Yom Kippur Early Morning Service 5782 2021

[Music] do [Music] [Music] yes [Music] i [Music] i [Music] [Music] i [Music] i [Music] it's hard not to smile when i see all of you and uh because you're here and it's great to have so many folks here it's also great that hundreds of families are joining us online as well at this very moment and it's okay to smile on this day that that's important in our ritual calendar today is to be the most joyful day of the year actually it's a year of renew it's a day of renewal in our tradition it was the day on which the second tablets were given so don't be afraid to smile it might get harder to smile as the day goes on but in these moments in the sunlight and in this place it's okay to smile speaking of sunlight if throughout this day you are ever uncomfortable the sun is going to shift you can shift too pick up your chairs even move into the shade whatever is best for you you should do we want you to be comfortable in the course of this day i also want to clarify one thing everything is fine with our canter our cancer right now is down well soon we'll be leading a service at mitchell park for our families that begins at 10 o'clock she'll be back with us in for the late service but we are very lucky to have of course our rabbi rabbi weissman leading us in her own right on this morning i'm also thrilled of course to be here with heath watermaker and we're we're so excited to be together with you if you do not have a our moxora in your home you might want to go to our website and connect to the link to the flipbook because we're going to need these throughout the day this is our guide for our trek that begins right now with the singing of mottovu on page 138 [Music] [Music] is [Music] everything [Music] israel [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on this day when we are especially conscious of our mortality we should celebrate our wonder the wonder and the joy of being alive and we do so on through the singing of psalm 150 on page 170. oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] true [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] please rise if you are able for our call to prayer the baraku on page 178 [Music] [Music] [Laughter] oh [Music] join with me on page 181 in the middle of the page like an unbroken current energy streams from the source bathing the planet in light calling forth life movement mind unfolding from matter the power to love and we offer it back to you our own creative energy ever dreaming building shaping patterns out of chaos searching out light in the darkness creation never ceases not for an instance all life is a glow with your light all things draw sustenance from the source page 186. [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] please be seated and we continue with the via hovta on page 188 [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] we think of redemption page 196. [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] the fila begins on page 198 and let us lift up our voices and try and drown out whatever's going on down there all right join with us [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] r [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] hello [Music] [Applause] hello [Music] [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] ah [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] go [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh on page 208 return to the words of unatana together you can be seated [Music] oh oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] let us proclaim the power of this day a day whose holiness awakens deepest ah and inspires highest praise for your dominion for your throne is a throne of love your reign a reign of truth continue on page 212. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] let's read together at the bottom of page 212. on rosh hashanah this is written on the fast of yom kippur this is sealed how many will pass away from this world how many will be born into it who will live and who will die who will reach the ripeness of age who will be taken before their time who by fire and who by water who by war and who by beast who by famine and who by drought who by earthquake and who by plague who by strangling and who by stoning who will rest and who will wander who will be tranquil and who will be troubled who will be calm and who tormented who will live in poverty and who in prosperity who will be humbled and who exalted but through return to the right path through prayer and righteous giving we can transcend the harshness of the decree [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] continue on page 218. [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] before [Music] [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] invite you to continue now with your own private prayer you can use the words on the page through page 250 the words on your heart or just use this time to listen to the beautiful sounds of this campus once you've finished your own private prayer you can be seated so page 246. oh oh [Music] sleep [Music] [Music] give [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] is [Music] shalom [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we just prayed for peace that only god can provide and then there's the peace that an executive director can engender by speaking to our neighbors all these pieces are fragile piece is fragile so we'll see if this piece holds then your light will cleave like the dawn and your healing will spring up quickly i love these hopeful words from isaiah they are embroidered on my talit before preparing for these high holidays however i hadn't explored the word for healing in this verse arucha we are more accustomed to the word rifu or rifu a complete healing but aruha is unusual it appears only six times in the bible metaphorically aruha refers to the new flesh that grows at the wounded spot it is the tender skin revealed when a scab falls off aruha also shares a root with the hebrew word for long