Kol Nidre Service 5780 at BJ Sanctuary

[Music] [Music] ah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so we continue to resonate in the music of Kol Nidre you begin with a few words of inspiration from a rabbi and teacher Marshall T Myer as we listen to the melancholic and shattering melody of Kol Nidre oh god help us to measure our words and to find the courage and strength to be faithful to our resolve grant us strength to bridge a bit more of the Gulf that separates our goals from our achievements during the coming year on the stain of a Day of Atonement help us look into the most profound depths of our being so as to better comprehend the truths of our existence and to be capable of more improvement our God and God of our ancestors is evening Cassatt shadow over the earth assuring in the most solemn and sublime day of the year we meet with our fellow Druze throughout the entire world and prayer and meditation let us a cast aside from our minds and souls all petty thoughts and vain desires what is our life and to what avail our strength what is our wealth and to what purpose our power we lift up our souls O God and yearn for your light and inspiration on this evening of Kol Nidre sanctified by the memories of countless generations of the past we find ourselves in your presence of God stripped of all pretension and naked in all our weakness you know well how frail and fragile we really are God strengthened us to overcome our weaknesses help us find the strength to encounter you in our lives and to courageously confront the truth of our being help us to open our hearts and souls so that we may not only hear our own cries but also the call and the weeping of the enslaved the oppressed the hungry the desperate the suffering and the Forgotten in this spirit vibrating to these cords we rise for Kol Nidre [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] Bashir al Maleh Vichy vassal Matta that Macomb veld article a new material ahead pal l in Haryana by the authority of the court on high and by the authority of this court below with divine consent and with the consent of this congregation who grant permission to pray with those who have transgressed vichy vassal mala Vista vassal Mata Adama Kong veld article a new material hit parallel EEMA of our union [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] did we thank you sir [Music] [Applause] Oh hoody [Music] whoa [Music] harder [Music] Oh [Music] Oh [Music] Oh [Music] Oh oh boy Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] whoa [Applause] [Music] he hot Oh horn yo at all [Music] [Music] [Music] ha ha ha [Music] Oh [Music] I need this are nice [Music] [Applause] [Music] what [Music] [Music] [Music] their son [Music] varam [Music] economy yeah this here like he was sad [Music] [Applause] in a dollar more [Music] there Laurie Oh Fattah us [Music] Oh [Music] No Oh [Music] [Music] Oh Oh Oh [Applause] [Music] the whole Oh whoa Oh for sure [Music] sure thing [Music] not shun me in the love me [Music] Oh [Music] their song sorry [Music] [Applause] [Music] whoosh what Hana [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] press harder los for number [Music] let's heal sir [Music] [Applause] day the ball they're all harima veto Oh No of shot Oh Oh [Music] [Applause] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] whoa the whole own [Music] Oh Lajo my own shadow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] la-dee-da kya me Oh [Music] this or no sorry [Music] [Music] Lucia Lord Shiva Oh [Music] [Music] when you slaughter that fall beneath and a girl to come Killa Falah um be shy girl article enough in a said well I can I gotta be to come kill it full of fish Gaga Reni Slavic all of that phony smile again I gotta be SH Solana lavona Mzee kigo de la stessa Batoche illness at alam has enemies rahim they are Danish by Oh when your man me Oh Oh [Music] haha Hey ha got [Music] Oh ah let me see it [Music] a story about mache after he fled Egypt as told by Elie Wiesel after many adventures the fugitive arrived in the land of Midian where he settled having found food and shelter and work as a shepherd he married Zipporah a native woman the daughter of the priests Teatro two sons were born to them Eleazar and Gershon and they led a peaceful idyllic existence devoid of problems dangers or conflicts did he sometimes remember his parents his persecuted brothers and sisters apparently not at least nothing in the texts of legends alludes to it their faith was no longer his concern a vast desert separated him from them and he was content whatever was happening there in faraway Egypt no longer interested him he took care of his family of his flock and that was enough for him to fill his time and justify his life as a man strange for 40 years Moshe lived in his new adopted land without ever worrying about his family's fate it seems like la it seems unlikely somehow what had taken place inside him how is one to explain the sudden indifference he who had risked his fortune his freedom his future to save one single life why didn't he at least try to ascertain whether his people and entire people were still suffering or had been allowed some respite Moshe had become a stranger in more ways than one a stranger to the Egyptian people to the Jewish people and to himself one day as he was tending his father-in-law's flock an angel of God appeared to machine a burning bush but ma she refused to serve as God's messenger it took seven years seven years seven days seven days to convince him sesame trash Moshe refused advancing all kinds of arguments why me why not an angel or my older brother Aaron I'm a poor speaker I am also married and I have children my father-in-law will object and furthermore what am I supposed to tell the Jews when they start asking me questions so many questions what shall I say what shall I tell the Pharaoh when he begins to ask me questions clearly Masha had no wish to take on a mission and return to Egypt to help redeem his people however consider the setting the flaming bush in the immensity of the desert the all-pervasive solitude the anxiety the voice both distant and clothes insisting probing throbbing burning how could any human being even machine resist that voice indefinitely I must admit that I had never dawned on me before reading this rendering of the story by Elie Wiesel that Michelle was in Midian for forty years in the torrid text twelve verses elapsed between the time Moshe arrives in Midian as a fugitive and the day God appears to him in the burning bush twelve verses go very fast but they represent 40 years of Michelle's life of course Moshe I knew full well