Rosh Hashanah 2nd Day Service (September 8, 2021)

[Music] right i know [Music] so [Music] i welcome to those who are present with us physically you have a little more space this morning which is wonderful i we have our wonderful virtual community whoever is joining us shannatova to all of you with the brightness that filled our hearts in the moments from era for shashana into now we continue in our hug we continue in our holiday and our new year welcoming 5782 i invite you to open your hearts this morning to transcend the spirit of this day to be with community to be with one another to let your mind wander a little perhaps in the melodies and the prayerful moments together begin page 110 moutofu [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is time [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] see [Music] is [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Music] and i invite you to turn to page 120 as we join together at the top of the page alone is an intricate network of channels vessels and openings this wondrous structure and the flow of life within us allows us to serve you and give thanks let us cherish this gift of flesh and blood honor it as god's creation page 122 elohim the soul you breathe into me is pure as we join together [Music] hello [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Music] ten [Music] oh [Music] we continuing we continue to welcome this morning page one hundred and twenty four with our nasimah as we join responsibly [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] elohim [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] hello [Music] we turn to page 135 we join together for psalm 115 [Music] hallelujah [Music] me [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] i invite you to turn to page 142 as we join together and rise in mind body and spirit and face our ark and call each other to worship [Music] um [Music] at the top of page 143 i invite you to participate responsibly praise the eternal sun and moon let all bright stars give praise praise to god praise the eternal vault of heaven give you praise to god for the infinite call called them into being founded them and fix their bounds praise the eternal all earth's creatures monsters of the depths give praise to god fire in hell snow and smoke cloud storm wind that fulfills god's word mountain and hills fruit trees and cedars animals and cattle creeping things and soaring birds earthly rulers in all nations princes and judges of every land young men and maidens elders and children let them praise god's name for god's name is exalted page 146 the bottom of the page we say together love abundant love unstinting our god you have unfolded us in love tender compassion beyond all bounds your precious gift our fathers and mothers gave you their trust and you gave them torah laws by which to live for their sake teach us as well grants us with your guidance loving father merciful mother of us all grant us clear understanding that we may listen learn and teach preserve practice and fulfill with love every lesson of your torah may learning your torah light up our eyes may our hearts embrace your mitzvot unite us in love and reverence for you that we may never feel ashamed of your deeds page 150. [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't know [Music] will you please be seated we join together [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] as we prepare to rejoice in the miracle of our freedom our redemption we read together on page 165. they went forth from egypt on a single night but next time the miracle will be different once two sages were walking very early in the valley and they saw the light of the morning star said one to the other this is how the redemption will be the dawn breaks with a single ray of light and bit by bit the sky is illumined until morning comes and the darkness is gone so the redemption will occur little by little growing steadily and gradually until the world is full of light do not wait for a miracle for the sudden transformation of the world bring the day closer step by step with every act of courage or kindness of healing and repair do not be discouraged by the darkness lift up every spark you can and watch the horizon for the coming of dawn look closely it is already begun page 164. [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yo [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] as we prepare for our tafilah our standing prayer before god we think of the words of the rabbi nachman of breast love make every effort to pray from the heart even if you do not succeed the effort is precious in the eyes of the eternal one if you're able please rise in body mind or spirit page 166. [Music] [Applause] [Music] super tight [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] as i begin [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't know [Music] feet [Music] [Music] oh [Music] hello [Music] hello [Music] oh [Music] hello [Music] [Music] who may with me [Music] beyond [Music] is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] i [Music] i [Music] oh [Music] these roads [Music] page 170 your life-giving power is forever adonai with us in life and in death you liberate and save cause dew to descend and with mercy abundant lovingly nurture all life from life to death you are the force that flows without end you support the falling heal the sick free the imprisoned and confined you are faithful even to those who rest in the dust power beyond power from whom salvation springs sovereign over life and death who is like you merciful god who compares with you with tender compassion you remember all creatures for life faithful and true worthy of our trust you sustain our immortal yearnings in you we place our undying hopes wellspring of blessing power eternal you are the one who gives life and renews all life please be seated page 174 let us proclaim the power of this day a day whose holiness awakens deepest awe and inspires highest praise for your dominion for your throne is a throne of love and your reign a reign of truth the united talk of prayer is one of the most touching in our in all of our high holiday liturgy and the one that we bring to you today is it says who will live and who will die and this tune that we use in our community is a tune of old i think people would call it mesenai from this uh ancient ancient times and in a beautiful way we have combined the same tune used by leonard cohen with who by fire andy mayer's creation and we present that to you now barosha shana gatevu page 178 just to follow the prayer itself [Music] month of may shall i say [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] us [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] but through the return to the right path through prayer and righteous giving we can transcend the harshness of the decree we sanctify god's name kedusha page 184 please rise if you're able [Music] oh [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] the [Music] please be seated and take a few moments for your own silent prayer so god gave the high priest aharon moses's brother beautiful gift he gave him the gift of being able to bless the people that blessing came through him and his sons rather than through moshe albania moses our teacher and has been the privilege of rabbis and cantors to bring this blessing to the people on page 214 if you'll give us the honor won't you please rise [Music] is may god bless you and protect you [Music] may you receive the light of god's kindness and grace [Music] may god's presence ever be with you granting you health and long life the courage to fill that life with much joy with much blessing and peace amen amen please be seated and we continue with our prayer for peace shalom on page 216. [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] i shall once there was a village grocer and once a year every year he would go into the big city to order supplies and merchandise for the year to come when he entered the warehouse he was dazzled by the amount and the variety of merchandise that was on display there think back to the first time you stepped into a costco that was this villagers experience and so like we did that first time and maybe still do every time we walk up and down the aisles the village the village grocer said give me some of that and give me some of that and he'd fill up all of his carts and he got carried away going up and down the aisles order ordering everything in sight and then he would get to the cashier and they totaled his bill and it was a bit of an embarrassment and every year in a whisper he would say i'm really sorry i don't have enough money to pay for all these things that i have ordered will you please give them to me on credit and if i have a good year i will be able to pay for all of it and so it is with us when we think of all the things we would like to have in the new year all the things we would like to do in the new year all the relationships we hope to repair in the new year we are overwhelmed with desire and so we call out avinu malkenu give us health avinu malcano give us wealth avinu mulcanu give us the ability to repair our relationships but when we come to that last sentence we realize how little merit we actually have so we catch ourselves and say with all the strength we can muster avinu malcanu have pity on us and give us all we ask for on credit even though we have few deeds with which to pay for them give us another year of life and we will try to be better and to justify your faith in us and pay you back for all you give us we rise in mind body and spirit as we turn to page 223 as we offer our avenue new prayer [Music] um [Music] um [Music] [Music] the top [Music] their hair [Music] um oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] she [Music] say [Music] my [Music] hey [Music] i say [Music] my we remain standing as we begin seider kuryatta torah the order for our reading of torah page 227 [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] hello [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello [Music] the second day of rosh hashanah in our community we read the story of creation genesis 1 at this new year we say let's start at the very beginning a very good place to start we don't say that genesis 1 is offered as an alternative reading on rosh hashanah it recalls the rabbinic view of the new year as the anniversary of create of creation and of human beings in particular this story affirms the value of life in this world with its repeated refrain of ki tov that it was good let's say that together ki tov each one of us has created batsalam elohim and god's image can make a choice to see things that are tohu chaos and chasm or we can look at the order of things in front of us and at beautiful moments say ki tov this is good this is a ketov moment while we maybe spread out more than usual while many of us all 137 of you are joining us via the miracles of tech modern technology we are able to be together ki tov this is good each aliyah this morning is going to represent a day of creation as we're reading it so for our first aliyah our reader will be rabbi kenner bernstein and in honor of the of the reading of the first day of creation i want to ask anyone to stand where they are who is celebrating a moment from this year a success of moving from tohu [Music] to order just as god does on the first day of creation something that goes from chaos and chasm to a semblance maybe even the beginning of order so if you had a success this year of moving from chaos to order i invite you to please rise and offer our first aliyah [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] elohim [Music] my thank you you may be seated for our second aliyah our torah reader will be milo wingard and in honor of the second day of creation that will be read in this second aliyah god creates a separation a mob deal between the the waters and the skies basically all the big stuff above and all the big stuff below so if you have had a powerful moment of separation between physical spaces this year i invite you to rise perhaps you moved perhaps you completed a uh a coveted renovation project perhaps you change jobs perhaps you moved something significant in where you sit invite you to rise and offer this second aliyah [Music] [Music] i mean [Music] [Music] m [Music] day of death [Music] [Music] [Music] tonight [Music] for our third aliyah i'd actually like everyone to please rise this aliyah is in honor of all those who are in need of healing as well as all of those who are not physically present but are surely in our hearts who are outside these walls who are beyond what we are able to see all those who are perhaps joining us virtually not because they don't want to be here physically but because they can't be here physically to all of those we offer our prayer we offer this aliyah in wishes of a speedy and complete healing as we all join together um [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] she [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and with the torah in our midst we offer our blessing of healing page 245. we offer this prayer together [Music] please [Music] more [Music] may the source of strength [Music] help us to make our lives a blessing and let us [Music] me oh [Music] bless those in need of healing [Music] and let us [Music] we call on jeff myers