Sermons

Erev Rosh Hashanah 5769
by Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman

Through the years, I’ve sat with many families prior to a funeral, and I have heard the stories, and have seen the incredible closeness that happens as a result of sharing and reflecting on the origins of a nickname, a courtship, of family legends. I love the surprise that I see in family members’ eyes as they say, “I didn’t know that! Amazing!” A piece of their puzzle put into place. Even conflicting stories reveal a lot about a family, and there are often conflicting stories. “Dad would never say that!” is often heard. “No! No! I remember that situation like this…” An argument breaks out. I like to tell people that, actually, both can be true, even if the facts are not attainable. That’s the beauty of memoir. It’s about perception. It’s about a reality that one can hold differently than another, about the very same circumstances.

Elderly people will tell the same story over and over and over again. I even find myself doing it these days, because I want my children to know the stories of their family. They understand, as we all do, this great wisdom: that if you don’t tell your stories something is lost. Actually, a future is lost.

I often hear, “Why didn’t I listen better? I thought I knew that story. I heard it a hundred times! But now I don’t remember that one fact, that one bit of information that feels so important to me now. Why don’t I remember?”

Knowing our beginnings helps us live our lives by the ideals of those who came before us, and allows us to live out our passions. Kierkegaard said it so beautifully. He said “We live life forward, but we can only understand that life when we look backward.”

Here at our 130th anniversary, on this Rosh Hashanah, we’re moving forward, but we have to have the insight of looking back. That’s what Rosh Hashanah is all about. It’s what the High Holy Days demand of us: sit in a sanctuary and look back. Look back – in order to have insight. And with that insight, you can change your behavior as you move forward. That’s the art and the beauty of the Jewish tradition.

So at our 130th anniversary, we’re sort of like those families that have differing stories about the same event. We, too, will find our story enlightening, and we will be propelled to a bright and wonderful future.

I spent this summer reading our Temple’s memoirs: Rabbi Minda’s book, The Story of Temple Israel: A Personal Account, and Rabbi Shapiro’s two sermon. Here I Am is his first book; Walk Beside Me is his second.

The story begins in a beautiful way. In 1867, when Jews pioneered to Minneapolis, this was a very, very cold place, and the terrain was rough. It was interesting to read about the Jews who chose to come here. There was no cemetery here in Minneapolis, so these pioneers turned to their older neighbors in St. Paul. They would bury in the cemetery at Mt. Zion Temple.

Here is where that conflicting memory of legend comes into play. There was a winter where either the funeral casket didn’t make it to the funeral in St. Paul or the family didn’t make it to the funeral in the horse-drawn carriage. There are differing view points. But the bottom line is that the Minneapolis Jewish community set down its roots and established the Montfiore Burial Association at 42nd Street and Third Avenue, exactly where it stands today.

In 1878 a congregation, Shaarai Tov, was established and incorporated and its 130th anniversary is what we begin this evening. In 1880 on Erev Rosh Hashanah, very much like tonight, the first service took place in the first building of Shaarai Tov on Fifth Street between First and Second Avenues.

It’s great reading, these memoirs, because you get the stories of our beginnings – the origins of traditions that I never understood why they existed. Like when the clergy walk into the sanctuary and you all stand up. I’m sure you’ve thought, “Why am I doing this?” Well, Rabbi Minda established that tradition so that when the service began and people stood up, conversation would stop and people would quiet down, creating the right tone for the beginning of a religious service. Well, I have to say – it still works today, doesn’t it?

In 1963, Rabbi Shapiro had a problem on his hands. The numbers of the congregation grew so large that he established three Erev Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidre services so that everyone could stay in the walls of this beautiful sanctuary. In the morning, he established the simultaneous Creative services that took place downstairs. And even today – those are overflowing.

I laughed out loud at some of the apocryphal stories that add texture and meaning to this place, and I hope that they’re not funny to me alone. I hope you also find them a bit humorous. In 1904, Dr. Deinard instructed that postcards be sent to every congregant stating that they are not only asked, but he insisted upon them coming to Friday evening services and that they bring a friend!

