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Synagogue Sermon

April 13, 1960

The Old and the New (1960)

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Yizkor is a time that we remember all kinds of relatives and friends who were dear to us, especially parents and grandparents. It is these last two, parents and grandparents, but especially grandparents, who are the subject of my remarks this morning. These comments are based largely on the thoughts of my eminent teacher, R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik שליט”א. שלושה נקראו אבות. The three people who were first called “fathers” amongst our people, were the three patriarchs – Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Each transmitted his teaching – what was later to become the great tradition of Judaism, the Masorah of Israel – from father to son. The connection of a man to his grandson was mediated by his own son. Thus, the tradition of Abraham came to Jacob through Isaac.Hence, the importance in Jewish history of father-son relationships. On the one hand, the father was instructed to teach his son: ושננתם לבניך, ye shall teach (the Torah) diligently to your sons. On the other hand, when one man taught another, he was regarded as if he were his biological father: כל המלמד בן חבירו תורה כאילו ילדו.But I am even more impressed with the relations of grandfathers and grandsons and their ability to get along with each other.This is symbolized by Jacob, who was the first one to be called a “grandfather” as such. Others “became old,” but only Jacob was “the old man.” About Abraham, we read ואברהם זקן בא בימים, Abraham became old, “well-stricken'” in years. But when Joseph meets his brothers the second time, and they do not recognize him, and he wants to ask how their father is, he says השלום אביכם הזקן, “is all well with your old father?” “אב זקן” in Biblical Hebrew may either mean of “old father,” or – “grandfather.” In the Midrash, Jacob is frequently called ישראל סבא, Israel the grandfather, or Israel the old man. And, by extension, all the Jewish people are called ישראל סבא.Jacob, the “choicest of the patriarchs,” was the first one to cross the generation gap. He was the first to create…
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The Same Old Thing? (1976)

One of the great problems that Judaism has to face in the modern world, is the human desire for change and novelty. In a society and an atmosphere which encourage this quest for newness, whether genuine novelty or mere fad, traditional religion hardly stands a chance. So, traditional Judaism is declared to be hopelessly static, unresponsive to the creative urge for something new, and it is jettisoned in favor of the newest fad of the day. All mitzvot, observances, disregarded customs – all prayers, all Torah – are dismissed as “The Same Old Thing,” and ignored. They are considered boring and unexciting. Now this horror of “The Same Old Thing” is a very real reaction. A man does not want to read yesterday’s news, tune in yesterday’s programs, see T.V. reruns only, wear yesterday’s style hat. “The Same Old Thing” cannot hold him, therefore, in religion too.This instinctive reaction against “The Same Old Thing” – a reaction which keeps newspapers and the communications and textile industries, amongst others, in business – is responsible to a great extent for the spiritual breakdown of modern man. But it goes further than that. The horror of “The Same Old Thing” accounts as well for deterioration in many another vital aspect of life. We give up old and dear friends – because we want a new face, not “The Same Old Thing.” We lose interest in our professions or in our businesses – we do not wish to face, every day, “The Same Old Thing.” We hear of infidelity in marriage – our desire for change and novelty and dislike of “The Same Old Thing” leads us into the strange byways of immorality. Too many marriages are breaking up, more than ever before, because of such arguments as “I have to find myself,” “I need room for personal growth,” “I have to have more experiences” – all euphemisms for all too quick boredom, for an irresponsible lapse into “The Same Old Thing” syndrome.How can, and does, Judaism respond to this challenge? It will not do merely to condemn it. It is an inn…
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The Total View (1961)

The theme of the Messiah, which is the central message of the prophet Isaiah in today’s Haftorah, has been a source of fascination for countless generations of our people. One of the questions that attracted their attention was: What will life be like just before the coming of the redeemer? One well-known comment the Rabbis of the Talmud made about this was: ein Ben David ba ad she’tikhleh perutah min ha-kis, that the Messiah will not come until every perutah, or penny, will vanish from every pocket. In other words, it will be an era of stark and oppressive poverty.The great Hasidic teacher, the Vorker Rebbe, interpreted that passage in a manner which, while fanciful rather than literal, provides us with a deep insight into all aspects of life. The word perutah, which means the smallest coin, a penny, is derived from the word perat, meaning a small detail. Peratiut, “detailism,” the tendency to break everything down into small pieces, into the perat, and to fail to see the whole picture, is one of the things that prevents the Messiah from coming. Peratiut is fragmentation, the inclination towards personal and collective isolation, the spirit of divisiveness and disunity. Messiah will come only when peratiut ends, and in its place comes the opposite: kelaliut, the tendency to think in terms of the kelal, the community, the whole picture, the Total View. When man will increase the breadth of his vision and grow beyond peratiut, beyond the confining limitations which make him think small, act small, be small? When he will be a man of kelaliut. of wholeness and wholesomeness, Messiah will come.Peratiut sees life in little bits, while kelatiut tries to include everything in the grand sweep of its vision. Peratiut is egocentric, while kelatiut considers others as well. The pagan embraces peratiut: he views every force of nature or history as independent – war, love, thunder – and assigns each to a separate god. The Jew follows kelatiut, he unifies all his experience and …
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