Adam: I started reading torah in the second grade. Each week, I chanted from our sacred, ancient scroll in junior congregation, and felt privileged to help bring our most cherished stories to life for my friends and community. At the end of that year, my rabbi gave me a gift for investing the time each week to prepare: a tikkun korim, a specially printed volume of the Torah with the Hebrew, vowels and trope marks on one side, and the unmarked, adorned text as it appears in the scroll on the other. He inscribed the book with a famous teaching from Pirkei Avot that has become one of my favorites: Ben Bag Bag said: hafoch bah vehafoch bah. Turn it and turn it, since everything is in it.
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This sermon was given on Erev Yom Kippur by Rabbis Sunshine, Roffman & Wallach On Erev Yom Kippur, our prayers begin to slip the earthly bonds of gravity. By the conclusion of this most sacred day, they are propelled straight through the gates of heaven. And what guides their way? A ladder. Ya’ale tachanuneinu me’erv, v’yavo shavatenu mi’boker, v’yera’eh rinuneinu ad e’rev. by Rabbi Adam Roffman Remember Eleanor Rigby? Eleanor Rigby who picked up the rice in a church where a wedding has been. She lived in a dream. She waited at her window, wearing a face That she kept in a jar by the door? But who was it for? If you remember Eleanor Rigby, you probably also remember Father MacKenzie. Who sat writing the words To a sermon that no one will hear Because no one comes near. We saw him working, Darning his socks In the night when nobody’s there. What did he care? It was these two figures that sprang from Paul McCartney’s imagination that provoked him to ask this profound question in 1966: All the lonely people…where do they all come from? by Rabbi Ari Sunshine and the Klei Kodesh As we reconvene in these coming days and weeks, we want to share with you a few important changes in our ritual life that you will notice when you come to shul. Our first core value in our new vision statement is that we are a caring community—one that is inclusive, warm, and welcoming to members and guests. We believe that each of these changes will help ensure that each soul who walks into our building, and participates in the life of our community, can see themselves represented in our rituals and liturgy. We also believe that these new initiatives will make our services more accessible and inviting, building and strengthening connections between each of us and our tradition and between us and our fellow congregants. By Rabbi Adam Roffman Every year, around this time, when I run into someone I haven’t seen in a few weeks, I am greeted with the same five words. “Rabbi, I like the beard!” It takes quite a bit of restraint not to reply, “Thanks, but I hate it!” It’s true, though. Facial hair is not my thing. It’s uncomfortable, it’s itchy, it’s four different colors. By Rabbi Adam Roffman We tend to take it for granted that things in Judaism are the way they are for a reason, even if we don’t necessarily know or understand that reason ourselves. Nevertheless, I find that when it comes to deepening my relationship with my faith, asking myself, “Did it have to be this way?” is so often a useful exercise. By Rabbi Adam Roffman Is lack of knowledge a sin? When we act, or fail to act – out of some form of ignorance – do we bear any responsibility? The book of Leviticus, which we began reading last week, answers unequivocally. Not only should we be held accountable for our behavior, we are also required to bring a sin offering to atone for it. Whether intentional or accidental, whether individual or communal, when an injustice is uncovered, it is our sacred duty to right what has been wronged. By Rabbi Adam Roffman Last Shabbat morning, we welcomed seventeen beautiful souls into our Shearith Israel family at our Tiny Treasures ceremony. It was an interesting coincidence that on the morning we celebrated and welcomed the newest children of our community, we also read the commandment to honor our parents. As a parent myself, this strikes me as an interesting tension. Quite often, when I honor my daughter, I find myself having to do things that under other circumstances would not bring me honor at all. There’s very little kavod in changing diapers, or in paying tuition bills, or in my case, pretending to be Cookie Monster so that I can gobble up sweets to ensure that if someone is going to overdose on sugar, it’s going to me and not my daughter. By Rabbi Shira Wallach Shabbat teaches us to create a palace in time; each week, once we tend to the required creation and work, we are rewarded with a whole day to celebrate, renew, and rest. But how often do our weekends allow us to access this ideal? Sometimes, it becomes necessary to build additional levels of intentionality and purpose into our Shabbat planning. And furthermore, sometimes it becomes necessary to seek out a new space, away from the hubbub of everyday life, to explore and reboot our relationships with one another, with God, and with Shabbat. |
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