Congregation B’Nai Tikvah Rosh Hashanah Day 9/19/20

last night [Music] good morning everybody the sun is shining in the air is clear it's the first day of the new year let's bring in some beautiful intentions and prayers and hopes and wishes we're going to start with the text on page 108 how rainy my cabell or mecca bellet alai meets waterbore here i am ready to take upon myself the sacred charge of my creator love your neighbor as yourself [Music] there are [Music] me [Music] there [Music] oh [Music] raining [Music] foreign welcome everyone welcome to all of the members of our community who are out there close and to all of you who are joining us for the first time this morning it's really a unique and beautiful thing that we can have so many people that we don't know across the world across the country join us for services in a way that isn't possible when we're all in our own actual communities so it's wonderful to have you all here with us i'm rabbi jenny chabon i'm joined on the bema by lisa zeiler and alicia hervich and we're so honored and excited to be able to guide us all through some celebration and prayer and contemplation this morning we're going to continue on page 110. how lovely is this beautiful tent it's a blessing to be here [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] i [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] a poem for the birthday of the world by marge piercy on the birthday of the world i began to contemplate what i have done and what i have left undone but this year not so much rebuilding of my perennial damaged psyche shoring up eroding friendships digging out old stumps of resentment that refused to rot on their own no this year i want to call myself to task for what i have done and not done for justice how much have i dared in opposition how much have i put on the line for justice for mine and for others and when injustice shows up sliced and diced where have i spoken out who have i tried to move in this holy season i stand self-convicted of sloth in a time when lies choke the mind and rhetoric bends reason to slithering choking pythons here i stand before the gates opening the fire dazzling my eyes as i approach what judges me i judge myself give me weapons of my newt destruction let my words turn into sparks we turn now to page 132 for the ashrae [Music] wash [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] um [Music] time lord [Music] it's the opening of our service on shabbat rosh hashanah it's masterfully crafted this liturgy of ours and it's meant to ease us into the prayer experience and all of these opening things that we sing are really just a a welcoming helping welcoming our bodies our hearts our minds our spirits so that when we really stand in prayer we're ready and one of my favorite moments when we are together at saint matthew is psalm 150 with the whole room called hanisha mate all of the souls singing shouting hallelujah so we're going to do it anyway and we're just going to have to feel you from across the world from across the city across the states singing along with us we're going to have to imagine the drum and the tambourine and raise up a joyful noise page one thirty five [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] far [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] foreign [Music] i feel a little better i feel better okay all right rosh hashanah is here so at this point karen smith our marvelous director of education is waiting in a zoom room for any kids that have signed up for or are interested in participating in junior congregation it's a service that's designed for kids that are k through 5 ish but if you have younger kids or older kids who want to go and check it out it's a kind of a crafty homemade exploration of the themes of the holidays and make your own moxor so she's waiting for those kids there if you want to pop over to the zoom and she'll send everybody back to the live service when when you're done page 138 [Music] on this holiday we are invited to imagine that we stand before the king and this king god has a throne but not one throne two one throne is the throne of khassad of compassion and the other is the throne of dean of judgment of stern judgment just as our prayers invoke the god of compassion of hasad so too may our own compassion rule over our judgment turn to page 138 for hamelech [Music] [Music] lenny [Music] foreign [Music] god [Music] [Music] is [Music] me we rise for the khatsika dish on page 141 [Music] rubber [Music] bow [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh if you rose with us you can be seated we're continuing on page 1 46 this great enormous giant love that we sing about before we move into the shema the shema is cushioned it's carried on either side with love and we receive this love from above we have the shema in the middle and then we send it right back up with the vehicle right it's this kind of love circle that we engage in every time we chant the shema [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] i don't know i don't know [Music] yet [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] hello page 163 remember the stories of slavery and you will never stop working for freedom remember their fear at the edge of the sea and self-doubt will never defeat you remember when desperation turned to celebration and you will never let go of hope remember the words of the baal shem tov forgetfulness leads to exile remembrance is the secret of redemption [Music] oh say [Music] is [Music] m [Music] [Music] is [Music] god is right we're going to move into the amidah for this morning the first two blessings are said out loud and then things change very differently from what normally happens on shabbat right so there's a lot of familiarity and similarity to shabbat until we get to this moment and then there's a lot of the intensity of rosh hashanah that gets inserted into the into the liturgy but we're going to start with a familiar melody and we like to add the english when we do it rosh hashanah morning it was written for the adonis fatah and the words speak perfectly to