what the predicament of his people was back in Egypt of his parent his brother and sister how was he able to live with his memories for 40 years did he seek to repress or erase them was he able to achieve a sense of equanimity who knows the scene of the dialogue between Moshe and God at the burning bush and Michels refusal to serve as God's messenger is of course fascinating at first that is understanding and addresses moshe as resistance with patience moshe resists god insists cajoled co access but ma che remains accurate in his refusal so in the end God gets angry the Midrash says that it took God a full seven days to convince him car once ma che to be the main protagonist in the drama with author redemption of his people from Egypt and his reluctant God tells him I will be with you and reassures him again and again but ma che continues to refuse he is resistant to God's redemptive will is truly stunning is ma che opposed to redemption what was his refusal about is it perhaps his and willingness to give up the position he has attained he arrived as a refugee with just the clothes on his back and worked so hard and now he's asked to give up the comfort of his home his family the security of his job as a shepherd in the beautiful and peaceful landscape of Midian why give that up why live that life for a life of proximity to suffering a life of strife and struggles and complications is it perhaps the discomfort of having to confront his family having to face the refusal to let him go what if his father-in-law disapproves his beloved father-in-law the important priest of Midian who at for him hospitality when he first arrived as a fugitive what if going back to Egypt as God's appointed messenger would create a terrible conflict with his brother Aaron who was older than him and already a prophet back in Egypt machetes gun is not the right person that he's totally inadequate for the mission I won't have all the answers that I would that will be required I'm not persuasive enough I am not enough of a leader I can't even speak fluently and clearly not me I can't take this on beyond unnai beard on each left nabhi Aatish laughs please God send someone else in the end God burns with anger mo she relents and Moshe enters now the permanently uncomfortable always risky often excruciating for next 40 years of his life his mission as God's messenger and leader of his people begins Moshe is of course the greatest of all prophets the low common a vo today Israel's Messiah Shelly the or deny panama el panning says the Torah never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Michelle who modernized singled out face to face he's so great and at the same time so human it is so easy to identify with his resistance we all can recognize ourselves in him we all resist the call to put ourselves in inconvenient uncomfortable and risky situations even when we know that it is for the sake of something really consequential even when we know it is for the sake of change that can't wait even when we know it is what we're called to do and no one else can do it in our stead how many times we feel the pool and get trapped in our ambivalence I'm so confident why should I I know it's important but it's so inconvenient right now how many times will wrestle with a calling and we resist and resist ended up refusing maybe someone else should do it please Gunn send someone else but we know there is no real change without discomfort no growth no progress no redemptive movement said Ryan Stephenson here at BG we cannot change the world only by getting proximate and changing the narratives and this is a hard one we are going to have to be willing to do things that are uncomfortable and inconvenient we cannot change the world if we insist on only doing the thing which is comfortable and convenient and it's hard because we are human and humans are biologically and psychologically programmed to do what is comfortable we like comfort and there is nothing wrong with comfort but to change the world we are going to have to be willing to do uncomfortable things and it's true we can't bring about change or build the just world if we don't choose to move beyond what we know rise from our comfort and risk something at the very core of religious life of a thoughtful life for that matter is the inner struggle the permanent wrestling with the challenging aspects of our human nature with our default settings the aspiration to lie down comfortably in green pastures and to bask in bliss is not what a life of faith is about but rather to engage in the confrontation with our humanity and with gun which is demanding unsettling and often risky the only way we can expect to grow in the spiritual and moral dimensions and to refine our being what do I expect of myself what does God require of me are not comfortable questions to ask oneself the stay of yom kippur itself is a 25 hour long exercise inconvenience and discomfort the great discomfort of confronting ourselves and our nature for the sake of atonement for the sake of forgiveness for the sake of transformation for the sake of better lives and a better world tomorrow morning we will read the following passage in the Torah and this shall be for you a law for all time in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month they are know it enough so to him you shall practice self-denial and you shall do no manner of work neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you for on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you of all your sins and you shall be clean before I don't know it shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for you and you shall practice self-denial it is a law for all time they eat em it not show the same which is often translated as you shall practice self-denial but it means literally you shall afflict your souls and this day of Yom Kippur we put aside some of our most basic physical requirements at some point tomorrow we will begin to feel the pangs of hunger which will only increase as the day progresses but the greatest affliction or hardship or discomfort is not the fleece physical self-denial the uneasiness the feeling of hunger or thirst or the headache or the long hours of sitting ensure the greatest discomfort is the anguish we feel in our souls as we confront ourselves the deep feelings of shame and remorse the admission of our shortcomings the acknowledgement that there is something pathetic and wretched about us in our lives the greatest discomfort is not the greatest discomfort is to confront our nature our limitations our failures the poor choices we've made the missed opportunities the