High Holy Days Sermons 5785

By Rabbi Ari Margolis

Thursday, October 3, 2024

 

Welcome to 5785 - you know, last time it was ‘85 in Chicago, it led to the whole city breaking down to the words: “We're not here to start no trouble, We're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle” … (Sorry Packers fans…but a rabbi can hope, right?)… Well, this is our new year, a year that’s not written in the stars quite yet - we live beside a city that is known for maintaining high hopes through hard times, and we come from a people who have survived BECAUSE we keep hope, tikvah, alive in spite of everything the world throws at us. These High Holy Days are our time to hope and to dream for a better outcome than where we have ended up in the last year … There are real reasons in our world that would give us cause to temper our hopes… Not only because of the lackluster makeup of most of our Chicago sports teams, but also because of the noise in our world, in our community, in our lives, in our homes - there are so many sources of conflict in our lives that sap us of hope, that cause us to despair. We are surrounded by uncertainty, as Rabbi Sarah talked about last night, that brings us worry and fear, that makes us feel like we are mired in conflict, like we are stuck in troubled waters...

 

Oseh Shalom Bimromav, Hu Ya’aseh Shalom aleinu, v’al kol Yisrael, v’imru… v’imru, Amen. (Hirsh)

 

These words literally declare, “May the One Who Makes Peace in the Heavens, Bring peace upon all of us, all of Israel, all of the world.” It’s a beautiful sentiment, conveying a message of hope that we often need to hear. But it is not intended to be a passive statement. Prayer in our tradition is meant to compel us to act.

These words have sustained our people for so many years not because of the mere fact that we have said them, but because of how we allow this phrase to confront us, to call to us in even louder ways than those sources of noise and disillusionment and chaos that surround us. These words are here to help us rise above the din of the world we cannot control, pushing us to focus instead on our own capacity to bring peace. Oseh Shalom is a mindset that compels us to play an active role in our fate for the new year.

This is the true essence of what we’re here to do today and throughout our High Holy Days - We are here to let our prayers light a spark in our hearts, catalyzing us to build a path of peace through this next year, one act of love and kindness at a time; to become partners with God in finding ways to share shalom with those around us. . . not by waiting submissively, not by burying our heads in the sand and hoping for things to just get better. No. This New Year is our time to find the inspiration to do what it takes to bring peace, to become agents of shalom, to build a hopeful 5785.

 

Oooooh-seh Shalom, Bi-imroma-a-av, hu ya’aseh hu ya’aseh hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu (Jagoda) - May the One, May the One Who Makes Peace Bring Peace down, Bring Peace down… 

 

As we help God cause peace to descend, it’s helpful to note that Shalom, our word for peace, stems from the same Hebrew root as Shalem, which means wholeness. Quite often, when we perform acts of Shalom, we become more Shalem, more whole in our soul, our neshamah. 

 

And as much as we’d love to solve all of those big problems with a capital P that plague our world right now, as much as we are carrying those concerns into 5785, we are not God - so it is ok for us to let go of the need to tackle all of the world’s issues at once. But it does not mean that we curl up in a ball and give up . . . As Rabbi Tarfon teaches us in the Mishnah, “it is not our responsibility to complete the task, nor are we free to desist from it” (Avot 2:16).

 

We might not control all of what is out there, but we can control what is in here (head) and how we direct ourselves here (heart). When we embrace our roles as peace agents, we can be present for the opportunities where we do have agency to create shalom and to fill ourselves with shalem.

 

Oseh Shalo-om b’imromav   hu ya’aseh shalom alei-ienu ... Katz

 

Thank you for showing up for me there - it would have been so awkward if you hadn’t repeated that last oseh shalom after me … What I’ve come to learn is that the biggest ingredient for building peace comes from showing up. When we answer a cry for help with, “Hineini, I am here,” as Abraham did in our Torah portion today, with a fully present heart, we can find our way to becoming a peacemaker. Building peace is showing up for one another, showing up for our community, showing up for our fellow Jews and for Israel, showing up for ourselves. Showing up for righteousness and fairness, showing up for hope. Showing up for the future. It does not always take a massive lift to bring oseh shalom to life. If we want to thrive in 5785, let’s show up together in making this a year of Oseh Shalom, a year of creating peace.

 

Let’s allow our Oseh Shalom prayer to become our mantra, to help remind us to show up where we can. Let us recall these words during those overwhelming moments that seem to come more and more frequently, especially with our constant access to news in our pockets and exposure to other people’s unfiltered opinions on our screens. When that social media video shocks us with how strongly someone feels about a supermarket’s choice to discontinue a product… but it also starts to make US angry at those fascist food dictators, it’s time…

Oh-oh-seh Shalom, Sha-a lo-om bimroma-av… (Klepper)

Yes, even in the midst of our doomscrolling… Sometimes, we need the confrontation of our Oseh Shalom prayer. Do we need to get swept up in this? Is this how we want to show up in the world? Oseh Shalom, find the impetus to bring us back, to help us return to who we want to be - to take back our sense of self from the algorithms and propaganda, the advertising and pressures that are purposely designed to turn us into what others want us to become. The Oseh Shalom mindset is our antidote - that extra breath to focus on what’s important - to be reminded of what it is to do good, so we won’t lose ourselves to the noise and pessimism of our world.

 

Oseh Shaloming is not only about showing up for others. It also means showing up for ourselves. And sometimes, we can even bring peace to our world by asking for help. We all have our challenging moments - we don’t need to just bear them silently, we don’t need to say, “I don’t want to be an inconvenience.” When we allow others who care about us, to actually help out - we give the helpers a gift, too. Think about it - how often during our day do we feel like we are doing what is right? When we are helping someone out during their time of need, we get that existential feeling of purpose that sense of shalem from bringing shalom - we know that by showing up for someone else, we are exactly where we should be, doing exactly what we were put here to do. Therefore, even when we graciously accept help from others, we are oseh shaloming, we are creating opportunities for others to become whole, while they help and heal us. If you are struggling, let your Or Shalom community be here for you!