and we invite everyone to please rise for the lifting and dressing of torah resident lefty [Music] is [Music] hey [Music] foreign [Music] in a moment we will hear the sound of our shofar one of our most ancient instruments other than our tupeem our drums the sound of this shofar went from mountain to mountain to declare the day to declare the holiday so that every person every town every village would know that it was rosh hashanah for some people it's the most important moment of the holiday that they wait to hear i tell a short story my uncle in israel carpenter he walked to cyprus from europe and hopped a boat let's say to the holy land and and built a moshav and he would say to me you know i'm not an observant person he said but every year i go to show why is that to hear the shofar i said you go inside no no i stand outside so that it can come out and reach me and i said and where does it go he said it goes right inside it goes deeply into my heart this is a man who lost most of his family in the shoah and he said it is the one thing that keeps him connected allah shalom a blessed memory he taught me that the shofar had incredible power and incredible meaning so we say blessed are the hearts that respond to the majestic music of the shofar blessed is the gift of life the power of renewal that brings us to this day won't you please rise and turn to page 206 for the sounding of the shofar but for the blessings first [Music] [Music] [Music] tiki [Music] from [Music] [Applause] okay [Music] the soundings of god's sovereignty and now we come to the zekro note the remembrances page 268. tequila [Music] all right [Music] ah [Music] oh [Music] [Music] say our final section of shofar are the shophroat and the final is the kia gedola it the note is prolonged as loud and as long as it can happen for the revelation and for our freedom for our hopes and for our future page 284 blessed are you in our lives adonai you hear with love the shofar the true voice of your people israel tequila [Music] oh [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my [Music] say [Music] 276 [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] god [Music] please be seated shanatova the beautiful thing about the second day of rosh hashanah is our ability to study this beautiful piece of text the the story of creation it's i'm not just saying this because i'm a rabbi and i say this about all the torah it's one of my favorite selections in our torah specifically because i really believe that it's on its own is one of those texts that embodies rabbi ben bagbags call in pure chao vote where he says turn it and turn it for everything is in it ben bagbag there is talking about the torah as a whole but in truth i believe that the story of creation really has everything that we would need to begin this year from a place of reflection and so this morning i want us to look at the first two verses of our text and i want you to think about these two questions as we discuss them number one how will your book begin the high holiday season is filled with imagery of this concept of the book of life we hope that god will write us in the book of life but rosh hashanah on it is written yom kippur it is sealed each of us writes a book of life for our year so how will your book begin and if the torah is our tree of life there clearly is a connection here as we're beginning our year by reading the story of creation and we're going to be looking at the first two verses of the text and what i want you to think about is what are your three sentences that set you up for the year and for those joining us online you have an opportunity to participate as well so as you are thinking and reflecting on this i invite you to put those sentences in the chat we all have different beginnings we have the beginnings of our year we have a work beginning which may start in different ways i very fondly remember my first day of work as a youth director at beth israel and i walked up the stairs and i walked into the religious school office i took a left turn and and and this woman is like ready for me and she hands out her hand and says hi i'm michelle and it was such a and there she is and it was such a great welcome it set the tone for our time working together you think about the beginning of a relationship you think about those first impressions at this at a beginning you need to establish yourself so how do we begin jewishly we begin when we arrive at a moment by offering a blessing of gratitude thank you god for have gotten us to this moment when it comes to the torah it's important for us to remember that the torah is not a history book and it's not intended to be a history book it is a book of the story of the jewish people and the story of the beginnings of humanity so when we have that frame we look at the first verse and i'm intentionally not giving you the page number to look in your mocks or it's in there um but this was a piece of text that i translated for uh my thesis in rabbinical school so i translated a little bit differently than what's in there and i'll explain why beret sheets which is one of the most difficult words to translate in all of torah in fact there are books of zohar the kabbalists that just focus on this one word bereishit and i translate it as at first others begin when god began to create heaven and earth or maybe you've heard in the beginning but the hebrew doesn't reflect that following every everett fox the rendering of at first does not imply creation ex-niculo creation out of nothing but does imply that the beginning of this particular story of this particular people begins with god organizing the world setting it in motion for the narrative that would follow in other words genesis 1 describes god's bringing order out of chaos not creation from nothingness and we know that by what comes next at first resheep elohim god this means that god existed prior to bereshit now we don't know what god's beginning is the rabbis have their ideas but i think that this is a perfect opportunity for us to write to the walt disney company and ask for a prequel can you imagine god in god's early years being kicked around the schoolyard and becoming god as we know god in our torah so at first god created the hebrew here is amazing bara it is only used in our entire bible not just the torah but in the entirety of the bible it is used exclusively when it comes to divine creation so if a person creates something there is a different verb that's used bara is only used in divine creation at first god created the heavens and the earth we say the heavens and the earth because this is again a very difficult phrase to translate it's more likely skies shamayim is is the