Sin More
Erev Rosh Hashana 5778
Temple Beth Jacob of
Newburgh
Rabbi Larry Freedman
We are back
again. It’s good to see everyone. It’s great to see everyone. Truly it is.
Everyone is back to get a little religion, get that spiritual tune
up. The music, the fellowship, the
Akeidah. The dinner with friends and
family. It’s all there. And the rabbi’s sermons. Let’s not forget that. My sermons… I try to be eclectic. I don’t want to be repetitive and drone on
about the same old thing. Of course,
some themes can’t be avoided for example that Rosh Hashana is a chance for
renewal, to take stock. It is a time of
celebrating another year’s fresh start and a chance to change our ways. Then come the intermediate days of teshuva
and finally Yom Kippur where we atone for sins, throw ourselves on the mercy of
the Heavenly court and pray for forgiveness.
Spoiler alert: we always get it but
the exercise is still very worthwhile.
Putting ourselves through the paces is the important part. Stretching our spiritual muscles remembering
we are connected to others is the important part.
The themes of
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are always the same and they never fail to inspire
and uplift. Community gathering to
celebrate a fresh slate and meditate on how to be a better person? Nothing better. And it all comes with good music so, you
know, it’s a win-win.
Over the summer
I listened to a podcast, Radio Lab that offered a positive take on the infamous
Seven Deadly Sins and as I listened, I thought, now that’s a Rosh Hashana theme![1] Could we talk, on this eve of reflection, how
we need to sin more? Let’s try it. Let’s talk about Pope Gregory’s list codified
in the year 590. Let’s see what we can
do.
Gluttony. Typically that speaks to eating, drinking
more than you need. It is about
consuming more than your fair share. It could
be about finishing the whole bag of chips but gluttony could be more like
blithely buying too much food in the supermarket and then after it goes a bit
squishy tossing it out wasting money and all the resources it took to get the
food. It could be about leaving the AC
on to keep the house cool while everyone is out for the day at work or school. That’s gluttony; such a waste of resources
for no reason other than that we don’t care to pay attention and can’t be
bothered to adjust the thermostat.
But gluttony
could be passion as well, excitement for the things we consume, anticipation of
the great taste, the good flavors. That
could be a good thing. Let’s just add to
that gluttony some awareness. Perhaps we
should indulge our gluttony with mindfulness.
Before we shove the pumpkin pie in our mouth, because we just can’t
wait, we can say a little bracha, say a little blessing. Motzie can do or the more particular borei
minei mezonot, just something to acknowledge the food, the people who brought
it to you, the wonder of the earth that produces food. A brief pause to offer a blessing as we indulge
is better than not paying attention at all and treating the food as simple
fuel. Gluttony isn’t so bad if we temper
it with a blessing, if we temper it by knowing how blessed we are.
Wrath is anger
leading towards fury. Losing your cool
is never good. Going off the rails is
never good but a little righteous fury we could use more of. Why aren’t we furious at those who are
working to limit access to the voting booth, a direct attack on our
democracy? Why aren’t we furious at our
country’s lack of leadership to combat global warming? We, all of us here, have experienced the
effects of climate change. We have all experienced
a change in weather patterns up here. The
massive hurricanes we’ve seen down south are something new but also predicted. We all know this. There can be no issue farther from
partisanship than working to bring the temperature down, or at least not to let
it rise further. One day, Miami, Venice
and Wall Street will be under water. Why
are we not furious about that? These are
issues that affect us all, that hurt us all equally. We need a bit more wrath to challenge the
naysayers and the slow pace of doing something.
Envy is an easy
one. Too much envy is always a
problem. Too much envy and you forget
how to count your blessings and be satisfied but lack of envy keeps us from
working hard. It leads us to
settle. A little envy is good if it
motivates us to work hard towards the goal.
That’s especially good advice for kids.
Are you envious of that nice house, those nice vacations other people
have? Well then, do something about it. Get good grades, use college to find your
passion and use that passion to fuel you to a good paying job. Envy can give us a goal. Envy can show us a better way. Envy can get us off the couch. A warning:
too much envy can just make you depressed so watch the dosage. You only need a little envy to keep you from
settling and keep you leaning forward.
