Sermons

Erev Rosh HaShanah 5770
by Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman

Well now it’s Rosh HaShanah. When Cantor sings the Malkeinu that means the new year has begun. There is a proverb that says, “When it is dark enough, then we can see the stars.” It has been a difficult year for some of us, if not all of us, financially. It’s been dark. We open these High Holy Days with a sense of concern and anxiety that we have carried since last year when we sat in these seats. We witnessed the worst crisis since the 1930’s Depression. While the reports over the last two months cautiously are hopeful, many don’t feel a change one iota in their everyday life.

I want to take a moment to look at the headlines that we have been bombarded with this last year. The

New York Times, last September 2008:
“Market Meltdown – Where to Now?”
“Lehman Files for Bankruptcy; Merrill Is Sold”
“Congressional Leaders Are Shocked by Warnings”

The Washington Post:
“Fannie, Freddie and Ordinary People”
“George Washington Overhauls Its Business School – Makes Ethics Its Bottom-line”

Then early winter arrived and our community surely felt the chill. Madoff fraud rippled around the world. Even this month the headlines persist: “The Early Word – Unemployment Continues to Rise”

We know that our congregation has not been immune to these realities. More than ever, people have come to our offices asking for the basic necessities: for food, for help for rent, for prescription medication. We have seen a forty percent rise in scholarship requests and that doesn’t count the people who decided to take their children out of religious school because they can’t bear the shame of asking for help. We brought our budget down by 20 percent, including our expenses and our programs.

What led to this crisis? There are many opinions, and I am no financial expert, but I have looked at the paper, heard all the reports, and this is what comes at us – there is no one clear answer: lack of regulation, lack of enforcement of regulation, reckless risk-taking, faulty theories, faulty assumptions, and just plain greed. Rev. Wallace said it best on Talk of the Nation, “When the economy is rooted in an unbridled materialism, when the culture extols greed, when we have a false sense of values that puts short-term profits ahead over societal health – then we have problems. It is when we measure human worth by personal income instead of by character, integrity, and generosity, that something goes terrible wrong.” He speaks about moral and spiritually bankruptcy. Now this is where I, as a religious leader, have something to say.

Judaism is rich in text to inform and guide us in this economic crisis. We are lucky to have this richness. A medieval rabbi said it best, “Since people inevitably think about business when they are in the sanctuary. You know what? They should think about God when they are at business!”

You like that? Shall I say it again? In other words, Judaism makes no distinction! All of it is a spiritual act. Everything we do and everyday that we do it, however we treat somebody in a transaction is how we treat the godliness in that person – it is all absolutely a spiritual interaction.

Greed and self-interest, materialism – that’s not new to Judaism. It’s not new to the world! Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun, so believe me, greed is not new. Ethics, according to Judaism in the Mishnah, in the Talmud, tells us that ethnics are a requirement in business, not an option. Leviticus tells us not to put a stumbling block in front of the blind nor insult a deaf person. We are not to take advantage of people, especially in their vulnerabilities. The person who is blind will not know who put the stone in front of them, but they will trip anyway. The person who is deaf will not even hear the insult, but that still makes us culpable. The act is wrong, and that’s just plain and simple.

The Talmud tells us that the first question that a person will be asked upon entering the gates of judgment, “Have you been ethical in your business?” Torah tells us that we can’t hold the wages of a worker for even a day, because we ourselves should not benefit from others work. I had a friend who once was paid daily by an Orthodox business employer. The text pushes even further: it tells us we can’t sell or even lend something to a person without being fully transparent. We must inform them of a potential or real blemish in the thing we are handing over.

Now this seems so clear to us, that I decided to look at the real face of this financial crisis. Last Thursday, I went door-knocking on the North side of Minneapolis. It is the most effected neighborhood within our city. Foreclosure signs up throughout. I went door-knocking with Jewish Community Action to help people who were on a foreclosure list to get the people in these homes the help and counseling they need. We wanted them to be informed; we wanted them to have empowerment.

The first family we meet in out door-knocking was a Hmong family, a daughter and her father. She explained to me that her father had always gone to the bank just to get a few dollars cash. He literally had to stand in line with a check to get the cash. She explained to him that there was something called “cash cards” that he might want one, instead of the checks. He thought it was a fabulous idea and so he went to the bank to get a cash card. He walked out with a mortgage.

Three women sitting on a porch were another stop. The mother of one of the women originally owned the house, and one of women received it as an inheritance. Her husband decided that they should refinance it and they got a sub-prime mortgage. Later he left and she couldn’t keep up with the mortgage with just one salary in the household. She had worked it out with lender – she was an amazing woman! She was self-reliant; she understood that she had to go and speak with the bank, yet she was still on the foreclosure list. Something wasn’t quite right yet with her arrangement, so we encouraged her to go to the financial counselor who give her free advice and read the fine print to see what was not yet right.