the questions of what we're supposed to be asking ourselves this year at this time on the first day of the year as we're walking through the doorway through these 10 days so the english says am i awake am i prepared are you listening to my prayer is god listening to our prayers can you hear my voice can you understand am i awake am i prepared those are the questions friends please rise [Music] am i prepared are you listening to my prayer can you hear my voice can you understand am i awake am i prepared [Music] for on i open up my lips that my mouth may declare our praises [Music] i [Music] little [Music] hello [Music] maybe [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] a [Music] [Music] um [Music] sure me [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] hashanah it is written and on yom kippur it is sealed who shall live and who shall die who by fire and who by drought who on the front lines and who alone we are called in this hour to consider our own mortality not to inspire fear but rather to remind us of the preciousness of this life of this time this prayer comes to teach that each of us has the capacity to do acts of loving-kindness no matter where you are or what your circumstances as long as we live each breath is a prayer and a testament to our lives as we listen to the unattanatokef to this prayer as we listen with our lives in the balance may we make this day holy and this day count may our lives may we remember that our lives are holy you can find unatana toekeff on page 174. [Music] oh [Music] it [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] come on [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] on [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] we're going to continue on page 184 with the kedusha please rise [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] oh [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] m [Music] [Laughter] [Music] our god your praise shall ever be on our lips for your power is boundless we're going to continue with the silent amidah silent prayer silent meditation whatever that means for you this morning with the hebrew with english standing sitting quiet out loud dancing this is your moment to sink deep into your rosh hashanah morning prayer you [Music] seems [Music] said [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] said [Music] is [Music] see before we move on before we move on i want to send out my greatest thanks to lytol abrahams who grew up in this congregation staying on that with me she came into the recording studio and we recorded two pieces to be able to create some harmonies that we missed so much and some beautiful visuals too so lital you're a star you're an incredible human and a beautiful singer and a you're a great light so thank you so much for bringing that to our service we're moving into shofar friends hopefully most of you have these shofar booklets if you do not shofar is going to actually go back and forth between us live on the bema and pre-recorded the actual tequila all of the calls are pre-recorded with our amazing baal baltia larry d'lo so if you don't have it you also don't need to worry because you're just going to have the experience come through regardless we pieced together the chauffeur service in our maksor is spread out throughout the morning and we kind of pulled it all together so just a couple of notes about the sounds of the shofar tequila this strong sound of triumph and joy and happiness is the first thing we hear shivarim and trua are broken notes right it's not one solid they're broken slowly and then they're broken quickly many breaks you know and one question is why do we bring all that together why don't we just have songs of triumph on rosh hashanah because the sorrow and the joy are all intermingled in our lives always and especially right now nothing is permanent and in times of gratitude and joy really dive into that because you know on the other side there is sorrow that's possible and in times of sorrow take heart that the joy is on the other side too and so this is an amazing moment of fulfilling kind of the fullness of humanity when we hear the shofar blown so we begin with the great elenu it's called it's the regular text of the eleno but when we do it before shofar we prostrate so we're gonna do that on the bema as we always do i'd like to ask you to rise and then just stay standing because we stand whenever the shofar is blown so we're starting on page one of our booklet if you have it [Music] call [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] on [Music] foreign [Music] dwell on each sound of the shofar contemplate its meaning one whole note shivarim teruah three broken notes nine staccato notes one whole note my return to the right path has the power to make me whole again once i was whole shavarim taruwa in the wear and tear of living i became broken and shattered my chuva my return has the power to make me whole again [Music] here [Music] i [Music] the prophet said cry aloud lift up your voice like a shofar this is the meaning of the verse see yourself as a shofar as an instrument of the divine do not take pride in your virtue or power or the power of your deeds with every mitzvah you do every act of intellect goodness and love god's spirit breathes through you [Music] tequila [Music] [Music] tequila [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] ah love our endless gratitude to larry de lo the most extraordinary about kia i was just thinking i had never thought about how we bookend the shofar service with this greater alenu this eleni where we completely surrender that if it's your custom to prostrate that it's the same text but instead of just bowing we go all the way down to the floor and then when this chauffeur blast happens at the end i personally get filled with complete surrender and release right it just that sound makes me feel like i can just give it all over and it's amazing how so many of our pieces of liturgy are cushioned on either side shma and torah and now shofar too i had never thought about it yes um [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh enter our name [Music] [Music] [Music] no [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] we're going to turn to page 2 27 and begin to take the torah out of the ark engage [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] a knockout [Music] [Music] is [Music] yet [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] remember [Music] [Music] [Music] hey wish i could ask how you're all doing out there but i hope you're doing great hopefully everything is translating i'm so excited for our tour reading this morning because this was our our great experiment of the holiday season we had a very long day of recording pre-aliyot pre-tour readings we have the most amazing people that came in and offered themselves and their chanting so we're going to go back and forth kind of toggling back and forth between live and video for the duration of the tour service and it's been one of these beautiful pieces of learning for all of us and i think it's turned out incredibly beautifully well by some miracle by some miracle of god by some miracle of technology so i just want to offer a little bit of insight about our torah reading before we dive in and it's not actually about this particular reading where i found the wisdom that i want to share so our tour reading this morning is akita the famous binding of isaac and it's one of the most painful difficult contradictory challenging pieces of torah to read and it really begs us to ask how do we believe in and stay loyal to a god who is contradictory who disappoints us who makes mistakes who enrages us and in in those questions what does it mean to have faith right this torah portion is asking the question over and over again what is the faith that's being demanded of us and so i found an interesting midrash from brayshid rabbah the midrashim are these stories that add background and context to our surface stories and brishid rabbah is a is a bunch of mudrashim on the book of genesis and in rishi rabbi 3 7 it's talking actually about the creation story which comes not that long before our torah reading it's very interesting what it offers because i think it gives us insight about about abraham and god so in the beginning of the torah every time a day is finished being created it says and it was evening and it was morning it doesn't say it was evening and it was morning it says and at the beginning of it so the rabbis they love to pick apart every tiny little syllable so amar rabbi yehuda bar simon rabbi judah bar simon said it doesn't say yahi erev it was evening but rather allah yahirov hence we derive says rabbi judobar simon that there was a time system prior to this rabbi yabahu teaches this teaches us that god created worlds and destroyed them saying this one pleases me this one did not please me so let's go back and think about that for a second so before the creation of the world these rabbis are saying in that one little above they're deriving that before our creation story god created world after world and wasn't happy with them and kept destroying them thinking that god had created perfection but then realizing oh no that wasn't perfect either better destroy it and then trying again this is the world i want and then destroying it again god created and failed again and again until god got it right but then of course the world that god did create that we live in was also imperfect was filled with imperfection and is filled with the stories of our ancestors in this book that are deeply flawed so the perfect world god was looking for was an entirely imperfect world so how does this offer us a little bit of wisdom about our own torah reading how do we praise a god that asks something so impossible of abraham because maybe even god's decisions are fallible maybe we're seeing from this torah reading and we're seeing from this midrash that even god and we see it all over the place in the noah story in the tower of babel god creates and then wants to get rid of god's own creation and so maybe we can have compassion not just for abraham and isaac and sarah and ourselves in reading the story but even for god in having asked this of abraham and understanding that all of the characters in our torah are fallible and are imperfect so let's see if that compassion can weave our way into how we read the torah this morning our first aliyah is going to be chanted by richard and rayna ravitz benishiva [Music] will be chanting [Music] [Music] amen [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um thank you so much i can hear the yeshiko from far away beautiful job our second aliyah jerry levitas is going to be chanting torah and mark you satan has the aliyah [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] friends thank you so much our third aliyah is on page 240 we're going to be starting at uh verse 8. if you're following along judith baral our president is chanting torah and amy lerner has the third aliyah aviva aliyah oh no sorry third aliyah excuse me uh jeff and bonnie rock me do the aliyah amy has fourth [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] of [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] elizabeth paul will be chanting torah and this aliyah amy lerner has the aliyah ta'amu [Music] aviva [Music] [Music] oh [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] abraham [Music] a [Music] [Music] and i'll read from the torah live and in person [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh lewis who recorded that before he went back to college so he had one of the early recordings of the but long before anyone came into this room he recorded before he even left so before we put the torah away we want to do a misha beyrach there are many many in our community who are in need of healing we're going to sing the rifa enu which we is a melody we only do at high holidays even though the text itself god please heal us is appropriate any any shabbat any day but this is a melody that we tend to only sing on the high holidays so we're thinking this rosh hashanah the shabbat of susannah wilkinson aviva leia yetta hurwitz borach le