Lust. Now, on Yom Kippur, there ought not to be any
lust. No eating, no drinking, no wearing
leather since it was seen as a luxury, no anointing which today usually means
perfumes, another sign of luxury, and no, well, you know, lust. But today is not Yom Kippur, now is it? A little lust is not the worst thing, now is
it? Here, perhaps I’ll leave the kids
with their envy and speak to the adults in the room. For those in long, long, so very long term
commitments, sometimes, I’m not talking about you, of course, but sometimes the
passion can seep from the physical aspects of a relationship. When I was a kid, I remember seeing tv
commercials for “beautiful Mt. Airy Lodge.”
Do you remember it? That bit of
jingle in still in my head. I understood
the allure of the tennis and the skiing and the hiking. But why would anyone want a small swimming
pool in their hotel room? An actual mini
pool that two people could get in right there in the room. I kept imagining the room would smell like chlorine. I did not understand.
But I grew to
understand. There is something that
happens with the stress of raising kids, paying bills, getting work done that causes
couples to start missing what is kindly called that “certain spark” but what I
would call lust. Healthy relationships
require trust and kindness. They require
faith in one’s partner and a sense of humor to let things go. And they require lust. Lust is where we find the physical expression
of the emotional intensity couples enjoy.
It’s never good to let that fade.
A little lust in a committed relationship can be a very good thing.
Greed has its
place as well. I’m not willing to go the
full Gordon Gecko and tell you that greed is good but greed might have a role
if it makes us demand what should rightfully be ours. Over in Israel, at the Kotel, a plan was
hatched and agreed upon to create a worship space along the Western Wall just
south of the plaza in an area called Robinson’s Arch. That was two years ago. Design work was supposed to be done with
construction starting as soon as possible.
Then the Netanyahu government cancelled it. Now, on the one hand, the wonder of Israel is
so great, the very idea of a place where Jews live as the majority creating an
organic Jewish culture is so magnificent that a place to pray near a wall is
hardly a major thing. Indeed, the way
the ultra-Orthodox venerate the wall, the way they are over the top about it
turns off many Jews. It is a retaining wall of the grand square where the
Temple once stood. Given that we don’t
want to rebuild the Temple and return to offering animals, most Jews have no interest
in the wall with any messianic ferver.
We go for the history, for a personal spiritual moment, to see it for
ourselves but we’re not that committed to the Wall as sacred. There is so much Jewish creativity and moving
spiritual moments away from the kotel, why should I even care? Let’s just leave the Kotel to the
ultra-Orthodox.
And yet, I’m
greedy. I’m greedy! I want what I want. Israel, the Land of Israel and the State of
Israel make a claim on Jews worldwide.
We are all part of what happens there and I just refuse to let a small
group of religious fanatics dictate how I and my community should pray. I want what I want and I want the State of
Israel to either acknowledge that the Kotel plaza is not supposed to be an
ultra-Orthodox synagogue which it currently is or give me a space that is not
an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, a place where I don’t have to be hassled and where
I can gather and sing and pray as I wish with whomever I wish. Yes, I’m greedy about that. I want what I want. I’m not interested in logic or counter
arguments. I’m not interested in
parliamentary politics. I want what I
want. I want the State of Israel to
treat me and all non-Orthodox Jews with respect. Well, I want the State of Israel to treat
everyone who lives in Israel with respect but given the reason for Israel’s
existence, I especially want my expression of Judaism respected. That’s what I want. I’m greedy about it. End of story.
Pride is the
next one. How did pride ever get to be
one of seven? We teach school children
to take pride in themselves lest their self-esteem suffer. We take pride in our nation’s extensions of
civil protection and liberty to the underserved, the minority, the
oppressed. We even have parades
celebrating that word. How did it
become a sin? Like all of the others, too
much pride becomes a problem. Another
word for the sin of pride is vanity. Vanity
is pride run amuck. To express pride as
a statement of equality, as an insistence for respect, as a positive sense of
self, these are all good because they point to us as proud members of a larger
community. Pride, overblown, becomes
vanity, where self-regard comes at the expense of others, when our pride
denigrates others, when our pride is used to put others down. That is why we are talking about two very
different things when we talk about gay pride and white pride. Same word.
Two very different meanings. One
uplifts, the other demeans.
I think our
community, our Jewish community at large and our Temple Beth Jacob community
right here could use a little more pride.
We always could use the type of pride that causes us to stand tall. We could always use a shot in the arm to
bolster our self-image. It’s hard being
a small minority. It can be tough being
the only one. One of the goals of Temple
Beth Jacob is to support your Jewish sense of self, to help you feel good about
being part of a 4000 year tradition and enable you to feel really good about
keeping that going here in this little outpost of the Jewish people on the
Hudson River. And for those who have
joined us via marriage, you get some pride, too, in this community you are part
of. You should take sustenance from the
community as well.