or lengthy and this has been a long year of waiting for healing scabbed fragile fractured wounded we have gathered together on this day in person and online aziba kakashaka these words are from this morning's haftarah isaiah's critique of the yom kippur practices of his time it includes this well-known admonishment is sech the fast i desire a day for men to starve their bodies and for lying in sackcloth and ashes do you call that a fast no this is the fast i desire to unlock the bonds of wickedness to set free those who have been crushed it is to share your bread with the hungry and to take the wretched poor into your home when you see the naked to clothe them and not to ignore your own kin then like the dawn your light will cleave and your healing will spring up quickly then when you call god will answer god will cry hineny here i am and here we are it is so good to see you and to know that so many others who could not risk being here with us are online back on friday night july 2nd which feels like a very distant memory i thought we'd be seeing so much more of each other perhaps you were here on that beautiful evening for the first time since march 2020 we had reopened our campus for kabbalah shabbat and we began to reopen ourselves to one another believing we had emerged from the darkness of this pandemic we recited beer qatar go male the blessing for having passed through danger but now once again it is risky to enter this sanctuary to come together in our synagogue according to the mishnah seven days before he entered his synagogue on yom kippur the high priest was placed in a type of quarantine he was separated from his family and brought from his house to a room in the temple designated specifically for him the night before yom kippur last night the high priest was kept occupied to prevent him from sleeping or sow the mishnah states if he was a scholar he would teach torah if he was not a scholar torah scholars would teach torah to him during that long night of study the high priest was reminded that the torah reveals its wisdom through binary pairings that communicate in encompassing totality heaven and earth god and human curse and blessing usually when you don't understand one concept in the torah you just need to read more to read further until you encounter the first ideas pair it's clarifying compliment a second concept serving to define the first while the first does the same for the second according to genesis the whole world was in disorder tohu vivoho tumult but then god came along and made separations god made pears water land night day separate but bound entities that together comprise a deep coherent structure judged as good and very good this is a priestly world view the priests had this thing about pears kosher tref pure impure sin atonement throughout the week when he was separated from his family the high priest would have boned up on this expiation ritual for yom kippur a pair of goats one was consecrated to god sacrificed on the altar it's basar its flesh consumed by the priests and one was made the scapegoat upon which the high priest will lay the transgressions of the people and set it free to wander in the wilderness to see the world view of the priestly writers of the torah is to see much not all but much of our world and so much of ourselves it is to see to the coherence of the 10-day period that we are concluding today and our purpose in gathering here and online for in this totality ritual is the binary pair of story one the clarifying compliment for the other if we can better understand our stories then we can better understand who and where we are and what precisely we are doing here on this day here's a one verse story it says in the book of genesis an individual leaves his parents and cleaves to another one does not become one with another one cleaves to another the verse continues and they become it's not one flesh as it is often translated basar doesn't mean flesh in this instance here basar likely means kin or better relationship the vasar echad the two become one relationship in this conception two separate entities two individuals cannot become one instead they can become bind themselves together cleave to one another be the clarifying complement for the other in judaism relationships reveal wisdom through binary pairings that communicate in encompassing totality without injustice there's no justice no sanctity without mundanity no shabbat without the other six days there's you and there's me there's me and there's you and we need each other in order to fully comprehend who each of us is when the light of dawn cleaved the darkness on the morning of yom kippur the high priest knew it was going to be the most exhausting most dangerous day of his year it is a day for communal recalibrations and for new beginnings he will lead rituals and make offerings designed to ensure for another year the continual outflow of kedusha of holiness from the epicenter of his community the temple and he will enter its core the holy of holies a room designated specifically for god its entrance screened off and obscured by incense it's a small space god's abode on earth into which the high priest and only the high priest would enter just once a year on yom kippur to atone for his people and to pray for their welfare in the new year the holy of holies was a dangerous place to enter to safeguard himself and to prevent impurities from contaminating the temple's most sacred precinct he will wear his personal protective equipment a layer of white linen and over that the golden garments of the high priest he dresses in the garments and a rope is then attached to his ankle so that should he die in the holy of holies he could be pulled out after he sanctifies his hands and his feet with hope and fear the high priest delicately moves aside the curtain that screened off the holy of holies to see if god was there and then he carefully goes in to draw as close to god as humanly possible ten days ago we read a story about making offerings and drawing closer to