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“I am honoured to be introduced by my father.” Not my words but that of President Bush opening a new American facility in China. Whilst their presence in China is purely political and commerce driven and I hope that my being here is far removed from that, those words are completely appropriate for this morning here at Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue. However, I have to go a little further.
I am honoured to be introduced by my father and to be inducted at the same time as my father and my colleague and friend, Hillel. We are all honoured that Dad has been introduced by the Executive Director of the Union of Liberal & Progressive Synagogues at the time when this Synagogue was founded and who introduced my father to this Congrgation, Rabbi Sidney Brichto; and the current Executive Director of Liberal Judaism who introduced Hillel to us all, Rabbi Danny Rich has presented Hillel. Still further, we honoured and indebted to Brian Sass, the Council and members of the Community for assembling us as the Rabbinic Team and for the firm foundations that will enable us to develop the Community further.
There is a lot of kavod - honour - that is appropriate today. The Hebrew root of this word can mean honour and glory but also burden, heaviness and weightiness. For Hillel and I in particular, we do feel a weight of expectation and the seriousness of our task; but it is not a burden. To be inducted as Rabbis of this Community is an honour.
This is also a heavy season, literally so for our Orthodox brothers and sisters who maintain the period of mourning around Tisha B’Av that falls tomorrow, commemorating the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and the many other calamities that have befallen our People through time.
However, today, is called Shabbat Chazon, named after the title for the book of Isaiah from which my mother read as the Haftarah. Shabbat Chazon is traditionally understood as referring to the vision of a 3rd Temple in Heaven and of messianic times but as Liberal Jews who do not long for this vision, ours must be a different one.
My vision is one of Sacred Community. We often use the word Community, I do it on a frequent basis to describe Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue; but now is the time to define what kind of Community it is that we want so that we can work together to create it.
Community is a form of order. As T.S. Eliot went so far as to state: “What life have you if you have not life together? There is no life that is not in community.” I believe that the order is in working towards ‘good.’ Our community allows the ‘good’ that its members are striving for to be varied. In our community, some might identify ‘good’ through social contact in a safe and familiar environment, in giving care and receiving it, expressing ourselves through drama and cultural activity or sport or growing through shared learning and spiritual, worshipful experiences. Others find ‘good’ in ways that actually bear no definition. They are engaged in activities but can not articulate why they are.
But there must be some commonality in that ‘good,’ providing the order inherent in community. For me, that is the sacred which Rabbi Larry Hoffman defines as, “the transcendent sense of the ultimate.”
For Jews and all who join our community, I hope that we are now convinced of the infinite nature of the Jewish People. Constant are the reminders of our endurance, Tisha B’Av being another one that reminds us that in spite of all the tragedies we have faced, we are still here and that there will be generations to come after us. When we accept this, we are awestruck by the connectedness, purpose and meaning that our individual lives represent. We are part of the history of our People.
A community that allows for a breadth of ‘good,’ values each and every member for what they contribute towards the common ‘good.’ In a Sacred Community, each member, their personal ‘good’ and the contributions that they make, are imbued with a sense of the sacred. Rabbi Hoffman identifies the point at which sacred community is found as being: “where humans meet to find the infinite, where our minds meet God’s, where all the universe is our home, because we are part of all the universe.”
In parasha Devarim, from which Hillel read this morning, we hear Moses’ anxiety, that he alone cannot bear the weight of the Community. Of course he cannot. A Community is not one where any one individual need be valued above another and therefore where any one makes all the difference, no matter if there has never been a prophet such as Moses since.
I am motivated by the devolution of kavod, the honour of working for the Community that God instructed Moses to develop. A system of governance and responsibility that enabled others to play their part towards their individual and common ‘good.’ I am also inspired by the character singled out in the episode of the spies, Caleb son of Jephunnah of the tribe of Judah. Of the spies who were sent into the Land to understand its wealth and strength, Caleb was the voice of loyalty to God and positivity for what the future would hold. AS I look over our Land, our Community; it is strong now and the fruits into the future are abundant.
Eternal God, grant us, not just Hillel, Dad and I, but all of us, the blessing of working towards our individual ‘good,’ the common ‘good’ of our Community and our God defined by our understanding that what we do has significance, that we matter. We matter to each other and to “the transcendent sense of the ultimate.” May our Sacred Community continue to thrive and grow with all its Rabbis and all its members. Amen.
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