This is my
tenth year here and while I’m proud of this place, I worry about getting too
repetitive, too routine. I worry that
what we are doing here doesn’t really help in promoting your pride. This is especially true for those with
children off to college. So much of our
focus has been on the children. What
does Temple Beth Jacob offer you, the adults?
What does Judaism offer the adults?
A few months ago I heard Abigail Pogrebin speak. She wrote a book called, plainly, “My Jewish
Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering
Jew.” She spent a year deeply exploring
every Jewish holiday, fast, and commemoration.
She wanted to see if there was any meaning in them. Surprise!
There was. Another surprise, she
did indeed add to her Jewish repertoire but selectively. She didn’t become Orthodox but she did find
more pride and more understanding of who she is and how she lives her life. I’m going to put together a chance for us to
meet and read the book over the year to see if we can learn from her journey,
to see if we can find meaning in our Jewish calendar in our own lives. I want to see if we can build up even more
pride, especially for those who aren’t sure, now that the children are
grown. Stay tuned.
I conclude with
a plea for sloth. We all could use just
a wee bit of sloth in our lives. We all
live in a world where we complain how busy we are, how fast things go. Not me, though. I love the fast paced world. You don’t like being texted about every
little thing all the time? Did you
prefer when you had to wait for a letter to arrive with your response taking
another week? Not me. I love the instantaneous. I love that I was able to text people from
Tanzania a few years back. I love that I
can send you a photo right away. I love
it all. And I love it because I control
it. Six days a week I say bring it
on. One day a week, I’m a sloth. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see that email
you sent. When did you send it? Saturday?
Yeah, then, no.”
There are
things that need immediacy and there are things that don’t. There are six days where it’s a mitzvah to
work hard and then there is Shabbat where it’s a mitzvah to chill out. No doubt, many of you are thinking that your life, the way you live can’t incorporate Shabbat.
That’s because some of you think of Shabbat as in the Orthodox
world. Some of you never had any sense
of Shabbat growing up and you’re nervous about starting now. And then some of you just have no
imagination.
Come on! Imagine with me. I’m not talking about being Orthodox. When I was a student in Los Angeles, people
asked me if I drove on Shabbat. I
answered, “How else would I get to the beach?”
Shabbat isn’t about “not doing” things.
Shabbat is about doing other
things. Indulge your inner sloth, slow
down a little. If you did the laundry on
Sunday, if you paid the bills on Sunday, if you went to the supermarket on
Sunday, what would you do on Shabbat? I
won’t be so forward as to suggest Shabbat morning tefillot although we do have
that twice a month and it is refreshing…
I’m just saying…
No. No distractions. Let’s just stick to this question. If you indulged your inner sloth, put off the
chores until Sunday, what would you do on Shabbat? Hang out with your kids? Call your mother? Read a book?
Sit on the porch and do nothing?
Organize your closet? What?
Some people find that relaxing.
If you were
brave enough to control your life and take care of what must be done before or
after Shabbat, imagine what could you do with those 24 hours. Go to your daughter’s game? Catch your son’s concert? Walk around Storm King? Take a train to the
city? Take a nap? Imagine, just imagine letting the inner sloth
out and taking a nap. Ooh, or binge
watch that show you’ve been meaning to watch.
Sigh….
The gift of
Shabbat is there for you if you want.
Dinner with family and friends.
Bake or buy a challah. Candles
set the mood and 24 glorious hours await you.
And it’s all there for you if and only if you are willing to take
control of your life and engage in some holy, sacred slothfulness.
All of these
sins aren’t truly sins, in the end.
Maybe the early Church saw them that way but Jews have a different take
on sin. We see these things more as
seven facets of the human condition.
They are us and we can use those seven conditions to engage life in a
profoundly positive way. And, yes, if we
are not careful, we can abuse those seven and do great damage with them so be
sure to handle with care. But you should
handle them. Indulge them. With balance but indulge them.
As we enter in
to these Ten Days of Repentance, as we enter in to these ten days of
reflection, thinking about our lives, what has gone well, what has not, let’s
think about where we indulged too much and also, which of these seven we might
want to engage a bit more this year.
Shana
Tova. A very good and sweet and
thoughtful year to us all.
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