benkashabela tom ramsdell david connor susan wisnadel harry wittenberg iris kaplan malka leia about matilda rosalie weiner stephen cavaliere josh herrond sophie wassen stan hurwitz pam kleeman robert schwartz steve wolf leslie mcdonald matt samuelson stanley franklin malcolm v adina marie del marl tiffany casmir jeff price david cohen liba cooperman eileen klatsky brandon verona sarah romov and avraham benja akova rifka if you have other names you'd like to add you can put them into the chat if you want them to be public or just send them up into the air as we sing the refa'enu [Music] keep [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] how many we've pre-recorded hagba with dan laporte our mighty hagba so we're going to turn to a video to dress the torah we'll be dressing it here while he's lifting and dressing it on video uh please rise [Music] a share some moshe leaf neven israel the piado [Music] and the night and i die i died at night i hide and die yet i died [Music] i [Music] thank you dan that was beautiful yashirakoa oh there have been lots of beautiful moments of levity and grace that we have all had to manage in this period so normally at this moment we would be chanting hafthara i love this haftarah is the hufter of hana who desperately more than anything her heart's desire is to have a child and she can't get pregnant and she goes and prays so fervently that the priest mistakes her for being drunk and he accuses her of being drunk and it's this beautiful heartbreaking expression of desire and of course at the end she does get to have a child but because we're in this unusual time and we want to save a little time this morning we're actually not going to chant after and so elishev and i were looking for poetry that would maybe speak to that heart's desire to that journey to us fulfilling what we're meant to fulfill in life you know when the prophets wrote the various hafta wrote they were speaking to the israelites who had found their way away from torah and they were trying to get them back and saying that this path right here is a path that's going to make you a better person it's going to make you closer to your who you're meant to be so we found a poem called breaking surface and this in lieu of our after this morning hopefully we'll speak to the intention behind after every time we chant but in particular the story of hana it's by mark nepo let no one keep you from your journey no rabbi or priest no mother who wants you to dig for treasures she misplaced no father who won't let one life be enough no lover who measures their worth by what you might give up no voice that tells you in the night it can't be done let nothing dissuade you from seeing what you see or feeling the winds that make you want to dance alone or go where no one has yet to go you are the only explorer your heart the unreadable compass your soul the shore of a promise too great to be ignored david ratner executive board member vice president a prayer for our community that would like to play now a prayer for our community source of all being creator of all life may your goodness find its way into the hearts of all your children may those who wield power do so with the balance of wisdom justice and compassion may those who feel powerless remember their intrinsic worth and also act with the balance of wisdom integrity and compassion may we all feel call to action based on the injustices of our racism and see ourselves not as enemies of one another not in struggle with one another but as human beings created in the image of god connected to one another's well-being may all of us come to acknowledge the racism that is pervasive in our region and in our nation may we commit to sitting down with one another in honest dialogue opening our hearts and compassion to one another bearing witness to the pain and fear of one another even if and especially if the other looks and seems so different from ourselves may we commit to joining together in acts of justice that will bring about equality in education economic opportunities law enforcement and judicial proceedings may each of us come to understand that ultimately my experience of freedom and justice and peace is inextricably linked to the freedom justice and peace of every other person in our county and city our country and our world a prayer for israel rock and redeemer of the people of israel guardian of the covenant bless and protect the state of israel and all her inhabitants guard this good land established with liberty justice and peace as conceived by the prophets of israel open the hearts and minds of the leaders of the nation to guide them in the paths of peace and justice with strength and wisdom strengthen the hands of those who defend and protect our holy land and crown their efforts with success free from all oppression and fear may the work of their hands be established and the words of your prophets be fulfilled and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nations shall not lift up sword against nation nor shall they learn war anymore amen on page 277 we rise to put the torah back into the ark [Music] days [Music] is please be seated everyone over the past few weeks we've been cleaning out bookshelves in our house judah is now eight and reading chapter books and as we contemplated a potential year of school from home we realized that it was time to give away some old books lots of old books we had shelves spilling over with sentimental favorites that never get cracked these days good night moon sylvester in the magic pebble love you forever books sitting on their sides shoved in and bent upside downs spines backwards it was time to do a big clean out but how do we choose what stories are worth holding on to and what stories need to be released which stories are no longer serving us and which ones will we always hold close even if we need to let them go and when as people as families as communities is it time to write new stories to reflect where we are going rather than where we have been i would argue that at a time of great change and uncertainty which is undeniably where we