god in this way the akedah is a spoiler the binding of isaac binds together rosh hashanah and yom kippur because what we read last week we enact ritualistically today after these things the story begins god tested abraham realize that the language of nisa is different from the language of mitzvah testing is not a command it is not commanding testing is testing you can walk away from a test yes this is the story of a father willingly offering up his beloved son for sacrifice and yes it does seem that they sacrifice children in ancient israel child sacrifice the akedah is partially about that mostly though the binding of isaac is a story about choice and risk relationships and blessing for abraham the story presents a moment of choice and ultimate commitment commitment means to give something up to say no as you are saying yes we all know that we know too that commitment entails risk and i need to say a word now about sacrifice so we can understand better what we are doing together on this day to understand that you need to know this in the sacrificial system the offering a ram a goat is a representation of the offer when the priests arranged the parts of an animal on an altar they placed them in a pyramidal mound with the animal's procreative organs and its intestines at the summit the bible locates the emotions and intellect in the innermost parts of a body thinking happens in the heart compassion according to the bible resides in the bowels now we know as moderns that we think with our brains but like our biblical ancestors we know too that we also make decisions in our guts so the animals innards exposed at the top of the sacrificial mound represent the innermost part of a person their life force their fears thoughts and aspirations the akedah is a truly dramatic story because commitment and risk are taken to an extreme when abraham offers up in biblical terms the fruit of his loins his child who as with our children represents his most closely held aspirations and fears it is a truly dramatic story but sometimes what we read is a traumatic story and in our important sensitivity for the feelings of the characters the outcome of the story becomes obscured abraham offers everything yet he loses nothing he loses nothing and gains so much by choosing to not walk away from risking commitment abraham secures a blessing for him and for his progeny risk intertwined with reward that's what covenant is the binding of isaac takes place in a particular location after sacrificing a ram instead of his son the story states abraham named that place adonai yerah from which comes the present saying on the mount of god where god is seen scholarship reveals that adonai yura is another name for yerushalayim jerusalem the story of the binding of isaac therefore is set in jerusalem on the temple mount har adonai god's mountain even more precisely it takes place where the holy of holies would be built the place where god is seen the akedah then is part backstory explaining why jerusalem why was the temple built there how did that place become the central location in jewish history and myth there's a midrash that clarifies this scholarship it reads the land of israel is at the center of the world and jerusalem at the center of the land of israel the temple at the center of jerusalem and the holy of holies at the center of the temple the ark is at the center of the holy of holies and the foundation stone from which emerged the entire world is in front of the holy of holies the midrash suggests that the binding of isaac occurred at the mythic epicenter of the world the binding point of everything where creation began where god and humans meet in the holy of holies that's where abraham made his offering the midrash also elucidates further the priestly view of the world for them the temple and the world existed in an intimate and intrinsic relationship the two projects could not be disengaged professor john levinson wrote that about ancient understandings of the temple but that's what i'd say about betham and about our world too what happens here within our congregation is intrinsically linked to what happens beyond it our temple and our world a binary pairing one the clarifying compliment for the other rebbe nachmann of bratzlav used to say everywhere i go i go to jerusalem metaphorically today we get to go to jerusalem our synagogue like all synagogues on this day representative of the temple that once stood in jerusalem and this outdoor chapel today it is our holy of holies the binding point of hope and fear our past and our future of risk and reward of who we are and who we want to be in our jewish world everyone can enter the holy of holies the place where god may be seen our power here equivalent each of our voices equivalent on this day and seeking blessing for ourselves and for our community we all have equal access to the divine and more than on any other yom kippur in our lifetimes enter our entering our holy of holies on this day entails risk for those of us who are able to be here and for those who are not here with us our experience quietly reverberates with the trepidation and the hope conveyed by the stories of abraham and of the high priest entering the holy of holies in his temple for them god was an external reality the one who gives life and the one who takes it away for me and i imagine for many of us divinity is discovered within sanctity revealed through our human relationships through being in each other's presence whereas the high priest on his ppe to protect himself from god on this day to draw close to one another here in our holy of holies we wear our ppe to protect ourselves from ourselves and we don't need to look past our mass-covered noses to see a potent symbol of our capacity to harm and to heal and here we are in person and online we are together survivors of a year of tohu vivohu tumult wounded from this grinding pandemic made fragile from an historic spike in anti-semitism still scabbed from an insurrection in our capital from 20 years of a failed war we are