Yom Kippur - Yizkor/Ne'ilah - Thursday, September 16, 2021

[Music] so [Music] so do may these final moments of yiskar and nila help us to be sealed for good in the book of life our yusker service begins on page 329 psalm 103 our service is designed to help us to remember to give us moments of contemplation thank you all of you who are gathered here in our sanctuary this evening and thank you all of you who are joining us online from all over the world we're grateful that you've chosen to spend this in some ways most sacred part of this most sacred day with us [Music] my [Music] my [Music] [Applause] is [Music] yakiri me [Music] they are [Applause] [Music] god [Music] yes [Music] my [Music] my [Music] is has [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you see [Music] okay [Music] page 331 we recall as individuals those whose lives were intertwined with ours in a personal bond we also remember as a community those whose lives were ended because they were jews together we turn to our experience of shared loss to the tragedies that have befallen our people throughout the centuries we recall the heroism of those who in the face of unprecedented and overwhelming force maintain jewish life and culture and asserted jewish values in the very midst of enslavement and degradation a hundred generations of victims in martyr's blood still cries out from the earth they lie at rest in nameless graves in myriad towns and villages in pharah forests and abandoned fields that are now lost to the eyes of a very family we will remember them as we would remember our own sisters and brothers their cruel suffering is sealed in our memory a wound that does not heal we will never forget the burning of synagogues and houses of study the destruction of holy books and scrolls of torah the sadistic torment and murder of scholars sages and teachers we recall our brothers and sisters the warsaw ghetto and another hellish places who valiantly rose up and defied the monstrous adversaries we remember with pride honor and love those who lived in fear and second-class citizenship and those who perished in the lands of north africa spain the middle east and asia minor at the hands of those bent on the destruction of our people we remember the jews who suffered at the hands of their neighbors who sought to force their conversion and murder them for their resistance but the massacre suffered in persia babylonia iraq yemen the holy land and africa we remember those martyrs for their devotion to our faith and in spain a land in which we witness some of the greatest achievements of jewish creativity the period of the inquisition silenced the voices of much of sparty jewry their spirit and their faith have ennobled our people without them we would not be the wise community of inclusivity that we are today beloved ancestors had we lived with you in damascus and baghdad in toledo and jerusalem in paris and pittsburgh we will not forget you the jews who have been martyred in every land you have left your lives to us let a million prayers rise whenever jews worship let a million candles glow against the darkness of your unfinished lives no just put your head underneath so [Music] ah [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is roy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] me [Music] r [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] page 341 as the land grows still the red eye of the sky slowly dimming over smoking frontiers as the nation arises torn at heart but breathing to receive its miracle the only miracle as the ceremony draws near it will rise standing erect in the moonlight in terror and joy when across from it will step out a girl and a boy who will slowly march toward the nation dressed in battle gear dirty shoes heavy with grime they ascend the path quietly to change garb or to wipe their brow they have not yet found time still bone weary from days and from nights in the field full of endless fatigue and unrested yet the dew of their youth is still seen on their head thus they stand at attention giving no sign of life or death then a nation in tears and amazement will ask who are you and they will answer quietly we are the silver platter on which the jewish state was given thus they will speak and fall back in shadows and the rest will be told in the chronicles of israel page 342 please rise for a year's core in honor of members of the israel defense forces is is on page 344. [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] is [Music] okay page 347 we recall the pillars of our congregation who but yesterday shared in the tasks of the community in remembrance we offer a tribute of respect and affection to those whose self-sacrificing devotion contributed to the growth and strength of our synagogue and to the well-being of our community and the whole household of israel we remember our congregation's founding rabbi isaiah zeldin and his wife and life partner florence our community's namesake rabbi stephen wise our founding generation and those who followed who have made our wise community possible in this hallowed hour which bears the remembrance of all our loved ones we recall their precious lives and memories many links have been broken in the chain of affection that binds us together as a congregation as a family yet the bonds of love remain merciful god we thank you that in the hour of bereavement you sustain and comfort us though sorrow lingers in our memory we know that love is as strong as death and that a good name is mightier than the grave our loved ones have gone to their eternal rest but the best and purest parts of their lives is enshrined within our hearts you'll find psalm 16 on page 348. the following is a new piece commissioned by the sonnenberg family as an addition to our use core liturgy here at stephen wise it was written by our very own maestro david cates in consultation with the family and me