find ourselves right now we need to hold on to texts that affirm the shifting landscape of the human experience texts that are about changing minds and perspectives and to let go of any stories to which we cling too tightly we need stories firmly planted in the gray wilderness of humanity rather than in anything black and white in order to find ourselves the answers to how we are meant to navigate the vast unknown that is america 2020. we have all found ourselves this year feeling like beginners at jobs and tasks that have for years been our expertise so how do we move forward how do we even begin to write new stories when we feel like we have no idea where any of this is going as the great elie wiesel said god gave adam a secret and that secret was not how to begin but how to begin again and so let's turn to the beginning of the torah again as we always do to genesis 6 and the story of noah and the flood in this story god realizes that the human beings that god created back in the garden were not so good after all and god has a change of heart on and god regretted having made human beings on the earth at sev el libo and god's heart was saddened what follows of course is that god destroys nearly all of humanity in response to this regret in response to our great wickedness god regretted but rashi the great medieval rabbi and commentator flips the tables on this interpretation he points out that the root for regret nun is the same as the root for comfort the prophet isaiah says comfort o comfort my people what is the connection between comfort and regret the connection rashi says is that within that regret god's thoughts turned from divine mercy from comfort at these beautiful humans who were created to keep each other company to divine justice to regret to retribution god's mind god's perspective has changed in that moment and the whole of torah along with it so what then is comforting about changing your mind what exactly is rashi getting at he's suggesting according to rabbi jan orbach that knowing is less comforting than learning even for god or put another way that learning and changing our minds and opening up our perspectives is the way in which we reflect god's oneness in the world the way we can best emulate god's presence is not to see the world in the way we always have but to wake up and see when it's time to open our eyes and start reading new books and writing new stories to find the comfort and regret and humility in the need to begin again if there was ever a time for us to do that the time is now we are in a time of unprecedented uncomfortable catastrophic instability the likes of which none of us has ever experienced before and catastrophe is by nature terrifying but it is also our inherited historical norm we would not have the talmud if the second temple had not been destroyed we would not have our modern sea door if sacrifices had not been eliminated there is always rebirth after destruction whether that destruction is literal physical or mental whether lives are lost or perspectives are forced to change no one welcomes catastrophe but it comes to force us to reinvent our communal narratives we are in a period of tremendous uncertainty and change which is bringing out the worst fears and behaviors in many people but what else my friends is also being birthed at this time i would argue that we are also giving birth during this incredibly difficult period in our history to our power to rebuild the world one person one perspective one narrative one community at a time so let's start right here at cbt i've been serving this community for 17 years and i have been proud of cbt throughout those years for being an open-minded creative and welcoming place especially when it comes to interfaith families and egalitarian values that foundation was laid down by our founding rabbi rafael asher more recently we have done a much better job at being radically welcoming to queer people and families recognizing the need to not just be welcoming by default because we're a reformed synagogue in the bay area so of course we welcome queer folks but by action and statements by hanging rainbow flags and proudly naming our desire to have people of all genders and gender identities in our community you are welcome here no matter who you are or who you love i love that about us and slowly but steadily more queer people are joining our community because of it but and i'm now going to share a with you that was shocking to me when i heard it because it laid bare one area in which we in our beloved community need to do some deep and serious narrative revision here it is 12 to 15 percent of north american jews are jews of color 12 to 15 percent i want that number to sit with you for a moment and as you sit i want you to picture the sanctuary when it's full on the high holidays or at a typical sheer joy evening look around the room in your mind and tell me are 12 to 15 percent of the people sitting next to you people of color because if the answer is no which it is then we are doing something wrong and let's not jump to quick defenses but there aren't very many people of color at all in contra costa county let alone jews that may be partially true but what is also true if you listen to jews of color talk about their experience of the north american jewish community is that they don't feel like they belong because we don't make them feel welcome when we see a black or brown person walk through our doors i challenge us to deny that our first assumption is that they are not jewish because for most if not all of us that is what we assume why when we see people of color do we assume that they're not jewish rather than assuming that anyone could be because that is the actual truth any person joining our community on any given day could be jewish no matter what they look like but our ashkena normative perspective has narrowed our vision of what a jew is supposed to look like white with a certain last name and of ashkenazi descent and even if we do have a moment of open-minded clarity we assume that these people are jews by choice not jews by birth i bring