Yom Kippur – 5773

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VORTIFY YOURSELF

Reb Yosil Rosenzweig

rebyosil@gmail.com

YOM KIPPUR – 5773

120926

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Throughout my career as a congregational Rabbi and even in the Shul (synagogue) that I grew-up in, the contrast between attendance on a regular Shabbat service and a Yom Kippur service was astounding. Synagogues built so that the community could sit comfortably in its pews on the High Holidays remain almost vacant during the rest of the year, save for life-cycle events such as Bar Mitzvahs, weddings and funerals. Highly qualified rabbis and cantors place much effort preparing meaningful sermons and collecting stimulating liturgical songs just for the few hours and/or days that they might be heard. Yet, many who do this work are also aware that no matter how well one might perform on the High Holy Days, after Yom Kippur again, it’s empty pews and a handful of Jews.

Fortunately, this description is not the norm; there are actually vibrant, thriving synagogues that attract worshippers not only every Shabbat, but every day throughout the year. When I didn’t serve as a Rabbi I attended such synagogues and many of my family members belong to vibrant synagogues in other communities. Their synagogues are successful because the worshippers feel compelled to attend and properly take advantage of the various services and experiences offered. Still, for many Jews, for a million different reasons, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the only times they set foot in a synagogue and is there nothing that a rabbi can say in a sermon that will change their attitude and bring them back for more? Maybe it’s an unfair question, for no matter how eloquent the words, how relevant the topic, how beautifully delivered the content, if one is not listening with an open heart, then the message cannot pierce the surface.

I must say that the onus is not simply on the synagogue clergy for a successful service, but it rests on all of us. Too often, when I hear people ask each other during the High Holy Day season, “How were the services?,” the answer is usually a critique of the sermons and the cantor’s chanting of the liturgy. But the question should be less about how others performed and more about how did we all do. Did we feel a connectedness to God as we prayed? Did the words of the liturgy bring us a higher awareness of our inner selves? Did the power of group prayer, intensify the experience?

Prayer is at the core of Judaism, the bridge between the human heart and heaven, where the two meet. And yet, too many of us think of spirituality as the domain of Chassidim or Christian Evangelicals. We are uncomfortable with how we should actually approach prayer. We are taught how often to pray, what time of the day to recite which prayer, which words to say and which direction to face. But rarely are we trained in how to open ourselves up to the mood of reflection, and to feel God’s presence.

Why are so many of our young people turned off to Judaism and find it spiritually empty? All my life I’ve heard young people say the High Holy Days are the time for new clothes and old teachings. Talk to Jews who have opted out of Judaism for Eastern meditation and other spiritual expressions and they will tell you their memories of synagogue are those of a place where prayers were recited mechanically, with little emphasis on nurturing one’s soul.

The irony is that Judaism actually is filled with the kind of mysticism and spirituality that many of these people were unable to find. The tragedy within Jewish life is that proper efforts were never made to connect people to the majesty of the liturgy not only at this time of the year but year ’round. So much of it has seemed irrelevant, because the contemporary meaning was never unearthed for those who were in need of a better understanding and in search of relevance.

But in truth, that is but an excuse. So much of what appeared to be irrelevant was in fact extremely relevant, however the building blocks of Jewish knowledge that could support such relevancies were lacking. It is our responsibility to pick up the slack in our own knowledge base in order to be forthcoming with our spirituality. We must endeavor to make Judaism pulsate with fervor and meaning so that it will never become stale, eventually falling into disuse. On the other hand, our synagogues and our schools should not assume that prayer is so fundamental a part of Judaism that it need not be taught and discussed. It cannot be assumed that this is something that one can generally come to understand on one’s known. One primary aspect of Jewish prayer is that unlike Christianity, our clergy do not intercede on our behalf. Instead, our relationship with God is personal, but our prayers are strengthened by the community, by the sense of sharing that we experience when we pray together. And that is why it is preferable to pray as part of a Minyan (quorum) rather than alone, and why the liturgy emphasizes always the plural. It’s “Selach Lanu – forgive us” for our sins, that we say on Yom Kippur; not me or mine, but ours.

Each of us has to take the first step, from the place that we are today, at this moment. If we don’t know the message from Judaism, we at least know it from NIKE in their advertisements, “Just do it” – the rabbi and cantor cannot do it for you. All you need to do is open up your heart and allow yourselves to become part of it. If we are to ask God to keep the gates open for yet a little bit longer, as we do in the Ne’ilah service, then the least we can do is do the same for Him.

There is one other thought that I would like to leave you with. Many years ago, while living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a few of us organized a High Holiday Minyan in a small Shul in the Winnipeg Beach cottage area. While going to perform Tashlich we started calculating how many Jews were attending services in Winnipeg. Estimating the seating capacity of each Shul we came to a total capacity of 6,000 Jews if every seat were filled. Yet, there were 16,000 Jews living in Winnipeg at the time, where were the rest on the Jews? Over the years and in many of the cities I’ve lived in, I found the same calculation to be true, only about one-third of Jews in North American cities attend services on the High Holidays. For all intents and purposes, the three-time a year Jew should be counted among the “religious Jews” within each Jewish community.

My words are not intended to berate Jews who rarely attend services, quite the opposite; I admire them for their desire to cling to a tradition that may be slipping away from them. My intention is for the Jew who is frustrated being a mere spectator at an ancient rite when he/she could be the “star” of the show. In this coming year may we come to pray utilizing skills developed in order to tap into our fountain of Jewish knowledge and make our own participation meaningful. May we be strengthened in our commitment and devotion to the ideals of our special way of life and may we all receive a Chatima Tovah – a fate sealed with goodness,

Reb Yosil