Also in 1904, Dr. Deinard came before the Board of Trustees asking to include Hebrew education in Religious School. So it’s interesting, isn’t it? In 1904 we were talking about it? Right! So what did he say? He said, “We need Hebrew education!” And what did the Board say? “Survey the numbers of kids that are going to learn Hebrew and then charge them 10¢ a week for that Hebrew training.” That must have been extremely successful because two years later, in 1906, Dr. Deinard came again to the Board and asked to hire five Religious School teachers. The Board gave him two!

Rabbi Minda also has a very interesting story. He brought candles and the Kiddush into Friday night and High Holy Days services. He also added the sound of the shofar to the coronet. So he “innovated” a lot of our traditions and he was charged – this is Rabbi Minda we’re talking about here – charged with leading Temple Israel back to orthodoxy! Rabbi Minda!

Business versus religion – the tension between them is not new. It seems as though the congregation often felt that the Rabbi is a little too religious for them. Temple attendance on days other than this evening and tomorrow has always been a challenge. Hearing these stories helps me understand that we, too, need to keep strength and resolve to move forward. That all my predecessors risked a lot, and failed a lot. And guess what? It’s O.K.! We have to take the risks! We have to know that our stories will sustain us. And that, even when it gets scary, we need to persevere.

The best stories are the ones where at the beginning people thought something was a failure, and we see it now as quite successful. Rabbi Minda came to apply for the Senior Rabbi position here at Temple Israel soon after the sudden death of Dr. Deinard on Kol Nidre. He came here, applied for the job, and waited for the president to call him to say that they had chosen him. He was much honored, but he realized that by accepting he would be leaving South Bend, Indiana. He thought that it was very important to check in with Frances, the woman he’d been courting back in Indiana. In that conversation, he proposed and she accepted. He then thought he should call the president of Temple Israel to let him know that he was engaged, and he did so. Well, the president was appalled! “You interviewed as a single man! You don’t just get to come here with an engagement!” Well, all of us who had the privilege of knowing Mrs. Minda know that Rabbi Minda’s words ring true when he replied, “Trust me! You’re getting two for the price of one.” He also said that when he came here for the first Friday service after he and Mrs. Minda returned after their honeymoon, the entire sanctuary was as filled to capacity as though it was Yom Kippur. But he knew it wasn’t to hear his sermon. It was to see his bride!

Those of you who were here when the question was put forth about buying property on Lake Minnetonka, because it was no longer possible to have Camp TEKO at Lake Nokomis, know that this wasn’t a popular decision at first. Many people though it was too expensive – that it really was not realistic for us to be in the camping business. What’s even funnier now – as we see the success of Camp TEKO, as we see generations of our children are even more connected to their Judaism because of their attending the summer camps, the 9th grade retreats, and the Religious School experiences at TEKO. Those very same people who opposed the decision about purchasing Camp TEKO, not too far down the road from that decision, said they were for it from the start.

The things that people thought were wrong decisions, ended up being the absolutely right thing, at the right time. But it took vision, And it took fearlessness. And it took the ability to say “We’re going to do this, regardless of any concern.” And that is what we need right now.

You see, I sit in the same seat as Rabbi Minda and Rabbi Shapiro, but the world is vastly different now. I sit in the same seat as Rabbi Pinsky and Rabbi Edelheit, and it is different for me than for those two. Never did those men compete with a woman as a Senior Rabbi. You decided to invest in a woman in a leadership position. It was Temple Israel who first in this country had a female as the Senior Rabbi of such a large congregation.

It is a world that is very different, and it’s amazing to see how the world has changed. Never did these men see an African-American man run for the Presidency. And yet we live in uncertain times. Today we feel it more powerfully that any other day. Economics – the price of gas and groceries strain families. Wall Street – the most glaring reminder of this unbelievably intense time with the Dow plummeting today. The world is moving faster – cells phones, the World Wide Web. We connect with someone across the world that we never see better and faster than we connect sometimes with our own next neighbors. We are scared. We are nervous.