scarred and we are here gathered together in a synagogue inextricably linked to the world although we have done a very good job preventing covid19 from spreading in the midst of our community other societal ills have penetrated to the core of this house of the people our relationships further attenuated by the polarization and misinformation that has cleaved america and like incense in jerusalem's temple obscure our vision of one another making it difficult to comprehend who each of us is but today is for recalibrations and new beginnings a sacred occasion to re-covenant with one another and with god to cleave ourselves from the mistakes of the past year and to cleave to one another and in a few moments we will read a haftarah that critiques our power to harm and encourages us to harness our god-like capacity to heal to bring order to the tohu vivohu in our world these hopeful words of isaiah are the conclusion of a conditional if then statement this is isaiah's then to these well-known ifs if you unlock the bonds of wickedness if you share your bread with the hungry if you house the homeless and clothe the naked and clothed the naked but there is one more if leading to isaiah's then and it took the experience of a pandemic it took more than a year of not fully being able to see so many of you in your entireties in your three dimensions and for you to not fully see me in mine it took a recognition of abrasions that i may have caused to any of you during my first year as your senior rabbi it took all of that and the need to write this sermon to clearly see for the first time the ultimate if the three-word statement that immediately precedes the then embroidered on my talit three words do not hide from your basar as in the one verse story from genesis that i told you at the beginning of this sermon the word basar does not mean flesh here either it means kin or better relationship do not hide from or ignore our relationships for we need each other in order to fully comprehend and to discover who we are both as individuals and as a community in our tradition our sacred stories are the clarifying compliments to our rituals ten days ago we read a story of risk sacrifice and blessing the word for sacrifice in hebrew is korbon which doesn't actually mean to give something up korban means to draw close to make an offering that draws you closer to god and god closer to you when abraham stood where the holy of holies would be built he drew closer to god by wordlessly offering upon an altar a representation of his greatest aspirations and his fears after he offered up a goat on the altar in the temple and sent off into the wilderness the scapegoat the high priest entered the holy of holies and risked drawing closer to god in order to speak words seeking expiation and blessing for his people and as we have gathered together online and in person in our holy of holies how may we as a community draw closer to god on this day of new beginnings isaiah tells us we start with our kin with our relationships and risk drawing closer to one another through expressions of our vulnerability we speak aloud to one another our fears our transgressions we draw closer to each other through our heartfelt offerings of words we risk on this day the articulation of our aspirations so these are my aspirations for us as we enter this new year they are words that i first shared in writing to you as i began my tenure last summer but after these many months of waiting for healing of yearning for an end to this present darkness they seem ever more vital may we as a synagogue community ever aspiring to sanctity strive to do better to do more let us channel our learning and our abundant resources into a stream of justice a mighty river of compassion and righteous action that sweeps away dams of racism and bigotry and engenders in the bay area a restorative floodplain of shared prosperity and of equal opportunity and when we do that then our light will cleave like the dawn and our healing will spring up quickly then when we call god will answer god will say he nani i am here do [Music] do [Music] we turn now to page 253 and rise for avinu malcano [Music] um [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] is is [Music] [Music] is oh [Applause] oh [Music] mighty and merciful answer us with grace for our deeds our wanting save us through acts of justice and love page 256. [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] know [Music] [Laughter] [Music] him [Music] we're in the middle of page 256. [Music] i don't i don't know [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] me [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Applause] our torah reading can be found on page 266 these stirring words from deuteronomy and our first torah chanter is charlie schwartz and for the honor of the first aliyah we'd like to invite up our shabbat greeters and our high holiday ushers extraordinaire yeah i'm ready saturday [Music] oh [Music] [Music] israel [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] thank you so much you all can be seated our second torah chanter is lisa whitmore and for this honor of the second aliyah we'd like to invite up our teen leaders i think we're going to expand it to anyone who has teen in their age if you are a teen we'd like to invite you up starting in first whatever you want to do i do want to point out that uh if you are a teenager if you know teens in your lives this is jacob siegel he's our current baddie president um so he's a good person to talk to all right ready guys [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] um [Music] thank you all so much our third torah chanter is lev miller come on up and for the honor of the third aliyah we would love to invite any health care professionals who are here today you have literally saved our lives this past year and a half and we would love to honor you so don't be shy if you work in health care please come forward for the aliyah yeah [Music] sheet you're starting and we're also going to skip ahead a little