Time for Torah: A Short Video on Nitzavim

In this week's Torah portion, Nitzavim, the entire Israelite community is gathered together. Moses speaks to young and old, rich and poor, men and women, teaching them that we have the ability to make choices. As the the High Holy Days approach, we are reminded of a Chasidic Story in which a young man wanted to become a learned person. The Kotzker Rebbe tells the man that what matters most is not becoming a Torah scholar, but to do good and be good.

The Gates are Opened

It never matters!  It always seems that I make the wrong choice.  It begins about a mile before the toll plaza.  My hands grip the steering wheel; I look up. “Which lane is moving the fastest?  Do I stay where I am or move over?”  As I begin to slow down, I scan the horizon.  There seem to be countless EZ-Pass lanes with their purple lights beckoning me.  I choose a lane that looks to be moving, but without fail, the car in front of me approaches the gate and nothing happens.  The gate stays closed.  Not again!  I wait as always, for the police officer to come and write a ticket.  Slowly, I nudge up and the electronic signal beckons.  The gate goes up and I begin to cross the bridge, off on my journey.

We are in the midst of our own journey, our Jewish journey, towards our best selves, our highest selves.  This is the month of Elul, our moment in Jewish time when we reflect upon all of the choices that we’ve made.  According to tradition, the gates of our lives are about to open!  Over the next few weeks, we’re provided with an incredible opportunity to mend fractured relationships, to ask for forgiveness, and do our part to improve our lives.  The gates are now open: the gates of forgiveness, the gates of justice, the gates of kindness, the gates of renewal.  It’s during this time of year that we’re more willing to listen to our conscience; that our friends and neighbors are more open to forgiveness, even the Holy One looks upon our mistakes with more compassion.  The gates are opened, but in just a few weeks, on Yom Kippur, the gates will close.  Our best opportunity to begin anew will close, just like that toll plaza gate.

Our Torah offers us words and teachings to prepare for these High Holy Days, to provide us with the tools we need to enter that gate towards a better life.  Last week’s Torah portion, Ki Tetzei began with these words: “When you go out.”  That Torah portion spoke about the lessons our people learned after leaving Egypt.  We are reminded that before we can move forward, we must look backwards.  We can’t start anew, until we understand our past.  

These High Holy Days provide us with the perfect opportunity to reflect upon our past.  Moments of quiet, beautiful haunting melodies, and a chance to step-back from the hustle and bustle of daily life.  We need to seize these moments to remember the times where we personally missed the mark.  When didn’t we do our best.  When we could we have acted more kindly or justly or compassionately.  As we look to journey forward, we take time to remember who we were: looking at all of our warts and wrinkles, and all of our beauty and splendor as well.

Now, it’s not just the past we reflect upon, it’s the future as well.  This week’s Torah portion Ki Tavo begins with these words: “When you enter…”  Written there are the lessons our ancestors took with them as they entered the Promised Land.  Their hopes and dreams as they began a new life in a new land.  These the same question that we ask ourselves: what are our hopes and dreams in the year ahead?  What do we hope to accomplish?  What do we hope will come to fruition?

Now, our ancestors didn’t just enter the land of Israel empty-handed.  The Torah teaches us that they brought gifts of their first fruits with them.  These were their most prized possessions, their first fruits and vegetables as gifts of Thanksgiving to the Holy One.

As we begin our new year, we also think about the gifts that we possess.  And we each have many gifts.

We have our talents and passions, which make each of us unique.  Gifts that no one else possesses that we can use to better our families and our world.  What are those talents?  How can you use them to their fullest potential?

We also have the gifts of our time and energy.  We all are overworked, overwhelmed, and exhausted, but even with all of our complaining and all of our kvetching, we still have a few extra hours of time throughout the year.  How can we use this gift of time to give back to our community, to help?

Finally, we have the gift of money – tzedakah – which can be used to help our broader community and organizations who are doing incredible work.  How can we use our dollars to make a difference?

When I enter the toll plaza, I never seem to choose the right lane.  The gate always seemed closed, blocking me from my journey forward.  The gates of our lives are now opened, but shortly they will close, we’ll be unable make the change we hope possible.

As the gates open, we are given an incredible gift, the gift of reflection, openness, a new beginning.  May we take the time in the weeks ahead to think about our past, the mistakes we made and the times where we missed the mark.  May we reflect upon the journey ahead: our hopes and dreams for 5777.  And may we recognize all of the gifts provided to us: our talents, our passions, our time, and our tzedakah.  May we each journey forth to a year full of goodness, sweetness, and growth.  Amen.

Sermon: Don't Judge Others, Begin With Yourself

Shoftim addresses the importance of creating a network of judges and officials who will judge the people with justice and compassion.  

The Hasidic rabbis realize that an extra word, "lecha" meaning "for yourself" is included in the first line of the Torah portion.  Why is this word located in the Torah portion if it is gramatically unnecessary?  

The rabbis teach that it is to remind us that we must first begin with ourselves. We can't judge others until we first look closely at ourselves.  At this time of Elul, we are reminded to judge ourselves with the same yardstick we use to judge others.

Don't Judge Others, Begin with Yourself

When Chaim of Zanz was a young man, he set out to change the world.  But, when he reached the age of forty, he looked around and saw that the world remained unchanged. So he said, “Perhaps I was too ambitious.  I will begin with my country.”  But at the age of fifty, his country too remained unchanged.  So he said, “I was still too ambitious.  From now on I will only try to lift up my community.”  But at sixty he saw that his community still remained the same.  So he decided to change his own family.  But when he looked around, he saw that his family had grown and moved away, and now he remained alone.  “Now I understand that I needed to begin with myself.”  So he spent the rest of his life perfecting his own soul.[i]

Chaim of Zanz was a Hasidic Master.  He wrote brilliant books on Jewish Law, commentary about the Bible, which were read by those in his day.  He began a Hasidic Dynasty, which attracted hundreds if not thousands of followers and students.  He had a deep impact on an entire generation; developing a community that grew in its commitment to Torah and caring for one another.  Chaim of Zanz could have described his impact on the world around him, the impact we have on the world around us, yet his most famous story expresses an entirely different ideal. 