this up today on the first day of the new year because of course our entire country is going through an awakening of tremendous importance around racial justice right now an awakening that should have happened hundreds of years ago and we who sit in positions of white privilege are just becoming woke now to which on the one hand i say thank god thank god my eyes are being opened now while i'm still alive and able to help write a new story for our community and our country but on the other hand this awakening leads to a much bigger and more disturbing question the question is not just what can i do now yes we need to act and yes we need to ask how best to contribute to the solution vote donate engage in dialogue but according to alana kaufman the executive director of the jews of color initiative we must first ask ourselves not what can i do but why am i just seeing the systemic racism in our world now why am i only now beginning to understand my own white privilege when it has been here all along for those of us just waking up now says kaufman in a fantastic episode of the podcast judaism unbound the real question is where have we been for hundreds of years how do we reckon with our own accumulation of power and privilege at the same time that we grapple with the gravity of how absent most of us have been this whole time where have we been talk about sitting in our comfort and regret now before we all jump into our defensive responses let me take a moment to unpack the idea of what it means to be a liberal open-hearted white person who holds racist views which is what i am i will say out loud that i sit firmly in that category i am deeply uncomfortable here and it is my white privileged inheritance that i sit here i'm a good person with unconscious bias that needs to be unpacked so that i can contribute to the fixing of the world one of the unfortunate unintended consequences of the civil rights movement says mia birdsong and her excellent book how we show up is that it cloaked racism in the robe of the klansmen and their brand of extremism white folks get defensive when they're confronted with their racism because they associate it we associate it with segregationists and burning crosses so let's just be clear here she says if you're a white person who grew up in america or any number of other countries you benefit from white supremacy and hold racist views that doesn't make you a bad person none of us are all bad or all good it does mean you have some work to do to reduce the harm racism causes people of color and to free yourself we have some work to do friends to free us all the irony of course is that as we welcome more and more interfaith families with open hearts and minds out of a desire to cultivate a growing flexible jewish community we are by definition also welcoming future generations of more jews of color and yet we have failed to address the interracial peace of the jewish puzzle interfaith we've been comfortable with for decades but what are we doing to ensure that the children of interfaith and interracial families feel comfortable growing up in our synagogues a million jews don't feel welcomed kaufman says a million jews we aren't seeing if we label it racism people get defensive so do we label it racism oscar normativity so many jews want to be welcomed into the community and we aren't owning the ways in which we aren't welcoming them even as we are desperate not to lose any jews what harm are we continuing to cause as it relates to racism these are the questions that i challenge us to ask ourselves this year the questions that lie at the heart of the new narratives that we have the privilege of writing together can we throw out the books that say this is what a jew looks like that is not this is what a racist looks like and i am not a racist what would it mean to deeply examine our communal story and to use this time of discomfort and change to write a new chapter for ourselves at cbt a chapter that says we have a lot to learn to own up to if we want to be a community truly built on justice for all not just for folks who look like us a chapter that says we own the comfort we've been sitting in and the regret just like god did and that change must come from that gray and conflicted place what would it mean to say that we are the agents of tikkun of fixing what is so deeply broken within ourselves and in the broader world without community there is no liberation rights poet audre lorde and to that i say amen community has the ability to liberate us because we hold each other accountable but in order to hold a mirror up to one another we have to discard many of the binaries that we cling to for comfort responsibility versus fault right versus wrong victim versus perpetrator mia birdsong says it beautifully when she writes we need to reach for grace as we weave in and out of what is me and what is you and what is us indeed what is us what kind of community do we want to become this year and will you join me in getting us there knowing that his death was drawing near the great john lewis wrote a piece to be published on the day of his funeral entitled together you can redeem the soul of a nation his words call out to us today as we begin the work of redeeming the soul of this community and of our nation as we find the courage to write a new narrative for ourselves that includes accountability and radical compassion though i may not be here with you he writes i urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of america by getting in what i call good trouble necessary trouble voting and participating in the democratic process are key the vote is the most powerful non-violent change agent you have in a democratic society you must use it because it is not guaranteed you can lose it when historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence aggression and war so i say to you walk with the wind brothers and sisters and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide amen friends and shanatova may this be a year of transformation and everlasting love for us all thank you [Music] [Music] just as the world is changing so are we on page 286 the words of the elenu remind us that it is our duty to rise and to meet the challenges of the world so wherever you are in body heart mind and soul up and join us out loud in the elenu [Music] [Music] oh mourinho is found on page 292. on this shabbat on this first day of rosh hashanah we're in the period of shiv uh in the first seven days for alexander dunaj and irina gary and michael we're holding you close and it's the yard site that shabbat of d h bradshaw susan joe brooks rodney cohen sarah friedman jack garfinkel jonathan horowitz howard kaplan star kaplan david nathan laporte max lerman kevin platt sydney robinson irving ruderman ruth speckland karen sweet k bernstein tucker ruth ellis wise benjamin zivian and of course ruth bader ginsburg a giant of justice a giant of equality a giant of a fighter who we lost yesterday and her spirit calls upon us to fight for what we believe in this year of all years so we bring her into our hearts as we recite the words of kaddish if it's your custom to stand please do so on 2 92. [Music] [Music] you can have a seat and i'd like to invite ann marks our executive director up to offer a few holiday related announcements rabbi shaiban ali shaba lisa and irene thank you for these beautiful services shana tova in case you were not with us last night i'm anne marks i'm congregation benetiqueva's new executive director and on behalf of the clergy staff and board of trustees of congregation benetique i want to welcome everyone to our days of hope and our high holidays from arkansas to australia to the east coast we're very glad to have you all here we had a wonderful taught service this morning and i encourage you to register for next week's yom kippur taught service some of you may want to join intergenerationally grandparents and village aunts and uncles can share this with their littles across the miles thank you to our director of membership and education karen smith who helped put this and our junior congregation offerings together a few other announcements our tash services for tomorrow are full those of you who registered in the last 24 hours or so will receive location details and anybody who's registered should watch email tomorrow to make sure that the air quality is doing okay around 11 am we'll check in about air quality we do have an ongoing food drive with monument crisis center so feel free to stop by anytime and drop off protein-rich foods outside and join us for our tikva takeout fundraiser which continues on october 13th with panera so it's not too late to join us for religious school if you are interested you can still reach out we have a hybrid going on of of um online and also outdoor in-person education most importantly yom kippur cole nidre is at 7 30 pm on sunday the 27th monday morning yom kippur maine services begin at 10 a.m and continue for nila at 6 30. tot and children's services will be just like today at 9 00 am and 10 15 ish and there will be one thing that's different on yom kippur the afternoon minha avodah and yiskar services begin around four but those will be on zoom so it's really important that you make sure to use next week's links for next weekend and those will be sent out to members and registered guests on thursday there's still time to invite your friends and relatives from around the world to join us for neela if you have registered for to come through for our afternoon nila you will get an email with your particular assigned time and there are a few spots left the last thing please drop off your personal video cards which you might have gotten in your high holiday at home bag and there will be this box outside waiting for you so you can come by the synagogue if you don't have that um that card just put it on a piece of paper and then rabbi shabon and ellie sheva will be able to incorporate those in the yom kippur morning services as part of a community confessional so no names please we do want that all to be anonymous again thank you for creating our high holiday community this year shana tova tikatevu vetemu a good year and may you be inscribed and sealed for a blessing in the book of life thank you anne three more thank yous you can't see them but we have an amazing sound and film crew here tina solano irene young alberto doing an unbelievable job creating sound on the fly when hiccups happen and beautiful pictures for everyone to see so thank you so much it's been a privilege to work with you all we're going to close with a video of a song that i wanted to sing at the end of rosh hashanah morning no matter what long before kovit happened and then when i realized that we weren't going to have our choir the choir put together a gift for you all to be able to see their faces and hear their voices so i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice can change the world boy is that true and please god make it true this year this is our choir offering our closing benediction song [Music] i will use this gift i've been given every day i have a force my voice is powerful my voice can change the world i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice can change the world change the world [Music] i will use this heart i've been given to take i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice can change the world i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice to change the world change the world [Music] hello [Music] [Music] my voice my is can change the world i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice can change the world [Music] i'll stand up for what's right will use the strength i've been given to be the light i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice can change the world i have a voice my voice is powerful my voice can change the world [Music] you

Channel: Congregation B'nai Tikvah

Views: 1,577

Rating: 4.9130435 out of 5

Keywords: Rabbi Cantor Jennie Chabon, Lisa Zeiler, Irene Jacabson, Rosh Hashana, High Holidays, Congregation B'nai Tikvah

Id: wANy3acOGIY

Length: 142min 58sec (8578 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 19 2020