Our Future Depends on Us - Remarks at Temple Israel's Annual Dinner Dance

I’m looking out at everyone in this beautiful ballroom with all of the tables set up so magnificently and I have an idea for a little makeover for Rosh Hashanah services.   So bear with me for a moment.

Instead of all those prayers we say before most people get here, we’ll start with a nice cocktail hour, you mingle, wish people a good new year, apologize to people you might have offended.  Then we proceed to our tables, say a few prayers, sit down for the salad course.   And so on.  You get the idea.  We’ll have an early seating and a late seating.

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is overwhelming.  Deanna and I and our family are overwhelmed with the generous, joyous spirit in this room tonight. 

Moving Beyond Trauma

At the end of last week’s Torah reading, we were left with one of the most powerful cliffhangers of all time.  You recall – Joseph’s brothers, including Benjamin, went back to Egypt to meet with Joseph, despite Jacob’s fear that some disaster might befall Benjamin.

Joseph places a silver goblet in Benjamin’s sack, apprehends Benjamin and, though Judah offers to remain Joseph’s slave in exchange for the release of Benjamin, Joseph refuses and says, only the one who took the goblet will be my slave.  The rest of you can go home peacefully to your father.

That’s a cliffhanger.  Judah knows he can’t go back to his father without Benjamin – it would destroy him.  Joseph has put the screws on.

This week’s reading is inspirational.  It’s a great story and it also has a great deal to teach. 

Training for Life

Every Friday morning, Rabbi Adelson and I do singing and a little praying with the students in our Beth HaGan preschool.

The other day, we were speaking with our director, Rachel Mathless, about what songs to sing for Thanksgiving.  And we started with all of the songs about turkeys – including the famous “gobble, gobble, who is that?  Mr. Turkey, big and fat.”

And halfway through our conversation, we said to each other – you know, it’s nice to sing about turkeys, but we should also find a song about saying thank you.

And it didn’t take long for us to realize that we should do some of the songs and prayers that we do whenever we are together that have to do with expressing our thanks.

So, at the Thanksgiving gathering, we sang a song that we sing every time we’re together that introduces the prayer מודה אני לפניך modeh ani l’fanecka, I thank you. 

And it goes like this:  It’s another wonderful morning and I’ll start it with a song.  I will sing my modeh ani would you like to sing along?  All you need to say is thank you.  I’m happy that I’m me.  Modeh ani l’fanekha I’m as thankful as can be.

Many of us had a nice turkey dinner a few days ago and perhaps we’re still eating leftovers over Shabbat.  When tryptophans are at work, rabbis have to work fast.

So here’s my thesis:  religion is about training.  Training us to live differently than we otherwise might.  And that’s a good thing.