it is written in memory of bradley sonnenberg who was a vibrant young man who performed jewish music and musical theater here and at d toledo high school he passed away in his early 20s many of us recall similar tragic losses it's our hope that this melody will resonate with all of those remembering loved ones and the legacy that they leave this is a peace a celebration truly of love of music and of memory shivty to you whom i love [Music] oh [Music] [Music] now gone too soon [Music] you give new meaning to all that i've become in everywhere i go and all that i do i bring your spirit and you light my way i don't know [Music] brings light to [Music] [Music] i [Music] your life inspires me your words still fill my mind your song a gift to everyone [Music] now i understand [Music] a gift once given shines its light forever more she [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] [Music] towards the bottom of page 350 please this solemn hour stirs within us tender memories as we recall those who were so dear to us in life we remember the joys and comforts they brought us the love and devotion they lavished upon us the lofty teachings they strove to impart to us and the hardships they endured for us no matter how challenging or complex these relationships might have been we remember our loved ones with respect and gratitude and even though months and years have passed since they departed this life we feel that they are near us and with us their memories forever in our hearts may we always remain true to their trust loyal to their precepts and faithful to the heritage they bequeath to us [Music] hmm um [Music] we remember we remember [Music] we remember we remembered [Music] so long as well [Music] um [Music] and to remember we remember we as a child i was always a little bit of a yom kippur voyeur so he's a little scandalized by some of the grown up words in the moxor and i'd find myself scanning the room wondering who was confessing to what and catching the eyes of friends who were doing just the same and without fail there would be my dad nudging me i think jokingly when we confessed to the sin of not honoring our parents and our teachers but the real voyeurism was in the teen lounge or later the hallways where those of us who were told we were lucky were sent by superstitious parents for the yizzker service on the outside looking in we wondered what happened in that mysterious room with all of the grown-ups years later of course i found out leading congregations through the words and the music and the tears i stood again an outsider knowing the stories and the memories the people who filled the room even or especially in their absence i could look out and know who was missing their mother who their beloved uncle who a child they never knew who their husband but i didn't really know turns out that that room was not mysterious at all it was it is a room full of people who loved and were loved it was a room full of people who would probably give anything not to be there it was also a room full of people who desperately needed to be there so 15 years or so after i led my first iscar and certainly more years than that that i looked in i'm standing here for my first public yisker it has been eight months since my father died and i would give anything not to be here and yet i desperately need to be here i want to acknowledge the strangeness of this year of ysgr for all of us we are coming up on two years of never-ending loss i read that one in 500 americans have lost their lives to covet 19. this could perhaps be a moment for a communal yisker and maybe one day soon we'll have that but that's not why i'm here and i don't think it's why you're here i am here and you are here because we loved and were loved there's a teaching to which i kept coming back as i imagined standing here today this year it's a teaching about entering the holy temple in jerusalem fitting for yom kippur it is also a teaching about vulnerability about naming our pain and about empathy everyone the sages teach would walk clockwise around the path to enter the holy temple except these these are the ones who must go around to the left the mourner an excommunicated person one who has a sick person in their home and one who has lost an object precious to them the talmud understands intrinsically that these are all situations of differing severity to be sure in which we are off kilter our normal rhythms are thrown off and we're not sure in some ways who or where we are we're no longer walking the path that we thought we were and like so many of our rituals of mourning this text describes this outward manifestation of our inner experience this is what it means to be vulnerable our tech says to walk in the world where others can see your pain but the teaching continues it's not only about our pain when asked why do you go around to the left you must answer because i am a mourner and they are to reply may the one who dwells in this house comfort you we want and we need our grief to be seen the realities of mourning and of life mean that we need to move forward if not onward we go back to work to friends to life we walk through this world as if we were the same as we were before none of us really wears a badge that says i love and was loved none of us wears a badge declaring i have had a loss but sometimes i think it would help but yeast core these moments they give us that chance they give us the chance to say i love and i was loved and looking around the room they give us the chance to be acknowledged each of us says to the other may the one who dwells in this house comfort you none of us want to be here we want to be the ones walking clockwise and offering condolence and yet we all need to be here because here is where we remember here is where we connect here is where we name not only our grief but our love here we are again a daughter a father a partner a friend