After a long life, Chaim of Zanz recognized that change sometimes comes slowly.  The Rabbi encountered many hurdles as he attempted to make true transformation in his world.  Overtime, he rightly became quite discouraged that the change he hoped for, didn’t happen.  After decades of trying, he learned this lesson: he might not be able to repair his world, he might not be able to change his community, he might not be able to uplift his family, but he could transform himself.  Each of us has the ability to perfect our own soul; to begin that process of self-transformation.  The crux of his story: we can’t begin to change the world, unless we first begin to change ourselves.

A similar sentiment is found in this week’s Torah portion.  After chapter upon chapter which discusses, holiday upon holiday, our Torah portion, Shoftim, changes direction to address justice and the rule of law!  Our Torah portion begins with these words: “You shall appoint judges and officials for your tribes in all of the settlements” (Deuteronomy 16:18).  Of course our country should have judges and officials who can judge and rule with impartiality.  In order for justice to occur, we must have the rule of law. 

But, there is something unique about this first line of our Torah portion!  The rabbis notice that there is an extra word found in this sentence; the word “Lecha” meaning “for yourself”!  According to tradition, every word in the Torah is there for a reason, no word is written there by mistake or for no purpose!  However, this word, “Lecha” – meaning “for yourself” is unnecessary, it’s not needed for the sentence to make sense.  We are told that we need to appoint judges… why do we need to appoint judges “for yourself"?

The Chasidic rabbis later teach that “Lecha” – “for yourself” reminds us that we must begin with ourselves.  We judge ourselves before we judge others!  This extra word serves as exclamation point, reminding us of how easy it is to sit upon our high horse and judge others for behaviors we’d condone in ourselves!  How easy it is to be lenient with ourselves, but be harsh with others!  

The Chasidic Rabbi[ii] remind us: We must use the same yardstick to judge ourselves that we use to judge other!  Our goal is not to compare ourselves to others, but instead to assess ourselves, to understand how we measure up!

This is our season of assessment, our season of measuring ourselves.  These few weeks of Elul, are a time of preparation, a time of accounting for our mistakes.  Transformation doesn’t occur in one day, we need weeks to truly make change!  We need time for contemplation, self-assessment, and reflection, in order to make the changes in our lives that will lead to self-growth and healing.

Long ago, Chaim of Zanz taught that for true change to occur, we must first begin with ourselves!  The Torah takes this a step further, not only is change difficult, but searching inward at our very being is excruciating difficult.  It’s much easier to judge others than to judge ourselves.  It’s much easier to demand perfection of those that surround us, and give ourselves a pass.  No one ever said that Judaism was easy, during these next few weeks, we’re asked to step-up to the challenge.  To look inward, to give a true accounting of ourselves, to be brutally honest in our self-assessment because only when we are honest and forthright with ourselves, can we truly begin that path towards transformation and change! 

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[i] Hasidic Tale based upon a version retold by Ellen Frankel in “The Jewish Spirit: A Celebration in Stories & Art”

[ii]Toledot Yaakov Yosef

Time for Torah: A Short Video on Shoftim

In this week's Torah portion, the Israelites are preparing for battle against a very large army. The Israelites are terrified about the prospects of war. The Torah provides them with words of encouragement: "Don't fear, don't panic, for God is with you." Most of us will not go into battle, but that doesn't mean we don't encounter fear and dread today. How can we find courage during our moments of challenge?

Taking the time to...

We Jews really like to joke that the holidays are either early or late; they never seem to fall on time!  Well, this year they are REALLY late!  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur both fall during the month of October, towards the later end of the High Holy Day window.  One of the benefits of the Holidays late arrival is that we have more time to prepare for them.  Over the last couple of years, we’ve been buying our round challahs, making matzah ball soup, dressing in our finest, and running off to Temple towards the beginning of September.  We barely had time to adjust from the end of the summer or the start of the school year before the holidays were upon us.

Jewish tradition teaches that we need the days and weeks prior to the holiest days of the year to prepare for their arrival.  Elul, the last month of the Jewish calendar, is considered to be one of the holiest times of the year.  These four weeks officially begin the High Holy Day season.  In most years, Elul falls smack dab in the middle of August.  We rush to buy school supplies, take those last vacations of the summer, and prepare for the year ahead, that Elul often goes unnoticed.  But not this year!

Elul officially begins on Sunday, September 4^th, at the tail end of the Labor Day weekend.  The late start provides us with the time to do things a little bit differently this year.  The rabbis remind us that change is difficult.  We know in our heart of hearts that we can’t change our behavior solely during the few hours we spend at Temple.  We recognize that there are so many forces around us, including our own inertia, that makes change challenging.  That’s why we have Elul.  From the start of Elul till the end of Yom Kippur, are forty days, filled with boundless opportunities to impact not only our lives, but those around us.

We know what steps we must do to change our lives for the better.  Taking time to reflect; jotting down our thoughts in a journal (or on our iPhone); taking some private moments to pray; giving tzedakah; and preparing for our time at Temple.  The rabbis teach that our most important responsibility during the High Holy Days is called Cheshbon HaNefesh, the accounting of our souls.  May we take the gift of these late days of Elul to prepare for the holidays’ arrival.  May we find a few prayerful moments to reflect, journal, and account for our mistakes.  May our individual introspection lead us to improve, not only our lives, but the lives of all those that surround us.  May it be a meaningful Elul for us all!