I’ve heard a sort of anger in the last week that I’ve never heard before. And I think that it is about time. We can feel that fear, but we can’t get stuck there. That’s really important. Because it’s not good for anyone. When you get stuck in fear, you get rigid. Then you stop risking! Then you stop looking into the future! Then you only look back! And that’s a real problem.

But Temple is strong. Temple is the place where people turn to when the world feels chaotic, like it feels right now. We are a sanctuary of Jewish values and this congregation has stood firm through so much and through so many turbulent times. It has stood firm. Look at our history.

This very sanctuary was completed in 1928, a year before the Depression. The Board paid back every penny to the bank, never finding an easy way out. Because the bank invested in us, we were going to make good on every penny. It was our integrity that was at stake.

In 1968 there were riots in this city, riots in cities throughout the United States. Rabbi Shapiro didn’t lock the doors, didn’t barricade Temple Israel. Absolutely not! The exact opposite happened – we opened our doors! It was1968 when Rabbi Shapiro founded with a few other churches around this area, NIP (Neighborhood Involvement Program.) So instead of being fearful, we saw opportunity. NIP has brought incredible programs to our city. Medical care, psychological clinics, clothes, food, shelter. It is an extraordinary organization that continues strong today.

Well, we’ve looked at our history. We understand that life is looked at and understood backwards, but we need to move forward now. Who are we and what are we today?

We are a religious voice. When there is a question about Judaism, the major congregations on Hennepin call us because we have relationships with them. Like when someone needs to know which Rabbi should be featured on the side of a bus, they call us.

We are young. Eighty percent of our congregation is under the age of 65.

We are metropolitan. We pull from 149 zip codes for our congregational mailings. That means people come here because they know what we stand for. They don’t come out of convenience. We don’t need another synagogue in the suburbs; there are enough there. And yet we provide a Western presence as with our Hebrew school. It is the strength of who we are that brings people to Temple, not the convenience.

We are leaders in our movement. We are one of the leading congregation to send our young people to Rabbinic School, to Cantorial School and to train them as Jewish Educators. We have a perfect example this evening! (Steven Abelson)

We are innovators. Come for Shabbat and you will find an incredible congregation every week! Tot Shabbat: The first Friday of every month where hundreds of toddlers are running around on the very seats you are sitting in right now. They are making the sanctuary their own. They are our future! Nefesh Shabbat: Here on the lower Bimah, that is accessible to all, we place a band and nobody sits quietly in their seats. Everybody is moving and singing. Our Shabbat: Morning Congregational Shabbat where we are moving away from privatized Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies by bringing our B’nai Mitzvah to the Congregational Shabbat Morning worship services.

I wish more of you were with us this past Shabbat, where a “first of its kind” Bat Mitzvah was celebrated. In addition to the family and friends of the Bat Mitzvah, more than 40 members of our congregation attended the ceremony, and were touched by this young woman’s story. A young woman adopted from China, telling us that when she walks into a room here, people look at her like she’s not Jewish. Let me tell you – this young woman is so Jewish, and we are blessed to have that punim in our midst. There was not a dry eye in the house, and many of the people who were here for the service had never met the family before. That was a Shabbat experience!

We are going to introduce this year “Mishkan T’filah,” our new prayer book. You might say that we’re going back to Orthodoxy with a new twist. I promise you that it is an incredible prayer book and I hope you come and join us experience it.

We are Zionists. We send our most precious commodity to Israel, along with going ourselves. We send our children to high school in Israel. We send our children for a gap year between high school and college. We even sent a young woman from this congregation to medical school in Israel this year. We know the importance of a Jewish state and we stand firm in our support. We are Zionists at Temple Israel.

I tell you, we stand firm. But what memoir have we recorded for the future? We’ve already missed documenting so many of our events in our own experience. We have not yet written down how we changed to gender-neutral God language here at Temple Israel. We have not yet written down how we came to have our full-time vested Cantor, a 30-year anniversary experience we will be celebrating of this year. We have not yet written down the story of the employment of the first female Rabbi here at Temple Israel. We have not yet documented the process of including GBLT – Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender – members of our congregation. These are things that cannot get lost. We need to document them. We need our memoirs.

