By Rabbi Reaboi
Perhaps the first question asked by a human being was Cain’s response to G-d, when asked about the whereabouts of Abel. Of course, God knows that Cain killed Abel. But still, Cain’s response is “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? Then there is another question posed, this time by God. Previously in Genesis, Adam and Eve were hiding in shame from eating the forbidden fruit. And of course, God knows where they are but still asks “Ayekah– Where are you?” These questions have echoed through the Bible and beyond. Even now, God is asking that same question, Ayekah?
During this Day of Atonement, (which I like to call “The Day of At One-ment”), we spend much of our time at Services confessing our transgressions, admitting that we have wronged God and others. We confess that we are flawed, not by who we are but by the wrongful actions we commit. We ask sincerely for forgiveness, hoping that God will hear our prayers. We try to find the courage to forgive others, and we ask for fortitude as we try to forgive ourselves. We commit ourselves to being better by doing better. By the end of Yom Kippur, we hope that we achieved our goals of being renewed, and refreshed and hopeful after leaving last year’s baggage behind. At least, that is the goal of these Days of Awe. It is easy to slide back into our old habits. And then the cycle repeats itself next year and the year after, and the year after. Please excuse me if I sound like a pessimist. I must be feeling a little ‘hangry’ during this fast-day!
I will let you in on a secret- you don’t have to wait until Yom Kippur to do teshuvah– to be repentant for your personal transgressions. I am sure that God wouldn’t mind hearing from you during the rest of the year, too! Something I find interesting in theYom Kippur Service is the language of the Vidui section of the Service. The Vidui is the public confession of our collective transgressions; We have robbed, we have cheated, we have spoken slander, we have been deceitful, we have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the poor, we have oppressed others, we have been haughty, we have been selfish, we have breached our trust in You and in others…. The list goes on as we beat our hearts with our fists, emphasizing each transgression we have committed.
We understand the meaning of personal responsibility. But do we really understand the importance of collective responsibility? What does that look like and why are we responsible for the actions of others in our community and in K’lal Yisrael, the greater Jewish Community?
I will answer the last question first. The great Rabbi Hillel said, “Do not separate yourself from the community, and do not trust in yourself until the day of your death.” (Pirke Avot 2:5). In Deuteronomy, God says do not think you are exempt from my commandments if you dwell outside of the Community. This statement is emphasized in the story of Jonah, who tried to escape to Tarshish in order to get away from God’s requests.
Our collective responsibly is the directive that many Jews observe wholeheartedly. We have an obligation of Tikkun Olam, which loosely means ‘repairing the world’. While the Orthodox understand this to mean that our obligation is to work for the betterment only of Jewish people, we modern Jews see ourselves as partners with God in the continuous act of Creation.
I find beauty in the idea of living with others. According to the Talmud, a community must answer to the physical and spiritual needs of the people. Sanhedrin 17b states a Jewish community must have these 10 things: a court of law, a tzedakah fund, a synagogue; a bath house, a cemetery, a bathroom, a doctor; a craftsperson, a butcher and a teacher of children.” The Rabbis understood that a society must meet the physical and spiritual needs of its people. In the Biblical story of Balak, the pagan prophet Balaam was hired to curse the Israelites in the Wilderness but was unable to after seeing how beautiful their camp was, and how the entrance of their tents faced each other, as if to say, “if you have a problem, neighbor, I am there for you.” But all Bal’am could muster was “Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov, mishkenotecha Yisrael– How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.”
What does that communal responsibility look like? Looking out for each other is the usual answer. Here are some examples of communal responsibility:
There is the story of the Bar Mitzvah boy who dropped the Torah during the Torah procession, to the horror of all who witnessed it. The traditional punishment of dropping a Torah is 40 days of fasting and giving tzedakah. But instead of letting the boy fast for 40 days, all who witnessed the Torah dropping took it upon themselves to fast one day each over those forty days. Thus the community shared in the punishment as well as in the simcha of the boy becoming a Bar Mitzvah. This is a true lesson in what it means to be a Kehillah Kedusha, a holy Congregation!
Then there is the story of the addict who could not shake off her addiction, no matter how hard she tried. But she sought a group meeting for recovering addicts that provided the support she needed to overcome her addiction. She found strength in community.