greatest discomfort on this day is to go to the place of our vulnerability and to touch our own brokenness and that's what it really hurts on the outside ma che seems to have had a pleasant life in Midian on the outside but in the end on the inside he couldn't but be broken think about his life back in Egypt he was a survivor of infanticide his mother hid him at home for three months and he must have sensed his parents terror to be found he was then placed in a basket in the river and given away think about him growing up in pharaoh's palace and discovering who he really was living as a prince and witnessing the oppression and suffering of his own murdering a taskmaster fleeing for his life in becoming a refugee in a foreign land and God asks him to go back to Egypt and reopen all those wounds faces brokenness and untap help redeem a broken people please God send someone else but there is no healing no change no transformation no redemption without discomfort above all the profound discomfort of coming into contact with our own brokenness listen to Bryan Stevenson's words again my years of struggling against inequality abusive power poverty oppression and injustice a final will finally revealed something to me about myself being close to suffering death executions and cruel punishment didn't just illuminate the brokenness of others in a moment of anguish and heartbreak it also exposed my own brokenness you can't effectively find abusive power poverty inequality illness oppression or injustice and not be broken by it we are all broken by something we all we have all heard someone and have been hurt we all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent Thomas Merton said we are bodies of broken bones I guess said Stevenson I'd always known but never fully considered that being broken is what makes us human we all have our reasons sometimes with fracture were fractured by the choices we make sometimes were shattered by the things we would never have chosen but our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity the basis for our shared search for comfort meaning and healing our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion we have a choice we can embrace our humaneness which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing or when we can deny our brokenness force where compassion and as a result denying our own humanity why would call why would God call and rely on a broken person like machine or like every one of us for that matter now by a Bavaro you Dan said what is considered that ritually impure in an animal is permitted in a human being an animal isn't fit for an offering if it is broken or maimed or with a growth but in a person a broken and contrite heart is considered fit now by Alexandre said if an ordinary person makes use of a broken vessel it is a shameful thing but the Blessed holy one makes use of broken Wells vessels as it is written Karev I don't I let me see I live and on I is close to the brokenhearted the hasidic master rabbi simcha bounnam said a broken heart prepares a person for the service of gun because the true service of gun is about repairing healing forgiving comforting redeeming lifting up someone who is whole cannot begin to understand and cannot begin to empathize and is not able to do that work the reason one of us here who is whole and doesn't have brokenness in the heart in the soul there is nothing wrong with that it is part of the human condition it is what it means to be human roschmann ah Li Baba a God wants a person's heart in God knows the heart is broken brokenness acts as a mirror when we come into contact with our brokenness we are able to see it in others and when we see it in others we can recognize it in ourselves being in touch with our brokenness makes us more human softer more empathetic we understand that I'm no different than others that there is fear insecurity longing and suffering in everybody regardless of their abilities their achievements their social position or how well put together they look then when we can touch our brokenness compassion towards others often awakes in us and we become forgiving we mirror God's attributes which we will recite tonight tomorrow mercy compassion patience loved faithfulness forgiveness and in turn we awaken God's compassion and forgiveness for us from an early age we've all been told to be strong to be brave not to show the cracks in our hearts to project perfection but not today may the next 24 hours of Yom Kippur be a meaningful fast a holy experience of discomfort of productive self affliction and confrontation that will bring about a redemptive transformation we all so desperately need and longed for I invite you now to turn to your booklets we are going to chant together sing together on page three the beautiful built by the Spanish Hebrew poet by Avram even Ezra who lived in the 12th in the 13th century [Music] Oh Hey Oh ha man baby rise for Van Horn page 207 [Music] who the world maybe seated could deal with a truckload before the Shema beginning on page 7 [Music] [Music] I don't like watching more okay yeah my tummy more Oh come boys [Music] [Applause] [Music] aha Kasumi mangle my world [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] that Saturday night coordinates [Music] ha I see the boys have it to her they will of page 210 who told that saw him oh Allah the Hoshi lab it seemed a far above yeah bro for long me we come all bouquet of Limoges go give her that an idea girl me Atlantic me man no Baragon I right foot piece on to 11 [Music] from saying so can I oh gosh I - wait rise to chant the second paragraph on page 212 [Music] [Applause] by me can I me No my No see Kadesh yada yada [Music] Oh really if my whole day No yeah eatable people vegetable meat boy little mommy the same be the lovey-dovey the love Shammi Kapoor - ah Oh [Music] No Oh turn to the first Amida the first silent pray of yom kippur of this year facing east of jerusalem let me that between pages 213 and 221 [Music] [Music] [Music] they are there there are they I want you to turn to page 223 the arc is now open yeah let the Hana Nino is 223 [Music] yeah [Music] No [Music] yeah they double people really the your name [Music] [Music] yeah the we shall hit the hole [Music] Hey here [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] No before but gosh the like a saucer yeah where further which 232 don't threaten [Music] show me this ah sure da da da so yeah our motion wait why y'all [Music] whoa

Channel: B'nai Jeshurun

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Length: 88min 12sec (5292 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019