Chag Sukkot Sameach!

May this holiday bring you great joy.

I have been a big fan of Koren Publishers since I davened from their Hebrew only Chumash/Siddur in Israel. Their Tikkun for Torah readers is one of the most accurate out there.  Now they have done it again with their Talmud.  I have been doing Daf Yomi with Artscroll's iPad app and Koren's translation of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's fabulous Talmud.  Rabbi Steinsaltz is phenomenal and helped me (and many others) through his "easy" Hebrew translation of the Talmud.  The other major innovation of the Hebrew edition is that he added punctuation to the Talmud and Rashi.  (That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is HUGE!)  Koren's English translation of his work adds color photos that have been a major help in understanding certain sections.  Sometimes it is just easier to see a picture than to understand a long complicated discussion.

http://www.korenpub.com/pdf/SukkotSample.pdf
While Sukkot won't be published for a while longer, in honor of Sukkot, Koren has sent out the sample above.  I will be using a piece of it in my Sukkot teaching this holiday.


Koren Publications was kind enough to send me a review copy of the following book.  While I will write more about it another time, I can say that it clearly and concisely explained the legal dimensions of a Sukkah (both minimum and maximum) helping me to ensure that my shul's Sukkah was kosher!

http://www.korenpub.com/EN/products/maggid/maggid/9781592643523

Hilkhot Mo'adim

Understanding the Laws of the Festivals

By: David Brofsky

(All trademarks belong to their respective owners.)  I was not financially compensated for this post, although I did receive the email link above and the book mentioned.

Yom Kippur Yizkor--Seven Gates to let Gd in

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

Yom Kippur

September 14, 2013

L’shanah Tovah.  Just a moment ago you did a great mitzvah.  You showed that you are a part of this community and that you want to support it. Before I begin my formal address this morning, a comedic insert courtesy of Rabbi Kramer and Ken Copans.

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs, and your stocks not fall. And may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count, your PSA and your mortgage interest not rise.

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, gastroenterologist, urologist, nephrologist, proctologist, podiatrist, dermatologist, obstetrician, oncologist, rheumatologist, endocrinologist,ophthalmologist, ENT, psychiatrist, plumber, and the Internal Revenue.

May your work be secure, looking for work stress-free, good friends and contacts willing to make solid introductions.

May your checkbook / budget balance and include generous amounts for charity.

May you find a way to travel from anywhere to anywhere during rush hour in less than an hour, and when you get there may you find a parking space.

May what you see in the mirror delight you and what others see in you delight them.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner.

May Israel be safe, continue to flourish and strong against all enemies that plan to do harm.

May this Rosh Hashana, find you seated around the dinner table, together with your beloved family and cherished friends, ushering in the Jewish New Year ahead.

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to your partner, your child, and your parent(s). You can say it to your secretary, your nurse, your butcher, your photographer, your masseuse, your seamstress, your hairdresser or your gym instructor, but not with a "twinkle" in your eye.

May we live as intended, in a world at peace with the awareness of the beauty in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous part of ourselves. Bless you with every happiness, great health, peace, tranquility, contentment and much love during the next year and all those that follow.

LeShanah Tovah U’metukah Tikatayvu Vetaychataymu.

Best sermon ever, right?   In truth, greatness can come out of tragedy.  Brilliance can come from dark places.  Some of our greatest poets, authors, scientists and teachers have struggled with depression and other forms of mental illness.  In the depths of our suffering we can find insight.  The Talmud teaches that suffering can be a gift from Gd, a time to reflect and consider our actions.  Yet at the same time, suffering can be unwanted and we may not desire the lessons we learned.  In one of my favorite passages of Talmud from Tractate Brachot, we discover that the rabbis did not enjoy suffering, saying that they wanted neither the suffering nor the reward.  In their illness though, they found inspiration in each other, in their community and in the power of a pastoral visit.  For me, this has been a personal inspiration.  Chaplaincy has been a way for me to meet people and bring holiness to their lives, to be a bright spot in the darkness.  The sugya, the narrative unit, of Brachot 5b tells us that visiting a person who is ill removes 1/60th of their suffering.  It asks why the miracle-working rabbis cannot heal themselves and concludes that a “prisoner cannot free himself from prison”--that we must help each other in our most difficult times.  This is the power of Jewish mourning customs.  Shiva, Shloshim, and Yahrzeit teach us that mourning is not only an individual journey, but a communal one.

It is amazing to me how a single moment can change and inspire us.  When I was in rabbinical school, a fellow student, Rafi Lehmann, passed away.  He was not my best friend.  He was an acquaintance.  I had met Rafi before rabbinical school, when his father Rabbi Allan Lehmann was the Jewish Chaplain at Brandeis.  Rafi loved Torah.  He loved the teachings of early Hasidic masters.  He loved good food, good meals and good friends.  Tragically he died shortly before he was scheduled to be married, a few months before he was to be ordained.  JTS arranged bus transportation to his funeral and many of us attended.  

At his funeral I had two transformative moments.  The second was at his burial, where they literally ran out of dirt.  There were still dozens of people in line to put a shovelful of dirt on his grave, but the grave was filled.  There was no more dirt.  Friends, family, acquaintances, students, teachers all came together and literally buried the one they had loved and learned from.  It was an inspiration to me of what we are supposed to do at Jewish funerals.

I told you the second, but not the first.  The first was at the synagogue.  Temple Emmanuel in Newton, a large Conservative synagogue, had large posters hanging throughout the building.  At every seat there was a booklet.  The title of the booklet was “Seven Gates.”  The gates were “Torah, Prayer, Israel, Shabbat, Redeeming the World, Building Community, and Teaching Jewish Values.”  Their website includes the same gates.  In that brochure, in these themes, they show that all are welcome and that all have a place.

“The Seven Gates stand for the proposition that everyone can find a place at Temple Emanuel. Whatever your passion, whatever inspires you, it is here. All you have to do is enter.

While these are entry points, it is not only about entering.

It is also about what you do once you are here. It is about engaging.

It is about finding meaning, purpose, and friends within a community of people who are moved by what moves you.

The gates are open and waiting for you.

Through which gate will you enter?”

The Seven Gates show that we are individuals and that together we make up a community.  The Seven Gates teach us that as individuals, we have different interests and access points.

I listed the seven gates, but what do they mean for us here?

Torah sounds self-evident, studying Torah, living Torah, teaching Torah, learning Torah.  But what is Torah?  Yes, it is the scroll we read from this morning, with Genesis-Deuteronomy, but Torah is also the entire canon of Jewish learning, as well as philosophy, science, and more.  Studying Torah can mean looking at our roots, our genealogy, which we can do together in a few weeks.  It can mean learning Hebrew, helping to make our texts and traditions more accessible.    If you have never learned to read Torah, I will be starting my third group of Read Hebrew America in October.  If you want to learn how to read Torah or Haftorah, join my other Thursday class, which focuses on liturgy and prayer skills.  Torah can also be learning about our Jewish traditions or even reading a good book.  If there is something that we are not doing yet, just ask!  I have been studying Daf Yomi, which can be an arduous path through Talmud.  the Conservative Yeshiva is beginning a Daf Shevui, studying a page of Talmud a week, which will be sent by email in Hebrew and English to you every day--a much more manageable task.  If you would like to discuss this project, please be in touch with me.  Torah is not just classes though, it is also our collective wisdom.  Every single person in this room has Torah to teach.  What I would love to see in the coming years is for YOU to teach ME (and everyone else).  If you are a talented dancer, musician, amateur historian, professional psychologist, doctor, lawyer, you have skills and knowledge that we do not all share.  Please teach us!

The second gate is Prayer.  We meet regularly for Tefillah, for Shabbat and Festivals.  We meet monthly before the Board Meeting for evening minyan--which lasts all of 8-15 minutes.  When congregants request a Yahrzeit or Shiva minyan, we make it happen.  Most of our prayer is traditional, but I open to trying different options.  Together we can connect our souls to the Divine!  

Israel is not just a vacation spot or a historical entity, but a living, breathing, Holy Place.  Visiting Israel is transformative, as some of our congregants discovered this summer with me.  Walking in the footsteps of our ancestors, we learned much about our history and I believe, much about ourselves.  It was a blessing to travel together and I hope that in another two or three years we can again travel to Israel as a community, uniting past and present in our souls.  Israel needs our attention from here, as well.  There are many people around the world who see Israel as a source of hate or violence.  They speak ill of Israel and often preach hate and violence against all Jews.  We must be advocates for Israel, reminding the world that Israel is valuable, important and rarely reflects the image that hate-mongerers and average people imagine.  Modern Israel is a young country.  It is growing and changing and we must be a part of that.  We have to show Israeli society that it is possible to be modern, Jewish, observant, egalitarian and open to all.  The Kotel should not be an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, but a place where ALL can daven.  The Temple Mount should be regularly accessible to Jews AND they should be allowed to pray there.  Israel should not be one of the only places in the world where I, a Conservative Rabbi, cannot perform a wedding!

Shabbat:  Ahad Ha’am was an early Zionist thinker, philosopher and writer.  He penned the famous line, “More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.”  Jewish law has varying interpretations of how to keep the Sabbath and modern Jews find many different ways of observing it.  Whether your Shabbat practice is to shut off all electronic devices, make Kiddush and light candles on Friday night, or simply savor your favorite book; Shabbat can be a very special time for families.  Would I love to have all of you decide today to be traditionally observant of Shabbat, YES, but I think that you can gain many of the benefits of Shabbat without entirely changing your lives.  Talk to me about your Shabbat practices.  Make a special dinner.  Save a great article.  If you use TV on Shabbat, skip the violence and watch a nice movie with your loved ones.  If you use the phone, call your children--make Shabbat a time of connection.

Judaism is not a religion lived in isolation.  We are commanded to live in the world and continually improve it.  For some Jews, Tikkun Olam, Redeeming/Repairing the World, is their primary connection to Jewish life.  Whether volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, donating blood, giving tzedekah, there are many ways to help the world.  If you are looking for suggestions or have suggestions, be in touch!

Many recent books about the future of Judaism in America say that one of the most important things we can do is to build communities.  When we build community, we use our sacred values to look out for one another.  We do not want to be the synagogue where someone leaves after a decade not knowing anyone.  We want to be the place where people feel welcome from day one.  In the last two years, I think we have made tremendous strides in that direction.   Yet, welcoming and building community neither happen overnight nor are once and done programs.  They are long term, continued and committed efforts to make sure that every single member of our community feels valued and an important part of our congregational whole.  In a day and age when our families are scattered around the country, if not the globe, our congregation has an opportunity to bring people together.  We cannot neglect this responsibility.

Teaching Jewish Values:  We live this through teaching our children, through the rituals of Simchat Bat and Brit Milah, through B’nai Mitzvah, but also through daily life.  We teach Jewish Values in every interaction we have with anyone.  Every time we talk to someone; every business deal we make; every class we teach; every patient we treat is an opportunity to demonstrate and reflect our values.  Powerfully, Temple Emmanuel has created a “Living Legacy Guide” a way for you to think about your values and share them with your loved ones. I mentioned earlier that we will soon have an opportunity to think about our family trees.  Sharing our history, sharing our values is a poewrful expression.  Writing down the things that matter to us are just as important as telling our children the account numbers of our bank accounts.  Long after our physical inheritances have been saved, invested or spent, our spiritual, educational, emotional inheritances will resonate.

Over these High Holy Days, I have mentioned the Gd-shaped hole, the idea that we can feel far more fulfilled, complete, and happy if we let Gd in.  Sharing these seven gates are seven different ways for you to let Gd in.  Seven different gates, seven different days, seven different opportunities.  Looking around this room, I see people of different backgrounds, different ideas, different politics.  Why would I expect that every single person connects to Gd, each other, the same way?  The seven different gates show us that we are individuals.  All of the gates should be important to us in SOME way, but for all of us, one gate will probably speak to us more than another.  Our tradition speaks of shivim panim batorah, the seventy faces of Torah, really meaning that there are many different ways, many different access points.  On Rosh Hashanah I mentioned that even the opening of the Amidah, when we remind Gd of our connection to our ancestors, we also remind ourselves that our ancestors were individuals.  We remind ourselves that our ancestors connected to Gd in different ways.  It is a lesson that is very easy to forget.  As a rabbi, prayer is very important to me.  Yet being married to my lovely wife and now being a father to an amazing daughter, I see that my attitude towards prayer has changed.  My prayers may be briefer, but they feel more powerful.  I am more grateful, more thankful than I have ever been.

Watching all of you, looking at the example of my parents and grandparents, I see people who have connected to our traditions.  Their observance may have waxed and waned, but they always knew they were Jewish and their lives reflected that.  In just a moment, we will offer our Yizkor prayers.  We will remember those who had an influence on us.  We will remember their Jewish lives.  We will think of their yiddishe neshamas, the aspects of them that brought us joy and infused a spirit of holiness.  Whether we think of brisket and kugel, afternoons with a crossword puzzle, memories of shul, walks on the beach, mornings in a store or pushcart or an office, the ones we loved influenced us greatly.  Many of them built this shul (or the ones on Grand or Williams Streets).  We stand in their footsteps.  They spent their lives bringing our families together.  Let us spend our doing the same.  Our shul may not look exactly the same--the people in the bimah certainly look a little different--but the spirit we bring is the same.  We come together to celebrate Torah, Prayer, Israel, Shabbat, Redeeming the World, Building Community, and Teaching Jewish Values.  Together those principles have changed my life and I know they have changed all of yours.  May the coming year continue to bring us holiness, happiness and the power of community.

Kol Nidre 2013/5774

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

Kol Nidre 5774

September 13, 2013

Gmar hatimah tovah.  May you be sealed in the book of life.

For some Jews, today begins a day of agony.  They fast because it is what they always do.  They do not enjoy it.  They do not find meaning in it.  They just find themselves hungry.  It does not make them feel more spiritual, more angelic or closer to Gd.  It is just something they get through. I could stand here and suggest that these people are doing it all wrong, but I will not.  They have it right, just not exactly right, not entirely right.

Jews ARE supposed to fast on Yom Kippur.  We are supposed to afflict ourselves.  We are to avoid a complete bath/shower, putting on colognes/perfumes/anointing ourselves.  We do not have intimate relations with our spouses.  We do not wear leather (comfortable) shoes.  Yet, we are supposed to enjoy it!  I have even heard of people giving their children special treats or candy on Yom Kippur, since they do not have the privilege of fasting.  Many people see fasting as a spiritual discipline.  The rabbis of the Talmud limited fasting, since some Jews of the ancient world were fasting so often they were neglecting their other responsibilities.  

In our tradition, there are two parallel fast days, Tisha B’Av  and Yom Kippur.  Many books have been written about their connections, their parallels and their difference.  In short, Tisha B’Av is a fast of lament, of depression, of sadness.  It is the day when we remember the destruction of the Temple and the fasting and related practices are to remind us of this sadness, to memorialize the loss.  Yom Kippur, on the other hand, is about atonement, forgiveness and redemption.  Fasting on Yom Kippur is not done to punish ourselves, but instead to bring us closer to Gd.  It is done to help us find the Gd-shaped hole I have been discussing this holiday season.  Fasting is an opportunity for us to shake off our human needs.  If we do not eat or drink, our bathroom needs are limited.  If we do not go to the bathroom, we do not have to wash as much.  If we do not wash as much, our spouses are more likely to give us some space. (pity laugh anyone?)  With that space, we can find the holiness in our selves, our connection to the Divine.  At the end of the day, our fasting for Yom Kippur, is about Divine awareness, about connecting to our Creator.

When we desire to connect to Gd, just as when we desire to connect to friends and family, we discover that we are imperfect.  We make mistakes.  We have good habits and bad habits.  In thinking about tshuvah, repentance or returning, we create a time to reinvent ourselves.  With this reinvention is the assumption that WE CAN REINVENT ourselves.

When we read the paper today, the world seems static.   Assad rules Syria and will murder hundreds of thousands of civilians and the world will do little--since there are bad options and terrible options.  Afghanistan sounds much like it did when the British invaded in 1839.  Congress seems mired in disfunction.  Our Jewish communities are shrinking here and across the country.  The world seems lousy and stuck.  At home, we live our lives, making good choices and bad ones, playing the same games on facebook or on our iphones (ok maybe that is just me), using up time we could spend helping others or helping ourselves.

I was sent a youtube video the other day.  Entitled Mad Mensch, it was a parody of Mad Men, but re-imagined with all Jewish admen making a spot for an anti-bullying Jewish non-profit.  The conclusion of the two minute webisode was that while “It gets better” might be a good slogan for the goyim, for the Jews a better one would be (in fake Yiddish accent) “it could be worse.” (laugh)

Yet, as Jews, we seem to ignore reality.  Much like people around the world on the secular New Year.  We come together on Yom Kippur and say we will change.  We acknowledge our sins, public and private.  We recognize that we are ALL sinners.  We say we will do better next year--and yet we find ourselves in the same room saying the same words.  Some of us have made big changes.  Many have made little changes.  And many have not.

A few months ago I read an article in the New York Times Magazine called “How Companies Learn Your Secrets.”  It discussed how companies mined customer data and could figure out that someone was pregnant and send appropriate sales and coupons--sometimes even before the person knew she was pregnant.  By noting that pregnant women often bought certain items together, they could make very accurate guesses about specific stages of pregnancy and time emails and mailings to match.  Using the same type of science, the makers of Febreeze found a way to turn a semi-useful product into a billion dollar industry.

What were both companies looking at?  The simple answer: habits!  Much of our waking life is habit.  We do not think about what we do first thing in the morning, but most likely our getting out of bed routine looks the same every day.  We do not think about how we brush our teeth, but we do it the same.  By understanding our habits, we can truly change our lives.  The power of AA is through changing people’s basic habits.  The power of regular exercise, dieting, weight loss is through consistent and permanent change.  The power of our own military is making actions habits, so that soldiers do not have to think about how to react, they just do!  By replacing bad habits with good ones, we can make the changes we desire.

The article in the New York Times was based on a book by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. In the book he describes the habit loop: cue, routine, reward.  To effectively make changes you have to figure out what your routine is, what the reward is and isolate the cue.  For example, if you walk to a local shop or cafeteria and eat a cookie every day at 3PM, your waistline may be growing.  For Mr. Duhigg, who ate such a cookie, by experimenting with different actions at 3PM, he figured out that he was not eating the cookie because he was hungry, but because he need to take a few minute break and socialize.  By replacing the routine of the cookie with a routine of talking to a colleague, he lost the added weight, but kept the reward of a brief distraction and a return to productivity.

I want to suggest a new habit loop for you.  If you have a watch or a phone with an alarm, after breakfast (not in shul), I want you to set it for 3PM.  At 3PM, I want you to pause for just a moment.  I want you to daydream.  I want you to notice something that you are thankful for.  It does not have to be anything complicated.  It could be “I’m thankful for having a job” or “I’m thankful for the coffee in my cup” or “I’m thankful that Gd put me on this earth.”  What I want you to do is create a habit loop for a Mincha Moment.  The cue is you will hear/feel your alarm, the habit is pausing and thanking Gd, the reward is the feeling of blessing from that very simple action.

I was going to create a website and twitter account, but it seems someone already thought of that!  There is even a facebook group online.  The funny thing about habits is that once we create them, once we make them routine and habitual, they tend to stick.  You may find that after a few weeks of taking a moment, you see the world with a little more gratitude.  You might even feel compelled to open a siddur and pray mincha, the afternoon service!  

To me mincha, is the most powerful reminder of Jewish tradition.  It is “easy” (air quote) to pray when we wake up or when we go to sleep, but to pause during our work or school or retired day is to say “I am not the only one in my universe.  I am a part of a greater whole.  Gd is a part of my life.”  It is a big statement for such a small action.

Our rabbis acknowledged the power of habit and the challenges of change long before any writer at the New York Times read some studies and brain scans from MIT.  In rabbinic literature, there is much discussion about Teshuvah, about repentance and rethinking our lives.  At this time of year we do chesbon hanefesh, an accounting of ourselves.  (Per the Power of Habit, we look at our habit loops.)  In the Talmud, we have dozens of pages about the conditions of teshuvah, what it requires, and how do we know when we are done? How do we know when we have truly done teshuvah.

Sanhedrin 25a discusses individuals that cannot be witnesses because they are not trustworthy.  They give an example of a butcher who is disqualified because he is known to have sold kosher meat.  Rav Nachman, the rabbi who initially disqualified him, allows him to testify after the butcher grows a long beard and long fingernails, showing publicly that he acknowledges his sins and is in the process of repenting.  Rabbi Idi the son of Avin offers a much more difficult route to repentance.  He said that the butcher cannot be trusted until he moves to a new town, where no one knows him, returns a lost object (does the right thing when no one is looking) or gets into a similar situation where he has the opportunity to sell treyf meat, but instead takes the loss (again, doing the right thing when no one can tell).  From Rav Idi, true teshuvah is not until you have broken the habit loop.  Until you have put yourself into the same situation and made a better choice, even at financial sacrifice, Rav Idi says you have not truly repented.  

The language is not the same, but the principles are.  To truly change oneself, we have to replace bad habits with good ones.  We have to do the right thing, even when no one is looking.  If we stop smoking publicly but still smoke when no one is around, we have not quit.  If we exercise once in awhile, but never make it regular, it is better than nothing, but the impact is not the same.  (Yes I am talking to myself here!  Another way to change our habit loop is to motivate ourselves--which for me is creating public accountability!)

I spoke earlier about the challenges of our world and how we can be discouraged into thinking that nothing can be changed with the world or ourselves.  This is simply not true.  Ask any Jew one hundred years ago what the Jewish center of the world was and they might say Poland, Lithuania, Germany or Russia.  Israel did not exist.  It was just the dream, the hope, Hatikvah!  Today the centers of the Jewish world are New York and Jerusalem.  The world has changed.  We are distraught over the destruction of the Shoah, the Holocaust.  We are grateful for the land of Israel, which came about through the work on many, many people working in concert.  Just as the world can change, so can we.

We can change ourselves, but it does not happen entirely overnight and it works best in community.  Why do we pray together?  We pray together not just to lift our prayers higher, but also for accountability.  When we see each other here in shul, we push ourselves to do more, to life our souls, to cry out to heaven.  Seeing each other, peer pressure, is also a powerful motivating factor.  For my mincha moment suggestion, if you have facebook, tag me and CAI when you take a mincha moment. Say I stopped and here is what I thought about.  Maybe you will change not only your habits, but the habits of everyone in this room!

Returning to my opening, those of you who fast on Yom Kippur, but are not happy about it have the cue and routine right, you just need to work on the reward.  Having ⅔ of a habit is a great start!  With a little more work, I pray that this year’s fast will not be something to be endured, but a tool to help you on your spiritual journey.  I pray that these tools of cue, routine and reward will help you consider your life and help you become the best you, the best Jew, you can be.  Personally, I think it is pretty impressive that our rabbis have been suggesting the same idea for thousands of years.  I guess there really is some wisdom in our Jewish texts!  

May your fast be not only easy, but meaningful, empowering and spiritually rewarding!

RH Day 2 Sermon: Secret to Happiness

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

Rosh Hashanah Day 2 2013

September 6, 2013

Every man has his daydreams

Every man has his goal

People like the way dreams have

Of sticking to the soul

Thunderclouds have their lightning

Nightingales have their song

And don't you see I want my life to be

Something more than long....

Rivers belong where they can ramble

Eagles belong where they can fly

I've got to be where my spirit can run free

Got to find my corner of the sky

Pippin is a musical with lyrics and music by Stephen Schwartz.  Bob Fosse directed it on Broadway, where it remained for 5 years, and it has just returned with a circus-style revival, although I have not had a chance to see it!   (Anyone want to babysit Hannah so Rebecca and I can go??)  While on some levels, it is rather absurd and not remotely historically accurate, it is a musical that questions grand ambition and celebrates a simple life.  Pippin, the son of Charlemagne, dreams of ruling the Holy Roman Empire, bringing glory to himself and others, yet he discovers, one can be happier skipping the glory and focusing on family.

What does it mean to be happy?  What do we want out of life?  How do we define success?  How do we find our corner of the sky?

Three big questions.  A multitude of answers.  History, philosophy, religion, psychology and art, all offer different answers, reading the questions in their own way.

Some say the path to happiness and success is great wealth.  Yet, studies of lottery winners find that many of them blow their money and end up poorer and more miserable than they were before!  Those who gain wealth through hard work, on the other hand, remember the sacrifices they made and seem to enjoy it much more.

Some say the path to happiness is success in business or politics.  For some people, this is very true.  They enjoy their success.  They are proud of their accomplishments.  For others though, no success is ever enough.  They cannot just be a city councilperson, they must be a state senator, a Governor and President.  No position will ever be enough.  (If you were here last year on Erev Rosh Hashanah, I spoke of the power of the word just, how we can see the miraculous by simply removing that word!)

Others say the path to happiness is wisdom and knowledge.  If I just get another degree, if I just take another class. . .  Yet for some perpetual students, they remain stuck in grad school seemingly forever, never quite living!

The simple answer to all of these things is Gd and Torah.   Yesterday and Wednesday night, I spoke about the Gd-shaped hole.  I raised the issue that no matter what we do, we may feel lacking, we may feel something is missing, if we don’t let Gd in.  Using our holy Torah, looking at the words of our rabbis and sages, the Mishnah, the Talmud, rabbinic and biblical commentaries of the last 2,000 years, we find many answers to those big questions.  Some of those answers touch us today, many, many years after they were initially written.

"Ben (the son of) Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from all people, as it is said: 'From all those who taught me I gained understanding' (Psalms 119:99). Who is strong? He who conquers his evil inclination, as it is said: 'Better is one slow to anger than a strong man, and one who rules over his spirit than a conqueror of a city' (Proverbs 16:32). Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot, as it is said: 'When you eat the toil of your hands you are fortunate and it is good for you' (Psalms 128:2). 'You are fortunate' -- in this world; 'and it is good for you' -- in the World to Come. Who is honored? He who honors others, as it is said: 'For those who honor Me will I honor, and those who scorn Me will be degraded' (I Samuel 2:30)."