 

Look, I get it - this is not an easy new year to move into while maintaining hope. Again, no Chicago baseball teams in the playoffs. We can so easily get swept up in the rhetoric of our time, causing us to judge others without even truly knowing their hearts, especially when we assume they are doing the same towards us. We can be depressed and shocked and all-consumed by what we see coming out of the elections and from Israel and the ongoing conflict that we all wish could end soon with peace and security for Israel, safe return of the hostages, and calm for the entire region. But our anger and our pain can push us to act on our basest assumptions and live an embittered year.

 

Oseh Shalom bimromav. Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu, v’al kol Yisrael, v’al kol yoshvei tevel, v’imru Amen. (Akers)

 

Or we can take that step back and remember our responsibility - to be an agent of peace. To know that like Rabbi Tarfon has taught, and our Torah has taught, we can show up and be a person who is a peacemaker.

 

We can fill our year with shalom through our kindness, our encouragement, our love.

 

For those moments in which 2024 overwhelms us, let us pick the Oseh Shalom melody that speaks to you and what you want 5785 to be… let it be your mantra of hope, of control - not over the external, but over the internal...

 

And for this new year, let’s find the oseh shalom action that will allow you to feel like you are doing your part to bring peace. There are over 1000 of us who will be attending these services . . . Imagine: If each of us committed today to one action that will bring peace in our homes, peace in our community, peace in our world, how much better will this year be? It may not solve all of the problems in the world, but it will help us all look to the future with more hope, with a feeling we are not facing it alone, that there is a place above our troubles, where we can still make this a year of hope.

 

Ya’aseh Shalom (from Hirsh) - Let’s show up for ourselves - commit to learning something new, opening ourselves up to being helped when we need it, being kind to ourselves in a world of judgment.

 

Ya’aseh Shalom (from Hirsh) - Let’s show up for our community - let’s take that extra moment to write a condolence email, volunteer to help out at Or Shalom, or show up to events that look fun, so we can be together.

 

Sha’alom Aleinu (from Hirsh) - Let’s show up for our world - join one of our Tikkun Olam groups designed to address the immediate problems in our local community, help our mitzvah garden, come to our Tikkun Olam meet-ups where we will design new ways to oseh shalom in our world, commit to that volunteer work you’ve been meaning to do.

 

v’Al Kol Yisrael (from Hirsh) - Let’s show up for Israel - vote in the upcoming 2025 World Zionist Congress Elections, look for an upcoming training on how to be a supporter of Israel and a confronter of anti-semitism, donate to a charity that is supporting those in need as a result of the ongoing conflict or that supports Jewish students on campus. Remain a loving, caring, compassionate person, even in the face of hateful rhetoric.

Oseh Shalom is more than a prayer - it’s a mindset - and there are so many ways to step up and make a meaningful impact, that not only brings Shalom, but also fills us up with shalem and with hope, tikvah. I invite you to join together in making this a year of Oseh Shalom at Or Shalom - a year of bringing peace, together, so we can become partners with God in oseh shaloming, in being there for one another to overcome life’s troubles as we build a hopeful 5785 for us, for all of our people, and for all of our world.

 

V’imru - Amen.

So, how do we make it a year of oseh Shalom?

 

We show up for our selves - learning, getting involved in an activity that fills us up, putting ourselves in places where we can make new friends and met new people;

We show up for our community - join our hineynu caring committee;

 

We show up for our neighbors - tikkun olam;

 

We show up for Israel - pay attention to the conflict, find ways to advocate - training;

 

We show up for our world - by being our best.

 

We see this in our Torah portion that we read earlier today. In order for Abraham and Isaac to go out and complete the lesson God wanted us all to have, each one needed to fully show up. At critical times in their story, when it would have been so easy for them to just keep going with whatever is in front of them in their journeys, they respond to God with the expression, “Hineini” - Here I am. Fully, openly, here, present to this moment in time, ready to jump into what is needed. In that climactic moment where Abraham has raised his hand against his own son, he blocks out the noise that had led him to this terrible moment and is able to hear God’s merciful call to shift away from this moment of harm . . . He stops, and says, “Hineini, I am here.” And only then does he open himself up to a different way, a better way, one that leaves his son intact, that leaves his soul intact even if it is wounded from what he almost did.

 

Oseh Shalom, Bi-imroma’a’av - hu ya’aseh (Ochs part way through)

 

As Jewish people, we talk about ourselves as partners with God..

 

Covenant with the Jewish people that we read about from our Torah tomorrow - it is a two-way commitment.

 

Distractions of social media, doomscrolling, algorithms designed to influence us, bend us, shape us...

 

It’s our time to reach for the stars, to imagine the mountaintop... Our tradition inspires us to dream big and then scale-down to our reality - because when we reach our goals, it’s always better to know where we want to go next, building more mountain to climb is a lot harder.

 

The world is filled with challenge right now. 

 

But HOW do we build a world of peace? So much of it is just about showing up!

 

Showing up for the present. — Year of Oseh Shalom

• “Our time has come to shine”

• Bridge Over Troubled Water

When you're weary, feeling small

When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all, all

I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough

And friends just can't be found

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down

When you're down and out

When you're on the street

When evening falls so hard

I will comfort you

I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes

And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down

Oseh Shalom 

Bimromav

Your time has come to shine

Hu ya’aseh shalom

 

Aleinu v’al kol Yisrael

Oh, if you need a friend

I'm sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind