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Synagogue Sermon

October 2, 1970

A Time for Affirmation (1970)

Rosh Hashanah
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In Psalm 27, which we read during this penitential season, we recite the following verse: הוריני ה’ דרכך ונחני באורח מישור למען שוררי. “Teach me, O Lord, Thy way and lead me in the path of righteousness because of my enemies’ sake.” Because of my enemies? Does that make sense? I prefer the translation of Dr. Phillip Birnbaum in our prayer books: “despite my enemies.” David finds himself surrounded by enemies on all sides. They are out not only to destroy him physically, but worse, to cut him down to size, to reduce him to just another primitive pagan chieftain, to make him just another one of their own, to rob him of his faith, his spiritual uniqueness, his special charm, to dispossess him of his neshamah, of his capacity to compose תהילים or Psalms. And so David prays: “Teach me Your way and guide me in the right path למען שוררי – despite my enemies.”Perhaps it is best to characterize this attitude with an Aramaic word that has gone over into Yiddish: דווקא, davka. In the Talmud, that word means: necessarily, exactly. But it also takes on, especially in the Yiddish, a larger and more poignant meaning that is really untranslatable: despite, the acceptance of a challenge, the exercise of stubbornness and persistence against all odds.Davka is for me a symbol of one of the most precious, unique, and irreplaceable Jewish traits, and the Jew's characteristic mode in confronting the world: the ability to prevail against almost certain defeat, to resolve to survive despite political persecution and cultural pressure for assimilation, to determine to triumph even if it means flying in the face of facts and defying reason. למען שוררי – davka when my enemies want me to surrender my faith, my uniqueness, my commitment – davka then, teach me to be a better Jew!What is it that gives the Jew the power of davka? Wherefrom this success in attempting the impossible? What alchemy is needed to concoct this historic Jewish mixture of courage and defiance and persistence that we have c…
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It is a truism that we live in stormy times. This is an age of tension and stress, when civilization itself stands at the brink of disaster, when new nations are being created amidst convulsions of terror and threaten to engulf the whole world in the flames of revolutionary passions. Life has become increasingly complex and difficult for all of us. At a time of this sort, we each of us wonder: what does all this mean? Is there any significance to it? Does it make sense? It is right that this question be asked in and of the synagogue, and it is only fair to expect that we make a serious effort to explain to our people the meaning of the upheavals which we are experiencing. The key to the understanding of the nature of our times is an intriguing passage in an ancient and revered text of the Jewish tradition, which expresses remarkably well the whole outlook of our Rabbis. In the Tanna de'bei Eliyahu we read that our civilization will reach an age of 6,000 years, and that this period of human history is divided into three cycles of about 2,000 years each. The first cycle is called Tohu ---- Chaos --- because during these 2,000 years, beginning with creation, the spirit has not yet crystallized in the world and the life of man is essentially chaotic. The second cycle is called Torah, for during this time man begins to show receptivity to the word of G-d, and G-d Himself becomes more accessible to mankind. The last cycle of approximately 20 centuries, the one during which we now live, is called Mashiach, or the days of the Messiah. During thid period, the forces of Torah and Tohu -- Sprit and Chaos - - are locked in a death-grip, battling for supremacy. Upon the outcome of this battle depends the redemption of the history of mankind. Mashiach or Messiah will come only when the struggle between Torah and Tohu is decided by the final triumph of Torah. And the exact time of that •victory is to be determined only by usI We can, by our own actions, either hasten or delay the…
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One of the most popular and beloved phrases in all the Mahzor is: ha-yom harat olam, which we recite in response to the three times the Shofar is sounded during the Cantor’s repetition of the Musaf. All the congregation joins in unison in reciting it warmly, lovingly, and reverently. Yet there is something puzzling about it. For these words mean, “Today is the birthday of the world.” But what does the doctrine of the creation of the world have to do with Shofar? In what way is ha-yom harat olam a reaction to the message of the Shofar? Perhaps we can understand it by referring to the only time that the words harat olam appear in the Bible – and that, in a radically different context.The Prophet Jeremiah had warned his people against engaging in treacherous power politics, and summoned them to a noble and decent ethical life lest their land be utterly destroyed. His reward for acting as a voice of conscience was that he was imprisoned, beaten, and tortured. Upon his release, he again warns of the impending doom of the nation and, broken in body and in spirit, he utters a lament of despair which rivals in power and eloquence the greatest passages of Job, Arur ha-yom asher yuladeti bo, he cries out: “cursed be the day wherein I was born.” If this must be my fate, if all my dedication and sacrifice must be so futile, then why was I ever brought into the world? Why did not G-d slay me before I was born; or ve’rahmah harat olam – why was not my mother’s pregnancy an eternal one so that I would never have seen the light of day!This, then, is the meaning of harat olam in the 20th Chapter of Jeremiah – for harat means not only birth but, more often, the conception and carrying of the child before birth; and olam means not only “world” but “ever,” eternity. Harat olam in Jeremiah means the exact opposite of what it does in the Mahzor. For the Prophet it means never being born, eternal waiting, an unending potentiality that never culminates in the creative act of birth and rea…
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