Rosh HaShanah Morning Worship 5782/2021

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] hmm [Music] so [Music] good morning welcome welcome to those who are gathered here in the sanctuary welcome to those who are participating via our live stream on youtube and those who will in the future be looking at the recording of this worship service we welcome all of you blessings for this new year of 5782 as we begin our worship in this new year we are grateful grateful to be able to pivot from exclusive in-person worship to worshiping together in this multi-access mode we are grateful to be able to connect and share in our hope for a better year and so we pray this our prayer of gratitude ribono shalom master of the universe thank you thank you that i am here and thanking you thank you for the infinite times that you have helped me supported me rescued me encouraged me helped me healed me watched over me and made me happy thank you for always being with me thank you for giving me the torah that guides me to do acts of loving kindness thank you for everything thank you for all the times you helped me when i did not know how to say thank you thank you for all the loving kindnesses you do for me each moment thank you for every breath i breathe thank you god for all the things that i do have and thank you god even for all the things i do not have thank you for my periodic difficulties my occasional setbacks and for the times when i do not feel happy because everything is for my ultimate benefit even if i do not always understand thank you for my difficulties for only through them i know how to appreciate the good only after being in darkness are we able to genuinely appreciate the light thank you for the wonderful life you have given me thank you for every little thing i have for everything comes from you and from no one else thank you for always listening to my prayers yotzer haolam creator of the world i apologize sincerely for all the times that i did not appreciate what you gave me and instead of thanking you i only complained i am dust and ashes and you are the entire universe please never cast me away may our worship on this new year's day open our hearts and open our souls to the love that surrounds us and we will always be thankful amen we continue on page 110 ma tovu [Music] ah [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] i don't know [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] as we continue with the call to worship which you can find on page 142 i'm inspired by the beautiful music that is being shared with us by members of our choir members of our congregation who are members of our choir as well as those who are joining us thank you so much for last night and for this morning paul dykstra julian chin we are so privileged to have you with us this morning i just that matovu was so and the morgans behind the behind the wall and the shelters and everything else what a beautiful beautiful addition to our our worship and of course cantor thank you so much there's so much to be grateful for this morning and the presence of all of you here in the sanctuary and the sacred space and the sacred space of the digital worship much much blessing to celebrate this morning page 142 we rise for the call to worship [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] we continue together in the english on page 144 infinite love you bring light to the earth and its creatures your goodness renews the creation each day infinite varied and rich are your works divine artist all of them wrought with wisdom the whole earth is teeming with life awe struck by the universe work of your hands let all life bless you praise you and celebrate the beauty of your lights may you shine a new light on zion and may we soon be privileged to share in that light [Music] we continue on page 150 without [Music] [Music] [Music] where are you [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] especially at times like these our prayers are meant to be a multi-sensory experience not only should they be heard and sung or spoken but our prayers can be felt and seen as clearly as we see the prayers implanted in the natural world around us our amidah is no different it calls to mind and to heart the elusive yet ever-present spirit of prayer which we hope becomes even closer and more personal during the high holy days engaging with the special melodies and words we offer praise and gratitude first with the words of me page 164 [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] that my mouth may declare your praise [Music] [Music] ah [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we continue on page one hundred and seventy four unatana tokef and so let these words of sanctity ascend to you for you are our god and sovereign [Music] oh [Music] see [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen [Music] this [Music] is is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sir [Music] me [Music] sing with us [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] me [Music] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] m let's go [Music] [Applause] gratitude in our ever changing lives takes real work we must not only see the broken parts of our world but we must also take time and care to acknowledge the parts that have been healed to see the cup as half empty and half full simultaneously and to be grateful that we even have a cup our tradition knows how hard this can be and so we have built-in moments to our liturgy that focus solely on that grateful acknowledgement to be grateful does not mean that we become naive or ignorant of the pain and suffering around us rather it teaches us that progress towards goodness and justice is indeed possible today we are indeed grateful for the many blessings around us and we pray for the day when those blessings the choicest of which is shalom become universal page 216 shalom [Music] i'm sorry dr litzky oh yeah why do pencils have erasers we're not used to being together again it's crazy it's like elephants in the room you know and it's one of my favorites page 210 modem we'll get to shalom [Music] again [Music] the [Music] for the sun that rises in the east for the seas that roar a prayer for the stillness of a snowfall for the breath of autumn air for the grasp within my fingers for a mind that makes me whole for the voice that god has given me to speak the truth [Music] i [Music] i [Music] for the laughter of the children for the way they greets the day with their endless stream of questions they remind us how to plan for the ones we call beloved who take away our fear they tell us without saying it remember i am here i remember [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] more deep [Music] the poet yuhur amichai wrote don't stop after beating the swords into plowshares don't stop go on beating and making musical instruments out of them whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into plowshares first shalom page 216. [Music] um [Music] know [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] we take these next few moments for the prayers not printed in our moxor but the prayers that we each find imprinted in our hearts in this moment of silent reflection hmm you're ready uh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] i [Music] my [Music] of my heart to you oh god [Music] [Laughter] [Music] hi [Music] leaves [Music] i [Music] we continue now on page 223 please rise we pray responsibly in the english almighty and merciful hear our voice we have strayed and sinned before you avenue you have compassion on us and our families halt the onslaught of sickness violence and hunger avenue kenu halt the reign of those who cause pain and terror avinu malcanu enter our names in the book of lives well lived renew for us a year of goodness almighty and merciful answer us with grace for our deeds save us through acts of justice and love [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] know [Music] oh oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] my gosh [Music] [Applause] [Music] know [Music] i [Music] [Music] um [Music] please be seated we continue our worship with cedar kriyat hathorah page 226 we are the people of the book through fire and mud and dust we have borne our scrolls tenderly as a baby swaddled in a blanket traveling with our words sown in our clothes and carried on our backs let us take up the scroll of torah this morning and dance with it and touch it and read it out loud for the mind touches the word and makes it light so does light enters us and we shine i invite you again to please rise and invite our torah chanter mark mayer to come forward again please rise [Music] and this rosh hashanah we have the opportunity to bless this moment to bless our gathering both here in the sanctuary and digitally online and so what i'd like to do as we begin to look at this passage from genesis on page 240. i invite you to place a finger there at 2 40 and to turn to page 230 and for those who wish to i invite you to rise and join together with me in the bracha the blessing for chanting of torah for those who wish i invite you to please rise and join together with me baruch [Music] [Music] m page 240 you may be seated [Music] a elohim [Music] we continue now on page 230 and again i invite those who wish to join me in the blessing after the reading of torah [Music] as the torah scroll is open before us we have the opportunity to call into our hearts and into our minds into our prayers friends and family members members of our community who are struggling with illness illness of body or illness of spirit it may even be we ourselves who are in need of such healing i invite you to be seated and as you are doing so to call into your hearts those who are in need of healing as we join together on page 245 page 245 misha barach our prayer for healing [Music] me [Music] may the source of strength who blessed the ones before us help us to make our lives a blessing and let us [Music] [Music] the renewal body the renewal of spirit and let us say [Music] let us say [Music] please rise as we lift and dress the torah page 277 [Music] it's [Music] is [Music] them please be seated we continue now with the shofar service we'll begin with a reading and then we'll hear from a member of our congregation by video we'll continue with our shofar service and through the miracle of technology uh michael kamen and alex sweet will be uh sounding the shofar digitally so we'll continue the prophet said cry aloud lift up your voice like a shofar this is the meaning of the verse see yourself as a shofar an instrument of the divine do not take pride in your virtue or the power of your deeds with every mitzvah you do every act of intellect goodness and love god's spirit breathes through you alex the past year has been very challenging as a father a husband and a member of the community fear from the pandemic political and worldwide upheaval and isolation from family and colleagues have resulted in stressful challenges arriving from all angles to say i am physically mentally and emotionally exhausted is an understatement as someone not overly religious i have always viewed rosh hashanah the jewish new year as a time to return to the beliefs and traditions that i was raised upon and that i do not always tend to during the year it is also a time for renewal of hope that the coming year will be better for my family than the last this year however i embrace the concepts of returning and renewal in a different light and with a greater sense of urgency i would like for nothing more than for our country facing innumerable and great challenges to collectively find ways to return and renew our commitment to the values of kindness and community in the song a long walk home bruce springsteen speaks of ideals walking around his hometown that we're now a stranger to him he queries who we are what what we do and what we won't i think those are questions our country collectively needs to ask itself and i hope we find the right answers in the coming year awake you sleepers from your sleep rouse yourselves from your slumber hear the rousing call to repentance with trumpet and the blast of the shofar raise a shout before the eternal the sovereign return to god by pursuing justice and right look to your souls improve your ways and your deeds listen well in silence and stillness is the voice of god there was a great and mighty wind splitting mountains and shattering rocks but god was not in the wind after the wind and earthquake but god was not in the earthquake after the earthquake fire but god was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice through worthy deeds bring near the day of unity and goodness a glimpse of perfection adonai shall reign over all the earth on that day god shall be won and god's name shall be won listen israel adonai is our god adonai is one [Music] foreign [Music] ah [Music] tequila [Music] tequila [Music] tokyo take here [Music] take here [Music] a messenger from another time a stranger here in our midst the shofar sounds remembrance remember where you go i am with you after the flood in the wake of destruction noah discovered the rainbow alone on a mountain a knife in his hand abraham heard the voice of compassion at the end of her strength afraid for her child hagar found a well in the wilderness remember wherever you go i am with you in sounding the horn we summoned them back memories of those who saw signs of your presence a rock gives forth water hope can blossom in the desert and when loving hands lighten our darkness you are there when we are caught in the thicket feel alone or forgotten the shofar sounds remembrance from the deep well of the past and the depths of our own despair the shofar sounds remembrance remember my presence goes with you and will lighten your burden [Music] [Music] here [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Applause] tequila [Music] goodness of the world to vote today we stand before the shofar to hear its voice of hope resilient and strong proclaiming freedom promising redemption in days to come a great shofar will be sounded and all will come to worship adonai to speak out and never grow weary to hold fast to the message of sinai to believe in a time when all life will be cherished to work for that day and to know it will come the blast of the horn sustains us in faith my god adonai shall blow the shofar and advance in a stormy tempest a mighty call that never stops there shofar resounds forever all you who live in the world and inhabit the earth when a flag is raised in the hills take note when the shofar is blown give heed uh [Music] tequila [Music] tokyo tequila [Music] tikki [Music] foreign [Music] please be seated the psalmist cried out in anguish i lift my eyes towards the mountains and ask from whence cometh my help more than ever i find myself asking with the psalmist that very question from where will my help come from where will our help come still deep amidst a global pandemic with news of floods fires bloodshed continuing gun violence it is all too easy to give in to complete despair we are living through trauma after trauma unrelenting and yet there is still so much goodness that cannot must not be overlooked in this darkness there is light if only we can open our eyes to it just a few weeks ago kathy and i celebrated the marriage of our oldest child jacob after a coveted delay of nearly 17 months it was a cherished moment of blessing and light as he and ilana stood surrounded by their siblings parents and grandparents weddings are happening children are being called to the torah as bar and batman babies are coming into the world and torah even this morning's passage brings the message of hope and the reminder that there can be healing and growth and then there was this olympic gold medal moment muttaz barcim and giancarmo tremboli these two high jumpers do you remember this do you remember this all through the high jump each of them was perfect they didn't miss a distance and then when it came to 2.39 meters it's really tall 2.0 each of them three attempts each of them three misses now barsheem talks about how he would never get recognized walking down the street but after that sunday morning after that event there were people stopping him all the time he recalled one woman coming up to him from in on the streets of tokyo and telling him i'm so happy for you you made me cry and this happened time and time again to both barsheen and giancarlo right time and time after time right you remember what happened right they both miss right and the judge comes over getting them ready to you know try again and barsheem asks the judge is it possible for us both to win and the judges kind of startled and he said well yes and before the judge could explain why barsheem looks at giancarlo jiren carla looks at barsheen and remember this leap right of pure joy giancarlo leaps into the arms of barsheem right what a moment right a moment not only of of sportsmanship yes absolutely but a moment of celebrating light and good celebrating gold that they get to share together it turns out that prior to this event the two of them were actually friends they they've known each other for 11 years since their first jumping in the junior olympics i did not know this and they would get together and they would have this friendly competition throughout the world doing the high jump but nobody heard about them until this past olympics and that sunday morning right who can forget right the look on their faces i watched these two men the intensity of competition the disappointment of failing to make that third attempt the resignation that they would need to re-energize clearing for another attempt and then that immense joy of discovering that there was another another way another path and then that wild exuberant embrace as tambari leaped into barsheem's arms inshallah baruch hashem thank god a sacred moment of divine light as each of these men became god's messenger for the other angels walking together with angels we walk out of the darkness and toward the light me in yavo esri from whence cometh our help our help comes from one another when we take on the divine mission to bring hope and blessing healing into our world many of you know that the hebrew word that we translate as angel malach is actually better translated as messenger in the heartbreaking story of the binding of isaac that we just read that mark just chanted so beautifully a few moments ago it is a malach adonai one of god's messengers that saves abraham from slaughtering his son rescues isaac from the dagger that is about to pierce his chest who was this messenger this malach adonai whose voice called out to them what compelled them to listen for abraham to open his eyes and see something he did not could not see before the ram caught in the thicket to offer as the sacrifice right the answer comes at the end of this story when we read that abraham yeshov el ni'arav that abraham returned to his boys and they walked together who were these boys with whom abraham walked together angels messengers in my mind in my midrash one of the boys was isaac and the boy that joined them was ishmael abraham's firstborn son earlier and in the torah reading for this day and many other congregations ishmael and his mother hagar were sent out into the desert banished from abraham and sarah's tent out of sarah's fear that ishmael would be the favored son and not her son isaac in the wilderness hagar despairs of surviving and consigns herself to the fact that she and ishmael will perish there but then a malach adonai an angel a messenger of god points her to a spring of water that saves their lives one that she could not did not see before that angel that divine messenger was isaac himself despite the anger and strife that surrounded them and perhaps even because of their shared trauma isaac and ishmael experienced in growing up they were able to intervene at just the right moment and quite literally save each other's lives isaac opened hagar's eyes to the spring of water she could not see and ishmael opened abraham's eyes to the ram he could not see isaac and ishmael walk together with their families and with us this is what angels messengers of god can do to help us see that to which we were previously blind to open our eyes to hope to ways that we can move from darkness to light from despair to hope from pain to healing and ultimately to growth with this new life life renewed each brother isaac and ishmael was able to heal and grow and thrive later on we will read that they once again come together upon the death of their father abraham to support one another in their loss and do one last act of kimilut khasadim a last act of loving kindness that we can do for another they bury him isaac and ishmael transcend the despair and trauma through a hebrew word that is often understood as compassion but it's something even more profound the root raham expresses a continuous embodied affection the singular noun designates the womb the plural rakhamim when used about human beings regardless of gender refers to the physical organs where attachment and affection are felt especially in a family context especially in a communal context do you remember when joseph sees his younger brother for the first time how he's completely overcome here's what it says and joseph hurried because his inner parts were burning for his brother benjamin and he sought where to cry in that heartbreaking story that we read about in the book of kings of two women coming forward with a single infant each claiming that the infant is theirs and solomon says will split the infant into two well the woman whose son was alive said to the king said to solomon because her inner part burned for her son o my lord o king solomon give her the living child certainly do not kill him here rachamim designates the place in the body where familial communal affection is felt the word evokes the womb and a mother's intense love for her children and what explains joseph's tears and the mother's request is their fervent love depicted as both a physical sensation and a feeling despair and hopelessness are very human very natural responses to the trauma of the now in torah even god sometimes despaired of humanity and when god despaired of us it was our ancestors job to push back and remind god of reasons to hope for humanity's future this is part of why we live and learn in community to help each other find hope when our hearts despair to be that angel with whom we can walk together to heal and to grow to allow rakhamim to be fully expressed in how we relate to our neighbors as well as our family members to our community as well as to the world our task is to see the traumas of this moment clearly and to cultivate the ability to look beyond our own despair for that to help and heal others rosh hashanah opens the door to new beginnings even when or especially when we can't see our own way back to hope for change we must be like those biblical angels isaac and ishmael for each other helping each other see the hope that we cannot find alone to walk together with angels and as angels be messengers of hope healing and love foreign as messengers of hope we have the opportunity to remember together that not only is it possible to bring repair into the world it is our responsibility to do just that the taken please rise let the time not be distant o god when all shall turn to you in love when evil shall not take the place of goodness when fear shall not enslave the mind [Music] together [Music] we must all work together cause we are all the children of adonai when all beings who are created in your image become one in spirit and in friendship in the joy of belonging to your service then shall your realm be established on earth [Music] [Applause] we must all work together cause we are all the children [Music] we can heal the world [Music] [Music] we must all work together cause we are all the children [Music] i [Music] [Music] you remain standing as our thoughts turn to those loved ones whom death has recently taken from us and those who died of the season in years past our hearts open as well to the wider circle of loss in our community and wherever grief touches the human family the memory of the righteous is always for a blessing together as one family we turn together to page 292 for kadish yatom it's [Music] is [Music] r [Music] may the source of peace bring peace to all who mourn in comfort to all who are briefed among us and together let us say amen please be seated a few very brief announcements before we bring our worship to a close this morning our worship will continue through live stream and in person there's a family service that will begin at noon in the tent for those who wish to participate in tashlich we'll be meeting outside the doors at hap road about 1 1 15ish whenever that services comp worship is completed in the tent we'll take the short walk those of you who are here are welcome to join us those of you who are on the live stream are also welcome to join us uh tomorrow we will uh and this afternoon at 1 30 we also have our inclusion worship um that's accessible on our youtube channel uh at 1 30 that will go live as well tomorrow we will meet at the baha'i gardens at 10 o'clock for our second day of rosh hashanah worship all are invited to come to that as well okay so when we're done here please leave your moxor on your seats and for everyone's health and safety please exit the doors that are closest to you we have two doors that go out into the north parking lot this door here that will go to the hap road doors as you leave if you haven't already taken a bag for food for the collection for the ark the big white box in the south parking lot is where we're collecting the food i think that's it this day give us strength page 294 please rise and remain standing for our closing blessing and we invite you to sing along if it were normal times i would be going out in the midst of you but since you can just imagine me there now so sing along on these almonds here we go [Music] me [Music] i [Music] me [Music] this day oh god strengthen us with your ham your abiding love to connect with that same divine quality you have implanted within our souls so that we with with abiding love can walk together with and with one another through the darkness into light and hope as your messengers to one another shanna [Music] okay one down one and a half to go you

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Length: 104min 40sec (6280 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021