בן זומא אומר, איזה הוא חכם--הלמד מכל אדם, שנאמר "מכל מלמדיי, השכלתי" (תהילים קיט,צט).   איזה הוא גיבור--הכובש את יצרו, שנאמר "טוב ארך אפיים, מגיבור" (משלי טז,לב). איזה הוא עשיר--השמח בחלקו, שנאמר "יגיע כפיך, כי תאכל; אשריך, וטוב לך" (תהילים קכח,ב):  "אשריך", בעולם הזה; "וטוב לך", לעולם הבא.   איזה הוא מכובד--המכבד את הברייות, שנאמר "כי מכבדיי אכבד ובוזיי ייקלו" (שמואל א ב,ל).

Ben Zoma’s ideas are pretty powerful.  They are a radical redefinition of success.  Rather than wisdom only being about books, it is about human connection.  Talmud Kiddushin 40b shares a debate about which is greater, studying Torah or going out and living it?  Rabbi Akiva’s answer is that studying Torah is most important, since it leads to action, that if we regularly speak about the needs of the stranger, the widow and the orphan, we will actually take care of them!  

Strength is not the winner in a contest of armies or bodies, but self-control.  Strength is recognizing our faults and fixing them.  Strength is spending this holy time, these days of Awe, in tshuvah, in reparation, in tikkunim, corrections, improvements of our selves.

Wealth is not money.  It is not the size of our IRA or bank account.  I’m not saying money isn’t important.  It is important.  Without it we cannot eat, live, sleep.  Yet, money cannot and should not be the focus of ALL of our yearning.  Money can be an idol, rather than a tool.  In our community, we see people using their money to improve the lives of others through education, improve the lives of all of us through building Kol Yisrael, improving the opportunities of our own community through the donations that sustain Agudas Israel.  (Without you and without your money, we simply cannot exist.)  What Ben Zoma is saying is that if we are happy with what we have, we will be far more content.  It is a profound statement.  Like the most powerful truths it is not complicated.  It is simple.  It tells it like it is. If all we want is more, we will never be happy.  I know I am guilty of this.  I love watches.  I have a dozen of them.  I wear a different watch depending on my mood or to compliment my outfit.   After I get a new watch, I wear it regularly for awhile, trying it out and then it goes into the regular rotation, like all the others.  Once the novelty wears off, I wonder what might come next.  Yet, I’m getting bored.  No watch will ever satisfy a deep need, all it can do is tell time!

For many, happiness is the respect that others give.  Happiness is being recognized for our success.  Yet, Ben Zoma says that honor and respect are not what other people give to us, but what we give to others.  When we treat others with respect, when we recognize the spark of Divinity within each person, we can find a whole new level of respect in our own lives.  Treating other people better turns US into better people.  This applies not just for our family and friends (although many people do not show their family and friends nearly enough respect), but also to those who we actively dislike or those who we have power over.  Our character is reflected not in how we treat those upon whom we are dependent, but upon how we treat those who are dependent on us!

I opened with a song about finding our place in the world, finding the people and the places where we fit in.  For me, Agudas Israel has become a place like that, a place where I find comfort and connection, a place where I find holiness and love, happiness.

Since the Talmud was completed around 1500 years ago, there has been no index.  It was not until 2011, that a NYC lawyer, Daniel Retter, published in index of the 2711 pages of Talmud (of which I am studying a page a day).  Looking in the index, looking at the pages of Talmud, I found dozens of discussions on happiness and joy.  The Talmud teaches that meat and wine make for a joyful meal (Pesachim 71a); that studying Torah brings joy (Shabbat 30b), that doing mitzvot is a reward in itself, that earning a good reputation brings joy (Yevamot 16a), and of course, that one who is Happy with his lot, the powerful words of Ben Zoma in Pirkei Avot.

Yet amidst all of this joy, our texts tell us that joy, itself is not the goal of life.  In the next world we will be asked if we took advantage of the beauty of this world, saw Gd’s holy landscapes, if we tasted the (kosher) delights, yet simple happiness is not the only goal.

