High Holy Days Sermons 5783

YEAR OF SHABBAT

By Rabbi Ari Margolis

Monday, September 26, 2022

We are living in a Netflixed world … our streaming platforms allow us great opportunities to escape from the pressures of our world for a bit, by binge-ing our favorite television shows (I’m looking at you, Great British Bake Off…).  And they almost always give us that nice little recap before each new episode … SO, in that spirit:

PREVIOUSLY AT ROSH HASHANAH:

• RABBI ARI: “And Why did God start with light?” He paused, looked up with conviction and said, “Because light is a symbol of joy.” 

• CANTOR LAURIE: Sooner of later you're feeling the fire, getting hotter and higher / The spark of creation

• RABBI ARI:  And we see that what God put into the endeavor, God got out of it… the joy and pride that came back to God, in that time of Shabbat, reflecting on creation.

• RABBI SARAH: Please be seated.

• RABBI ARI: Let’s … seek out the goodness that we can create in 5783 … connecting with the divine spark of creativity and joy that has been implanted in each of us.

The recap is a bit different when that’s done live, huh? Now that you’re all caught up with our highlights . . . let’s turn from last night’s reflection on creating this new year with joy in our hearts to our next episode of reflection - focusing on how we can find meaningful ways to recharge and reconnect in this new year. 

Afterall, Rosh Hashanah is our time to unplug and reorient ourselves to how we will face the challenges of the world around us. We are living through a time that is filled with chaos, and it is exhausting to try and keep up with all of the pressures of our world. While Netflix can provide us with a temporary salve from those pressures, if we are going to thrive in this New Year, we need to draw strength to face the complex challenges of our world. In a time when our collective mental health is ailing, we need reminders of our own self-worth and the existential sense of meaning and purpose of our lives.

Luckily, our Jewish tradition provides us with our own slightly older technological advances to help us deal with the pressures of our world - the innovation of Shabbat.

Shabbat emerged as an antidote to oppression - a gift from God to ensure that all people could experience freedom in life and connect as equals. It began the societal concept of the weekend, but it is more than just a day of rest and renewal. One of my favorite readings from our Shabbat siddur, prayerbook, comes from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who wrote: “The meaning of Shabbat is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on Shabbat we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world.” The idea of Shabbat is to find an island in time, where time is not our limiting factor, but rather a gift through which we can experience love and hope, meaning and connection.

Israeli poet Ahad Ha-Am has stated, “More than the Jewish people have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jewish people.” When the world seems like it is too much to bear - when we experience moments of tragedy, like the steady stream of gun violence in our city of Chicago or the terrible mass shooting in Highland Park, or when our rights are threatened by acts of antisemitism or changes to our laws,

Shabbat is there for us to gather and find strength and support for the moment and perspective for how we might choose to respond.

When we have a wonderful joy in our lives, and we just want to share it with the world,

Shabbat is there to offer us the space to connect.

When we are just exhausted because the week was just so . . . constant.

Shabbat is there to help us recharge.

When we are feeling uninspired and stuck, 

Shabbat is there to inspire.

Shabbat is not just a time of the week, it’s an idea and a partnership. Shabbat comes each week, but like so many aspects of life, if we do not make the effort to make Shabbat special, it passes us by. WE relinquish the opportunity to have a say in our own fate. We look at things and say, “well, that doesn’t work for me, so I guess I can’t have it or be a part of it.” Same goes for community and same goes for Shabbat - if these are things we want in our lives, we have to take ownership over making them happen. We have to be proactive and intentional and lean into bringing them into our lives. 

So, we want to invite you to help us create Shabbat together this year with Or Shalom. As we can gather once again, join us in rebuilding what Shabbat can become. Exercise the tools of our tradition to help us ride the currents of change with a sense of conviction in who we are and with the love of a supportive community from whom we can draw strength.

We invite you to lean into making this a year of Shabbat with us, and lean into being a part of community in this new year. If you’re new to Or Shalom, it’s the connections with others that makes this place feel like a home because you’re surrounded by family. If you are a founding member, we hope to rekindle our potluck dinners to reconnect and reminisce and celebrate what you have helped to create, together with good friends. What we have seen time and time again is that you get out of this community what you put into it. We are working hard to create Shabbat moments for all of us to be able to gather - whether you are a Shabbat pray-er or not so much. If you like to gather around food, or if you like to gather to do good in this world. We’ll help put together potluck meals or volunteer opportunities. If you want to meet people with similar interests or find those in your Jewish community who happen to live nearby - we want to help you find Shabbat for you this year. To help us help you, please fill out our Shabbat info forms that you received on your way in and return them to us, so that our Shabbat Task Force led by Rich Kane can include you in this effort. This year, our Shabbat task force is working to create new ways to honor Shabbat together, and in doing so, deepening our connections to one another and to the legacy of our people. On the screen, we love watching places where everybody knows your name, where we’ll be there for you, and shows about nothing that end up talking about everything - We want to help you find that place in reality.

We have secured funding to create our Shabbat Rishon series, the First Friday of every month, creating a bigger Shabbat experience with opportunities to gather together ahead of our very musical Shabbat with extra musicians and instruments, all set in the round, so we can see one another as we celebrate - it is so much fun for all ages, so mark your calendars now.

This is what Shabbat is for - making connections - making connections with community, making connections with friends, making connections with God and ultimately, making connections with the person each of us wants to be. . . . 

In this New Year, let us work to put into Shabbat what we want to get from it - let us build the Shabbat experiences that sustain us in the ways Ahad Ha-Am wrote. Let us each find that space to remove ourselves from the hustle of life, and go beyond the screens every now and then, even just for a little bit, so we can find that island in time where we feel a part of the eternal story of our people and the generations of love and light that have inspired us. In doing so, may we turn this world, together, towards peace, towards hope, towards joy, towards love.