bit to chapter 30 verse 15 which is at the very bottom of page 267 if you're following along let's find it thank you okay [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] top [Music] thank you so much in the presence of the torah a source of life and strength for our people we offer a misha bera a prayer for healing you can find the words on page 273 and before we begin if you'd like to share the name of anyone that you are praying for today please do [Music] oh [Music] [Music] may the source of strength will bless the ones before us help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing and let us [Music] the [Music] and [Music] like to invite up our magbija and our golett this morning alita longwell and leslie mervite to lift and dress the torah we're on page 274 and as the tour is lifted please rise is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] i [Music] my [Music] i'd like to invite up our after our chanter this morning lisa rauschwerker excuse me and um if you'd like to follow along um the blessings and hofstra begin on 275. [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] on [Music] a [Music] [Music] israel [Music] make room for someone else let's turn to page 286. please join with me in the prayer for our country god of holiness we hear your message justice justice you shall pursue god of freedom we hear your charge proclaim liberty throughout the land inspire us through your teachings and commandments to love and uphold our precious democracy let every citizen take responsibility for the rights and freedoms we cherish let each of us be an advocate for justice an activist for liberty a defender of dignity and let us champion the values that make our nation a haven for the persecuted a beacon of hope among the nations may our actions reflect compassion for all people within our borders and abroad may our leaders and officials embody the vision of our founders to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity we pray for courage and conscience as we aim to support our country's highest values and aspirations the hard-won rights that define us as a people the responsibilities that they entail we pray for all who serve our country with selfless devotion in peace and in war from fields of battle to clinics and classrooms from government to the grassroots all those whose noble deeds and sacrifice benefit our nation and our world we are grateful for the rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that our founders ascribe to you our creator we pray for their wisdom and moral strength that we may be guardians of these rights for ourselves and for the sake of all people now and forever we turn the page and offer a prayer for the state of israel avinu please join with me you are high above all nations states and peoples rock of israel the one who has saved us and preserved us in life bless the state of israel first flowering of our redemption be her loving shield a shelter of lasting peace guide her leaders and advisers by your light of truth instruct them with your good counsel strengthen the hands of those who build and protect our holy land deliver them from danger crown their efforts with success grant peace to the land lasting joy to all of her people and together we say amen we turn to page 291 and rise as we return the torah to the ark [Music] me [Music] if [Music] [Music] is [Music] we remain standing as we enter the v dewey short confession on page 296. [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] me [Music] i don't know [Music] i [Music] [Music] oh sorry [Music] let's read together in the middle of the page our god and god of all generations may our prayers reach your presence and when we turn to you do not be indifferent adonai we are arrogant and stubborn claiming to be blameless and free of sin in truth we have stumbled and strayed we have done wrong [Applause] [Music] [Music] new [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yes [Music] new [Music] sarah [Music] i died [Music] foreign [Music] new [Music] [Music] [Music] in your world by hardening our hearts through greed and exploitation and harm we have caused in your world through dishonesty in business the ways we have wronged you through our innermost thoughts and harm we have caused in your world through gossip and rumors hashem the ways we have wronged you by offering or accepting bribes and harm we have caused in your world by profaning your name in public [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh we take some time now on pages 308 and 309 for our own personal kashmir our own silent reflection and confession [Music] page 306. [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] page 310 we are your people and you are our god please be seated [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] r [Music] as we reach the end of our service this morning a reminder that our afternoon service will begin at four o'clock which will include yisker probably somewhere around five o'clock and naila probably around six o'clock our afternoon study sessions we'll have two different rounds two different sessions the first from 1 30 to 2 30 and the second from 2 45 to 3 45 music and meditation will be here in the outdoor chapel at 2 45. you can find a complete list of all of our study sessions on our website at betham.org event slash hhd2021 dash yk study look for the high holiday section you'll find it a reminder that there will be two in-person sessions here at beth am along with a number of other study sessions uh that you can access via zoom and all of those links are on the website as well [Music] my [Music] i [Music] it's home call everyone if you're fasting and easy and meaningful fast if you are not may your souls be uplifted on this day of reflection and prayer either way we'll see you this afternoon have a good day [Music] you

Channel: Congregation Beth Am of Los Altos Hills, CA

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Length: 119min 30sec (7170 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021