We were put on this Earth to serve Gd and each other.  We were placed on this planet as partners in creation.  This world is imperfect.  It was imperfect in the Torah and it is imperfect now.  There is violence, hatred, poverty, loss, and disease.  Yet for each one of these, we can make a difference.  We can bring peace to the world through our relationships with others.  We can bring love to the world through how we treat our family, friends and those we dislike.  We can reduce poverty through tzedekah, through government programs, and through changed attitudes.  We can reduce the pain of loss through faith and love.  We change the course of illness through medicine, research, vaccines and even prayer.

We were not placed on Earth to live alone.  We were placed on Earth to live in community.  As the fastest growing faith in America is NONE, the loss is not just for Gd, it is for every human being.  When we say that we can do it alone, we can live alone, without the support of a community, we are hurting ourselves and others.  When we return to synagogue, when we really become a part of the community, when we help each other, we find gifts we never knew could exist.

On Shabbat mornings, for those that come to the beginning of our service, we look at different rabbinic texts.   One of them comes from Talmud Sotah 14a

Rabbi Chama said in the name of Rabbi Chanina: “Follow Adonai your Gd” (Deuteronomy 13:5): What does this mean? Is it possible for a mortal to follow Gd’s presence? The verse means to teach us that we should follow the attributes of the holy One. As Gd clothes the naked, you should clothe the naked.  The Bible teaches that the Holy One visited the sick; you should visit the sick.  The Holy One comforted those who mourned; you should comfort those who mourn.  The Holy One buried the dead; you should bury the dead. (p.69 of Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, Rabbinical Assembly, 1998)

Rabbi Chama does not say that prayer is the only way to find Gd.  Rather he says, that there are a multitude of paths, to follow Gd.  Yet, allowing ourselves to be open to prayer certainly helps!  When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a legendary teacher at JTS before his untimely death, marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., fighting for Civil Rights in this country, he said that he was praying with his legs.  (But I can pretty much guarantee that he also put on Tefillin and davened Shacharit before that march.)  Prayer, study, lead us to holy action.  They lead us to fulfillment in life.

There is an old story about a grieving woman who remained at home and was very depressed.  She told visitors to go away and her family became very worried.  Finally, she let her rabbi visit. He told her the secret to grief was found in a home that knew no sorrow.  She must find that family and eat an apple from their garden.  She wandered around her village, her province, her country looking for this family.  As she explored the world, she spoke to people, heard their stories and offered comfort.  Eventually she realized that there was no family without loss,AND she was no longer depressed.  She found that her true purpose, what brought her life meaning was helping others through THEIR time of need.

The secret of happiness is through following the Divine, filling the Gd-shaped hole.  The secret of happiness is finding the sacred in your life.  The secret of happiness is helping others--whether your family, your friends, those you’ve never met or your community.

Rabbi Ed Feinstein, a prominent rabbi on the West Coast wrote about the pursuit of happiness.  He said that seeking only pleasure is doomed to fail, but if instead we “ walk the world seeking connection, attachment, relationship, intimacy” even “with all its heartache and frustration and pain, is to walk with God and to earn eternity.” He teaches that walking together, walking towards good, walking towards Gd will not only make us happier, it will fulfill us.

Today is the second day of Rosh Hashanah.  Next Shabbat will be Yom Kippur.  In between are the Aseret Yamei Tshuvah, the ten days of repentance.  But they are not just a time for us to repent to Gd or to others, they are a time for us to repent to ourselves.  We have missed many opportunities to make ourselves better.  Let’s begin working towards our best selves.  What I have discussed this morning are big steps, but there are many little steps along the way.  On Kol Nidre, I am going to speak about how we can change our lives, one step at a time.  I am going to speak about taking one moment a day to thank GD for the blessings around us.  That is one way to change your life.  Another is to spend these days in community and connection.  When you do something fun this week, invite a friend.  

Share your resources with those that need it.  Next year I want to give everyone a pushke, a tzedekah box, so you can put your pennies and dimes to work for the shul.  In the meantime, put your change in a jar, share it with the charity of your choice (or CAI).  (If you need some suggestions, let me know, I’ve got tons!)  

Share your mind, join a class here, help me start another study group; join one of our books clubs.  

Share your soul:  Come to minyan, start a meditation circle, find spiritual practices that will help you let Gd in.  Rabbi Feinstein says “This year, earn your immortality in the heart of community.”  What he means is that together we can do great things.  Together we can find the holiness in each other and connect to the Divine.  Together we can find the secret to happiness, which as we have seen, is not a secret at all.

Just by coming in today you are one step closer to Gd and to TRUE happiness.  You have found a corner of the sky, maybe it is yours!