here is a place that not only holds our grief but welcomes it here is a place that can transform that grief back into love a place in her best-selling memoir eat pray love elizabeth gilbert tells of learning italian and teaching her boyfriend common phrases in english as she describes we were talking the other evening about the freezes one uses when trying to comfort someone who's in distress i told him that in english we sometimes say i've been there this was unclear to him at first i've been where but i explained that deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location a coordinate on a map of time when you're standing in that forest of sorrow you cannot imagine that you would ever find your way to a better place but if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place sometimes this will bring hope so sadness is a place giovanni asked sometimes people lived there for years i said our tradition too names sadness as a place at funerals at shiva minyanim and iscore we recite the words of psalm 23 yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death for us too sadness is a place everyone in the world can see that valley and everyone in the world can be an onlooker offering comfort from afar but those of us who've already been there who are maybe still there we know it's not the same the view is different from down here so take a moment to look around you'll see certainly the faces of others who are walking this path you'll see people here for the first time and people who cannot believe how long it has been but what else can you see in this room maybe you can see words left unsaid my last memory of my grandmother is of her lighting candles at my son's bris and the last words i said to my father though i didn't know it were that i loved him and that we'd see him on the other side we meant of surgery but i like to think that maybe it carried him but maybe there is in your life in the words of simon and garfunkel one of my dad's favorites a dangling conversation maybe there's an apology you never gave a story you never told or a last i love you they never heard maybe in this room you see those memories left unmade my father won't see my daughter stand up here and graduate from preschool this year let alone the rest of life's milestones so maybe you're here for the isle he'll never walk or the child you never met that cruise you never took with her share with them the milestones they've missed and share with them the hopes you still have for the future or maybe in this space you see moments that you miss every day you see the text you started to send or the video you started to share or the time you wanted to call i see the sound of my dad's voice saying hey kid when i walk in the door so for the sound of your best friend's laughter or the feel of your wife's hand for the millions of everyday moments the silly stories or infuriating articles tell them now i do not want to be here but also i desperately need to be here we all do to see to feel to hear to remember that we loved and were loved that we still are so return to the place return to the valley return to the memories return to the love and may each of us be comforted by the one who dwells in this place i'll invite you now it's customary to rise as we turn to the silent words of yeast core on page 358 and 359. [Music] so so so page 360 our words of sacred memory [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] me a [Music] can be found on page 362 and 363 in the ashkenazi tradition and immediately following in nusa farada mizrah choose whichever one you want they say the same thing essentially giving thanks and praise to god for the gift of life itself it's amen may the one who makes peace in the high places make peace for us for all israel for all humanity we say amen may be seated we continue with le dor vador on page 368 it's a reminder that the chain of tradition [Music] is one that stretches back to abraham and sarah to this present moment we think of all of our ancestors especially those we knew personally those links in the chain that give meaning to our lives and that enable us to move forward meet door ledore from generation to generation [Music] we are gifts and we are blessings we are history in song we are hope and we are healing we are learning to be strong we are words and we are stories we are pictures of the past we are carriers the first and not the last [Music] [Applause] [Music] these lips will praise [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] these lips will praise your name [Music] our neil service continues on page 375. there's a custom that in anticipation really of making it through this day and getting to the other side we stand so i'm going to invite you to do that in a moment but i want to also invite you to sit down whenever you need to there's no shame in having to sit down if you're able please rise we'll remain standing through the entire nila service as you are able please join me responsively now we stand gates beginning to close evening beginning to fall we stand open before you our stomachs empty but souls full of prayer and hope in these waning moments of yom kippur we stand together looking ahead into our new possibilities [Music] as stars rise in the clear sky above may the first tender steps of a committed thoughtful life ascend with them may we be awakened to the brightest possibilities that life can offer us that we might shine as radiantly among the cosmos as this moon that will soon glow in the night sky as this night descends may we strengthened and renewed arise [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] god [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're going to honor emily and rick corletto as our virtual arc openers as we open the arc for the continuation of niela [Music] i [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we continue on page 377 with el