People need help. Clearly, when they are taken advantage of as that Hmong man was, they need support. Jewish texts are clear: money is neither evil nor good. It’s what you do with it and what you do for it – that’s where the ethical line is drawn. When it is dark enough, then and only then, can we see the stars.

We have experienced the light of many stars this past year. I have experienced more people coming to Shabbat services. Religious School opening was never more exciting and electrifying – parents and students came to learn together to experience a Jewish education, to experience our future. We feel the safety and serenity in this community, in spiritual place, and I feel blessed to serve in this wonderful congregation.

What are the lights of the lessons that go even further than the teachings of the Jewish texts? The lights of the lessons also serve as the antidote for the spiritual bankruptcy that we have experienced. For me, the biggest lesson of this past year is that I want people to take responsibility! It’s amazing! On this anniversary of Lehman Brothers, there is an article where each and every person who worked there pointed the finger at somebody else for the demise. Even the head of Lehman Brothers has not taken responsibility. But I did find one quote that was a possible open door when he said, “I am responsible, but I made the right decisions and all of my actions were prudent.” I don’t really think that’s taking responsibility.

Actually, I’d like to tell him what it would sound like if he took responsibility. I think it would be something like this, “If I truly think about the number of lives that I have touched and potentially ruined by my decisions, or my inactions, then I am sorry. I am sorry to the employees who put their trust in me. I am sorry to the families who are struggling with foreclosure because of the mortgages we sold. And I am sorry to my family. I can’t undo what is already done, but I can say I am sorry.”

There are consequences when someone apologizes or takes responsibility. We need to accept the consequences of our actions, our misdeeds. This is Judaism 101. We ask for forgiveness – that’s why we’re here on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. We ask for forgiveness for the things we did intentionally, and also for those things we did unintentionally. We hurt each other as human beings everyday. It’s the nature of being human.  So please take these ten days to truly ask for forgiveness. This lesson goes way beyond any financial crisis. It’s a lesson for life.

The last lesson I would like to share is to engage in tzedakah. Don’t let this economic set-back become a rationalization for cutting back on philanthropy. Judaism says that even if we are the recipients of tzedakah, we must give. Pretty amazing. Tzedakah is the rent we pay for being able to be on this earth. It is a requirement within Judaism. There is a story about a rabbi who gives his disciple five dollars and he demands that the disciple gives one of those dollars to tzedakah. Then he asked his student, “How much to you have left?” “Four dollars,” the student said. “Oh, no!” the rabbi said, “Four dollars – they could get lost, they could get stolen.” And do we know how that feels. “The only thing that you have left is that dollar that you gave, because that gives you a good name. And that, no money can buy.”

Tzedakah – philanthropy. It is known from a recent study that at the end of the third generation of a wealthy family, the third generation will dissipate, unless the family has experienced and participated in philanthropy. Philanthropy is the glue that keeps a family together.

So what is the true inheritance that we leave our children? Is it the dollars and cents? No. It is the intangible gifts they we give of integrity and values. Our children already know this lesson. It’s amazing. Have you sat down with any 18 or 20-plus year old lately? Have you asked them how they are spending their money? Let me tell you that this is what you will hear: “I won’t buy anything that was produced in a sweat shop. I only buy green. I care where my food comes from, that it is local.” Our children can teach us a remarkable lesson. When it has gotten dark enough, then we can see the stars.

My mother often told me stories about what it was like growing up in the depression. She loved to tell me how my grandmother would take a big pot of water and would boil it so that the neighbors would think that they had something to eat that night, like a pot of soup. The pride that my grandparents had was sure. A lesson in value for my mother. She told me of the days after World War II, when my father was in medical school on the GI Bill. How they only had one chair because that’s all they could afford. So they would take that chair everywhere in their apartment, into every room, and they would share it or find somewhere else to sit. These are the stories that taught me the values that there is wisdom in hardship, that it’s not a crime to be poor, but that the wheel of society goes around. That when we can give, we do. They taught me to hold on to hope and to work hard. Those are the values that were passed down.

So in this bleak financial world, take time. Take the time to tell the stories, the stories of your family, the failures and the successes. Teach your values that you want as your legacy, as your inheritance. And then we will pass it down to the next generation and the one after that, so we can ensure that human worth in our society will be measured by our character and by our integrity and by our generosity.

L’shana Tova – Happy New Year.