Then there are the non-Jews who believe in communal responsibility. For the past 80 years, Germany has been paying reparations not only to Holocaust Survivors but also to their children as well in some cases. Wouldn’t it be easy for the German citizens to say, “Why do I need to pay for something my parents or grandparents did? The Holocaust wasn’t my fault!” It was Father Neimoller, a Lutheran Pastor who lived in Nazi Germany who wrote: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The reparations will go on until the very last Survivor has passed because every German knows the answer to the question- “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Perhaps they learned that particular lesson too late- But Yom Kippur tells us that it is never too late to do teshuvah.
The example that hits home with Temple Sinai members is the Mi Shebeirach list. When someone is in need of healing prayers, we are there to help. With our army of members in the Chesed Committee and compassion vigilantes like Steve Hochman, for example, no one should ever feel like they are alone struggling with their physical, mental, emotional or spiritual ailments. If anyone ever asks you what benefit there is in joining a Jewish Community, you don’t have to look any further than 2101 New Albany Road.
Let’s get back to the Vidui and the topic of asking forgiveness from God for our communal transgressions. Are there any you can think of? I can.
Let us start with the transgressions of our mouths. My new home of Southern New Jersey contains the fourth largest Jewish Federation and JCC in the country. There is pluralism everywhere. You can find practically any type of Jewish community you wish to be part of. Some of us are part of several Jewish organizations. But the sad part is that, instead of embracing our commonalities, we emphasize our differences. Whether you are Orthodox, Reform or Conservative, whether you are part of the Moorestown Jewish Association or the Collingswood Jewish Families group, we slander each other and scoff at each others’ Religious and Communal institutions. We offer backstabbing comments as we scrounge for members and money. And, how many times have you read the news about Jews attacking Jews? Violence comes in the form of Hasidim in New York and throwing insults at other Hasidim and in Israel throwing stones and spitting at women who dare to pray at the Western Wall. I remember my father telling me that Jews in Borough Park would throw tomatoes and garbage at people who drove on Shabbat! During the Holocaust, there were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis in order to get special treatment.
Jewish learning explains that the reason why the Temple was destroyed, and why we are living in a state of Spiritual Exile is because of Sinat Chinam– baseless acts of hatred. What about favoritism? Have you ever chosen a Jew over a non-Jew for your business, or to “be on your team”, wink, wink? Even though I am your Rabbi and aspire to be a role-model, I admit that I have engaged in favoritism in my life. And for that, I ask God to forgive me.
Let’s bring things closer to home now. I have to warn you that this part of my D’var is going to hurt. I had lauded the Temple Sinai Family for being so caring, so full of chesed and support. What communal responsibilities could we have possibly turned away from? Unfortunately, I can think of some.
Some of you have been attending High Holy Day Services here for many years. Have you noticed something missing in our Sanctuary and in our Chapel? The bimah is not handicapped-accessible. There are no ramps for folks who want a Torah honor but cannot take it because they are unable to navigate the stairs. Why are we denying people the honor of being close to the Torah for an Aliyah or an Ark opening? We justify this by saying, “No problem! For an Aliyah, we’ll just have them stand on the floor and we’ll set up a reader’s table and have them say the torah blessings down there.” This may seem like the solution to not having a ramp. But has it ever crossed your mind that it may be a source of embarrassment for someone to have to stand on the floor while others can go up on their own?
God, please forgive us for ignoring the physically challenged, and for embarrassing others.
Another communal transgression we have committed against our own members is the dangerous wiring that lays in the ground unprotected next to the Torah table. I cringe each time an elderly person or a speeding child come near them. Those wires are there to connect the laptop and Zoom TV screen. While I applaud the Congregation for including those who cannot attend Services in-person by providing Zoom, we are ignoring the safety of those who wish to come up to give honor to the Torah. Again, we justify this by saying, “No problem! The Temple has insurance for such accidents.” You may be satisfied with that answer, but I am not.
God, please forgive us for creating a stumbling block before others.
We can also talk about not providing sufficiently to security during school and Shabbat Services like every Synagogue in the Tri-County area. We can ask ourselves if we have supported our local foodbanks and homeless shelters enough? Compared to the percentage of members of other Non-Jewish faith-based organizations, we are lacking. We can justify this by saying, Rabbi, we are like grasshoppers compared to those giants!” But isn’t Temple Sinai’s motto “We are small but mighty?”
God, please forgive us for not doing enough for the safety and well-being of others.
