or a crisis of faith or a friend in dire need of help.  And we will be able to respond because day in and day out we have prepared ourselves for such a situation.  It has become second nature to us.  We know what to do because we have done it all along, whether we needed to or not.

Doing Jewish every day assures that we will be prepared when we need it most.  May the year 5768 be a year we develop the habits of study, prayer and doing acts of kindness every day.

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