Kol Nidrei Sermon from Rabbi Brian D. Fox
Written by Rabbi Brian D. Fox Tuesday, 28 October 2008
This sermon was given at Kol Nidrei 2008/5769, the first service to be held at Menorah Synagogue, Cheshire Reform Congregation's new building.
Never before in the history of a synagogue has the shehechayanu prayer been said so often and with such sincerity.
“Who has given us life? Who has kept us going? Who has brought us to this time?” Why do we gather on this night of nights?
We come here to express and affirm our faith and to identify with others who have the same faith.
As we gather in our wonderful new home, let’s commit to being what we really are... Reform Jews; let’s ask what on earth that means in this world. What is the Rock from which we are hewn? What does it mean to be a Reform Jew?
What does a Reform Jew mean when singing Ma Tovu ohalekha yaakov mishkenotecha yisrael: How wonderful are your Synagogues, O Jacob. Your homes, O Israel?' We celebrate the variety of synagogues, the diversity in the Jewish people and we don’t put down other expressions of Judaism. Wherever Jews pray is a valid expression of the Jewish ethos. When we recognise that variety and diversity, we are being true to the Reform Ethos!
The service goes to the shema but while some come and say “Shema Yisrael adonay elohaynu adonay echad” others would not be averse to saying “shema yisrael I don’t know elohaynu I don’t know echad” and even others might say “shema yisrael I deny elohaynu I deny echad” yet we are all Jews! The Reform Jew recognises that we cannot assume any belief in the Jewish heart, just as we cannot ignore lack of belief. Belief is so personal, so individual. Some are bruised by life and God seems to have let them down - as a friend said to me following our recent tragedy at Menorah “Don’t talk to me about God”. But it was God who helped me find words of comfort and hope for our community.
I have conducted humanist funerals; it may not agree with my faith, but it recognises a reality, that in every age there has been an eclipse of God and that many Jews can live within Reform Judaism without feeling guilty about not believing in God.
How does a Reform Jew differ at the Torah service? No shnoddering (asking you in front of the whole congregation what you will be nadar-ing); no calling up a Cohen first then a Levite then a run-of-the-mill ordinary Jew. No hierarchy, no men before women. We are am echad, one people and every part of that people has equal status in a Reform Synagogue. And when the Reform Jew is called to the Torah, they say words which for some stick in the throat: asher bachar banu mikol haamim: Who has chosen us from among all peoples. What does it mean to be chosen? Tevye said “I wish He would choose someone else” But, if you say as I do asher bachar banu im kol haamim: God chose us with all people, it no longer smacks of arrogance, chauvinism or self-satisfaction.
As a Reform Jew I want to mean and believe what I say. If we have problems with what it said then let’s use this place to express our doubts, just as we use this synagogue to express our fears.
And when the Reform Jew reads Torah, we bring all the discoveries of the ages to our understanding of text, even though we hold the Torah up twice and say “This is the Torah Moses gave to the children of Israel” we know that Moses never saw the Torah; it is a wonderful fantasy which sounds great with all the thunder and lightning of Sinai. (Yes, I rose at 4.00, climbed up Mt. Sinai leaving the Santa Catherina monastery and I read the 10 commandments as the sun rose). The Reform Jew has to face the reality of history.
And then the Reform Jew concludes the service with Adon Olam and ends with those words “Into your Hands we commend our spirits and with our spirits our bodies also both when we sleep and when we wake You are with us we shall not fear” and that’s when distinctions between one Jew and another fade; that’s when we are just Jews looking for the protection of God, trying to carve out an existence which makes sense in all the ritual of our services.
I can hear my father singing those other words “O for the wings... for the wings of a dove... far away far away would I roam... in the wilderness build me a nest and remain there forever at rest”.
Ultimately, we Reform Jews are Jews first and Reform afterwards. We deeply need to find comfort in a hurtful and damaging world. That is the meaning of this night of vows.
So what is Reform Judaism?
It is a Judaism that works the edges of the Jewish People; not the last step out but the first step back.
It is a Judaism that believes in the inherent rationality of every human being: that choice is God-given and that we have faith in our fellow Jews that everyone has the capacity to make informed right and reasonable choices for their own lives and the future of the Jewish people.
ken yehi ratzon
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