A commitment to celebrate 130 years means we take responsibility to vision our future. As a start to what we might vision, let me tell you what keeps me up at night sometimes. I won’t tell you all of it, because then it would keep you up at night, too. But here are some things I wrestle with. Some are things that we might need to wrestle with together. I think they are.

As the economy plummets, I worry about our congregants. I worry about their needs, and I want to make sure that when they come here, Temple responds to their needs. My sabbatical was to learn a bit about psychology and to understand the psycho-dynamics of human beings. You see, since I’ve been back from my sabbatical, there have been a number of people coming into my office who find themselves in a situation that they never have been in before. They find they are not able to able to buy medications for anxiety or for depression or for mood-disorders. Now I understand what they’re asking when they ask for help. And now I understand better that help can’t wait until tomorrow! We need to attend to it today. So what I set up a meeting with Patsy Bartley, the new Executive Director of NIP, and I told her my problem. Now she and I are creating possible solutions. It’s a situation where we need to collaborate, we need to help, and we need to respond.

I also worry, as the economy plummets, about foreclosures. Take a ride on the North side of Minneapolis. Every block has a foreclosure sign. On some blocks, every house has a foreclosure sign. It’s a complicated reality, and perhaps many of us have different perspectives on this concern. But the bottom line is – we need to help. So I’ve been talking with Alika Galloway, the Pastor at Kwanzaa Community Church in North Minneapolis. She and I became friends last year when she invited me to speak about Judaism at their church. She told me this past summer that the foreclosure problem is really a tax issue for many of her congregants. She would love some lawyers to come on Sunday mornings to sit with their members to help them see what they need to do. What a wonderful opportunity to bridge a problem: to have us at Temple Israel respond and give help by giving advice. Advice that we have! We have a lot of people in our congregation who deal with tax law, so we can charge forth.

We have wonderful activism at Temple Israel and incredible work has been done here in this congregation around homelessness. We have opened our doors for a shelter. It is wonderful, and I applaud it. The Sisterhood, Men’s Club and the 7-8th grades do incredible amounts of social action and it does us proud. But I think we missed an opportunity, an opportunity that I’m concerned about. I think we missed it because of an assumption we make as Reform Jews. In Pottsville, Iowa, there is a meat-processing plant that has clearly been seen as having an unfair and unsafe work situation and environment – and it’s under Rabbinic supervision and blessing. The immigration issue involved, as you know, just made it worse. But that’s not the issue, per se. What we missed as Reform Jews was that it’s not just about kashrut alone. We didn’t speak up because it seems to be something separate and far from us as Reform Jews. But we need to have intra-faith understanding and dialogue. Our Conservative colleagues and congregations – they are incensed. We have not been there to speak up with them. That was a missed opportunity, and we need to turn that around. We will – going forward.

The other things that keep me up at night are just your basic concerns of whether we are using our resources right, the concern about whether we are being responsible fiscally, spiritually, making sure that we move forward as a congregation.

And finally, there’s an issue that I want to talk seriously about. So if there is nothing else you walk away with tonight, I hope this is it. I want to know if we are open enough for inter-faith couples? And so we have moved to create a sub-committee. It was directed by Howard Zack our president, and it is now under the capable leadership of Howard Kaplan. He is going to gather people to ask an essential question. And the essential question is about officiating at interfaith weddings. Is it time? What do we need to do? What are the understandings we must have?

And so a group of people have been asked to be on a committee – and we will open up dialogue both through the internet, letters and other opportunities not yet fully developed. The dialogue is at its beginning. No decision has been made. Let me make that clear. But we are beginning a very important process. So we need you as partners; we need your perspectives; we need you to engage.

Here we are on the brink of starting 131 years at Temple Israel. And when we are at 131 years, we will be moving forward in a whole new way. I love looking back; it’s exciting, funny and incredibly, incredibly self-satisfying. But we can’t stay there long. So as we look forward, may we do so in understanding and in partnership. May this congregation go forward in strength as it has come to us in strength. And may each of us understand that this place will always be here, unshakeable by chaos outside, unshakeable by a Dow that goes down. This is an investment that I promise you will reap in the future.

L’Shana Tov