nora ali la beautiful pute and the energy and the music helps build the excitement of what it is to get there cantor you're feeling it aren't you i'm feeling it too el no ra a lila [Music] m [Applause] [Music] is [Music] may it be pleasing in your [Music] oh [Music] um [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we gather in this awesome place to ask you for your precious gift of grace we turn to you we offer archuva in this [Music] [Music] our peace and our sons make them like your holy righteous ones for joy we pray for laughter [Music] i [Music] is [Music] he [Music] is [Applause] do [Music] we continue now on page 379 within ila kaddish you'll hear a special melody that you'll only hear once a year at this time it's to make us wake up and say hey sinners transgressors all of us it's our last chance to say these sacred words before the gates close but let's also remember that the gates never really closed this is our forever home and we we feel so blessed to just be here with you tonight but let's pay extra special attention to these sounds now [Music] feed [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] know [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] r [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] ah [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] [Music] god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] age 389 forgive your neighbors the wrongs they have done to you and when you yourself ask for forgiveness your sins will be forgiven if i nurse anger against another can i ask pardon from god showing no pity for one like myself can i then plead for my own sins if i nourish resentment who will forgive my sins consider that life is short and cease to hate remember mortality in death and live by the commandments and the values of our faith don't let the sun dry one tear of pain before you yourself have wiped it from the sufferer's eye let each burning human teardrop into your heart do not brush it off until the pain that caused it is removed for transgressions against god the day of atonement atones but for transgressions of one human being against another the day of atonement does not atone until they have made peace with one another page page 390 read with me at the bottom of the page eternal god compassionate and gracious slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness extending kindness and wisdom preserver of kindness for thousands of generations forgiver of iniquity willful sin and error and the one who grants pardon page [Music] a [Music] new [Music] [Applause] me [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 392 we all have committed offenses together we confess the sins of arrogance bigotry and cynicism of deceit and egotism flattery and greed hatred injustice and jealousy some of us have kept grudges were lustful malicious or narrow-minded others were obstinate or possessive quarrelsome rancorous or selfish we have transgressed been unkind violent weak and xenophobic our sins are an alphabet of woe i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i [Music] [Music] i [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] in 97 the sun is setting the silence and peace of night descend upon the earth except our repentance which we offer to you in all sincerity give rest now author of peace to our troubled hearts lift up the spirit oppressed by guilt turn to your children turn to every broken heart and every burden sold we plead with you at this hour to be sure of your forgiveness our grumbling bellies remind us that the day is fading and yet at this twilight hour our will to strive for a better year grows even stronger now as evening falls light dawns within us our hope and trust revive from your house o god we are about to return to our homes enter them with us that they may also become your sanctuaries then will our homes stand firm against the storms of life to be a shelter for all that is good and a refuge from evil age 402 our prayer for peace [Music] [Music] is oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] lord [Music] on page 404 our god the guide of humanity let your spirit rule this world and its citizens that their deeds may be prompted by a love of justice and right goodness and peace bless our people with love of righteousness teach us to work for the welfare of all to diminish the evils that beset us and to enlarge the virtues of our community our nation and our world bless our striving to make real the dream of peace putting an end to the suffering we now inflict upon each other bless our people with a vision for you have endowed us with noble traditions help us to use them wisely and to live always with compassion you have given us freedom to choose between good and evil life and death may we choose life and good so that our children may inherit from us the blessings of dignity and freedom prosperity and peace [Music] see [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] now [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] as yom kippur draws to a close we pray that this new year will be for us all israel and all humanity a year of blessing and goodness a year of health and well-being amen a year of contentment and fulfillment amen a year of purpose and meaning amen a year of justice and compassion amen a year of generosity and kindness amen a year of love and understanding at the closing of the gates we pray oz may god grant us strength may god bless us all with peace amen [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] me [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a [Music] uh [Music] [Music] let's do the last call together on the count of time shalosh hey [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is let's [Music] [Music] hey [Music]

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Length: 93min 56sec (5636 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021