I believe with all of my heart that it is within our power to change these mistakes, these things that we have looked over. Then we can show TRUE chesed, TRUE tzedakah! All it takes is discussion and heart.
And then, we must ask ourselves what our community responsibility is towards the State of Israel. Let’s start with what Israel means to us. Before there was a modern State of Israel, the Torah tells us that God made a promise to our ancestors that they will inherit a Land that God has chosen for us, and that we shall be a blessing to the nations. But God tells Moses and the Israelites that the Land is given to us by God alone and can be taken away from us by God alone due to our actions. That happened a few times, even before 70 C.E. when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and the glory of the ancient Kingdom of Israel no longer existed. Since then, the Jewish people have been in a state of Spiritual Exile, spread across the globe but always praying in the direction of Jerusalem, which means “The City of Peace”. We always say, “L’shana haba’ah beyerushaliym– next year we will all be in Jerusalem. We continue to hope and pray, gathering the four corners of our tallitot and asking God to remember the promise that was made that the Jewish people will gather again to rebuild the Holy Temple and restore the glory of Zion to a people who have suffered in exile for 2,000 years. The Land has been a symbol of hope, sustaining generations of Jews through the worst of times. That is what Israel means to me.
Eretz Yisrael has been ruled by many conquerors, yet there has always been a Jewish presence there. Various governments have imposed themselves on the people- yet the Land and the people remain, while those in positions of power fall. The State of Israel was founded just three years after the Shoah, rising like a Phoenix out of the ashes that used to be our people.
Since then, Medinat Yisrael has had a plethora of challenges. But no challenge has been as great or as stark as the event that happened on October 7th, 2023. After nearly three years, Israelis are still in shock. This was the greatest slaughter of our people since the Holocaust. The reaction from the world has been less than sympathetic. Since then, Israel has been met with harsh criticism. If there was any time since October 7th happened that the world has shown any sympathy, it was a mere blip on the radar. Israel’s war against Hamas has turned into a war against the Gazans. That is the ugliness of war- no matter who is in charge, it is always the people who suffer.
I am not above noticing the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. But I am not about to call Israel a colonial State of genocide. While Hamas has used the Palestinian people as human shields and has used abducted Israelis as pawns of terror, there have been mistakes made by the Israeli Government as well. Because hindsight is 20/20, it’s easy for us to look back and to judge. The result is that we Jewish-Americans are torn by strong differences of opinions about how we view Israel and the Israelis. But I pose the question again: What communal responsibility towards Israel do we have? To repeat what I said before- we are Am Yisrael. All of us- not just those that live in the land. And that is what matters the most to me: Governments come and go. But the Am, the people, remain.
Perhaps you don’t agree that we have a responsibility towards Israel. Perhaps you would rather judge for yourself and gravitate towards like-minded clans that think alike. Or perhaps you would consider doing the more courageous thing- engaging in civil dialogue, rather than running away and disowning Israel and those who support its people. The latter may be more difficult, but peace has never come easily. To be a good ally means that we must often have difficult conversations. That is our challenge, that is our responsibility.
As we recite our communal confession, you might want to consider what it means to be part of a people. And what it means to be “my brother’s keeper.” And perhaps in the near future, God will not have to ask that Eternal question of the ages- “Ayekah? Where are you?”
As we continue on during this grueling day, fasting, standing for long periods of time, confessing our transgressions and committing ourselves to change, it is my hope that someday, we will all stand together as one. On that day, we will proclaim with one voice: “Hinei Anachnu Kahn! Here we are!”
May the comforting words of Isaiah ring in our ears:
This is the fast I desire:To unlock fetters of wickedness,And untie the cords of the yokeTo let the oppressed go free;To break off every yoke.It is to share your bread with the hungry,And to take the wretched poor into your home;When you see the naked, to clothe them,… Then shall your light burst through like the dawn And your healing spring up quickly; Your Vindicator shall march before you, The Presence of GOD shall be your rear guard. And you offer your compassion to the hungry And satisfy the famished creature- Then shall your light shine in darkness, And your gloom shall fade away…O God, please help Your people, Am Yisrael in their time of need. Do not allow her to be abandoned and scorned. Help us to find a way to spiritually connect with Zion, the hope of the Children of Israel. Strengthen us so that we may fulfill our communal obligation to others on the path of tikkun olam, and to the people of Israel, no matter where they live. Am Yisrael Chai- May you remember Your children so they may live in peace. AMEN.