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Synagogue Sermon

September 23, 2000

Installation of Rabbi Ari Berman at The Jewish Center (2000)

Vaetchanan Ketuvim The Jewish Center The Rabbinate
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Outline

Address to Rabbinical Council of America (1992)

Carl Becker, the great American historian, once said, “It is important every so often to look at the things that go without saying to be sure that they are still going.” So, let’s take a good look at ourselves – to see if things are still going, and if not, why not; where we seem to be heading in the future; and what we can do about influencing that future direction. Of course, talking about the future is a thankless task – אמרו חז״ל: מיום שחרב בית המקדש ניתנה נבואה לשוטים... Maybe that’s why a great חכם, Albert Einstein, said: “I never think of the future; it comes soon enough.” The categories of gadlut and katnut – drawn from Kabbalah and popularized by the Hasidic movement – apply not only to individuals but to collectivities as well. These terms, which denote states of spiritual and intellectual expansion (gadlut) or constriction (katnut), help us understand where we are and perhaps how to move forward. At present, we are clearly in a state of katnut. Those who deny it – such as Charles Silberman (A Certain People) and others – do a great disservice. The data are sobering: the CJF reports a 52% intermarriage rate; Prof. Seymour Martin Lipset noted that only one-quarter of children raised Orthodox remain Orthodox (a statistic I question, but still find disturbing); Prof. Samuel Heilman reported at a recent OU–YI–RCA conference that Orthodoxy comprises only 6–12% of the Jewish population, and that a significant portion of Modern Orthodox Jews are defecting or becoming marginalized; there is growing financial stress, even before the Reichmann collapse – median incomes have declined, families are smaller, and women working outside the home adds pressure; Modern Orthodox education has been ceded to teachers to the right, leading to either a deepening rift with Haredim or a merging into “nominal Orthodoxy”; Orthodox synagogues are shrinking and may no longer be able to support full-time rabbis; an AJC report (“The High Cost of Jewish Living”) highlights further strai…
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The Rabbi as Spiritual Leader

The following comments refer mainly to those who are professionally involved in melekhet ha-kodesh (sacred activity). As one who has been deeply immersed in this activity for well over twenty-five years, I think I understand some of the problems a rabbi faces. I specifically address myself to the internal psychological tensions that afflict a rabbi, tensions that could become a source of creativity but also are reason for great anguish and moral torment. If there is one clearly identifiable mood that looms above all others as a threat to the effectiveness, happiness, and even sanity of a committed Rav in this last quarter or a century, it is... frustration. There is nothing quite as noxiously potent as frustration in defeating a rabbi, and in robbing him of his inspiration, his ability to function, and his idealism. I can think of no better paradigm of this dangerous defeatism than the story of Elijah in the famous passage in Kings I:19. The evil queen, Jezebel swears that she will kill the prophet. Elijah retreats into the desert to think. He sits under a tree - and he gives up: vayish'al et nafsho la-mut. Vayomer rav atah — “enough! Now take my life!” A spiritual leader who is prevented from leading spiritually sees no point to life. The emptiness is a fate worse than death. His audience has evaporated, his admonitions fall on deaf ears, his miraculous achievements fail to impress these obdurate Jews, and now they want to kill him. Well, let them! His prophetic mission is stillborn, he is a frustrated and defeated and desperate man, and he might as well resign and give up the ghost. But God will not accommodate Elijah. An angel feeds him and sends him on a forty-day and forty-night trek to Mount Horeb. Elijah sleeps in a cave, and the devar Hashem comes to Elijah and inquires: mah lekha poh Eliyahu - what are you doing here, Elijah? His pathetic plaint is poured out, and the gall and the bitterness still affect us across the centuries: vayomer kano kineiti la-Has…
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Chag Hasemicha Convocation, Sunday March, 10, 2002

Rabbi Lamm delivers a sermon at the Chag Hasemicha Convocation.
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