skies although heavens is a more culturally familiar idiom heavens does carry a different connotation especially in our modern parlance it's one of an afterlife in the realm of god and the angels but really we should be thinking of this as these two areas as simply skies and earth because it leaves room in the text for what's to come later so at first god created the heavens and the earth the earth was tohu chaos and chasm in the midrash barkapura upholds the troubling notion that the torah shows that god created the world out of pre-existing material but other rabbis worry that acknowledging this would cause people to liken god to a king who had built his palace on a garbage dump thus arrogantly imp impugning his majesty but in the ancient near east however to say that a deity had subdued chaos is meant to give the highest praise surely this past year when we've thought about all the times where we've brought chaos into order looking back we started with pre-existing material we didn't create the schmutz of our lives in the last year year and a half but we have realized how to take all of that and order it anew in our lives and maybe there were some new schmutz that we discovered along the way the earth was chaos and chasm and there was darkness on the face of the deep sea god's spirit hovered up against the water the we often think of alpenai this idea of god's spirit hovering above the waters but it's really up against the waters given that the imagery there is darkness on the face of the deep god's spirit can therefore be presented as something against the darkness indeed one of the themes in this section is god creating separations and categories so it's only appropriate then for god's presence to not just be on the face of the waters as others translate but to play a more pivotal and symbolic role in this story so there you have it the first three sentences of torah the days of creation come later that's usually usually where we spend our time focusing our study but in order to get there we have to establish our book at first god created the heavens and the earth the earth was chaos and chasm and there was darkness on the face of the deep sea god's spirit hovered up against the water three sentences sets up the story of the jewish people so take a moment and if you're joining us virtually and you've been thinking about this feel free to write it in the chat and i'm happy to share it what would be your three sentences to set up the story of your book in this year ahead where would you start i invite you to continue thinking throughout this day sometimes we get the idea that if we come to services on a friday night that as soon as we leave services shabbat's over or maybe even on a saturday morning after coming to minion or a banane mitzvah service we think noon time shabbat's over but it doesn't it continues until sundown it's the same with rosh hashanah keep thinking about this and if you are so bold to i invite you to share your three sentences with your friends your family on social media how will you start this year i know how i want to start this year and that's with gratitude so i'm going to say something that may mean nothing to about 98 of you but uh randy if we could get one on the choir and three on you and david please um i want to start with gratitude first of all for all of our staff and lay leaders and volunteers who have helped make these high holidays happen there is so much that goes unseen and we couldn't do we couldn't have these experiences without their support especially want to thank dan jones our president and the entire board for really stepping up in their leadership roles especially this high holy day season this holiday season and i want to thank our band and instrumentalists and vocalists each of you brings such joy in such ruach i think about how the ruach elohim was hovering up against the surfaces in our creation story and the ruach that each of you bring really helps elevate us because your ruach is up against all of us and it penetrates deep into our souls so thank you all i also want to thank my clergy partners rabbi bernstein rabbi navares who is not slighting me by not being here he's just on his way over to the hike to get that set up it is it's just such a joy to be able to welcome in these high holy days with you and i couldn't ask for a better team to be a part of and two people who you don't see but you see and hear their handiwork and that's david and randy on video you see them in the back make sure you can wave to the camera which one are you guys on you're on three you're over there um we are incredibly lucky with with the support of gravity productions to make sure that people all around our campus can see and hear one of the best pieces of feedback that we can get from people who aren't physically here is is is for them to say you know i was watching from home but i felt like i was there i felt like i was a part of it and it's very easy to find someone who can just push buttons and mix the sound and point a video camera in the right direction it really takes a special person to mix sound and video in a way that is appropriate for a worship setting that amplifies what we do so that we all can participate and it's a fine it's a delicate balance between showing what's happening and making it feel over produced and the two of you do a phenomenal job with that and we cannot thank you enough thank you david thank you randy the high holy days do continue um and i hope that you can find uh all not i hope you can find all of the uh information about upcoming holidays and our services on our website cbisd.org and uh i know it's wednesday and the last thing you want to think about is being back here again friday night we will be having services saturday morning we will be having taurus study and minion so we hope that you can join us for that as well and of course for connie dre and yom kippur next week we begin to conclude our service page 286 as we rise for ali nuges [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] new [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] this [Applause] [Music] i know [Music] oh we turn to page 292 for the words of khadija tome our mourner's kaddish noting the additional words for our high holy day season [Music] [Music] down put your arm around the person next to you if you feel so comfortable doing if you feel comfortable in doing so i don't know about you guys as we joined together in our closing song hi yom [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] you

Channel: Beth Israel

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Length: 111min 42sec (6702 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021