Yom Kippur: What I Believe — A Sustainable Theology for Conservative Judaism
(This sermon has been modified from its original version — it has been optimized for written form.)
Two yeshiva bochurs are talking about their rebbes. One tells his friend, 'My rebbe is so great. So holy. My rebbe fasts every day. All day. Every day. That's how holy he is. He doesn't need to eat'
Shocked the other says, 'What do you mean? I saw him eating at the deli the other day. He had a pastrami on rye. Then a club sandwich. Then a black and white.' The first bochur explains, 'That's how modest my rebbe is. He's so modest, he doesn't want you to know he's fasting!'
Well, for everyone who is fasting, I hope your fast is meaningful today, and if you aren’t fasting remember that there are other ways of connecting and making teshuva on Yom Kippur.
This is my 5th Yom Kippur with you, which feels like a bit of a milestone anniversary. I recall the nervousness I felt the first year I stood up here and address you all. My hands were trembling… But now, not as much. Why would speaking to you generate fear in me? I think it’s because I take the opportunity on the holidays to be vulnerable with you in a way that I don’t necessarily each week. Why is it easier now? Partly because I know you much more, and also because when we exercise vulnerability, as I discussed in the Kol Nidrei address, it builds our resilience and makes it easier to do in the future.
And so, I come to how I want to be vulnerable with you this year: I want to tell you what I believe, and why I think it’d be helpful for you to believe it too.
First I’ll say, I believe in Conservative Judaism. I believe in the Movement, the people, the institutions. But I also believe in the theological understandings of the movement’s greatest rabbis and scholars. I do not believe that as a movement, a philosophy, a theology, we are dying.
It hurts me every year when inevitably there are a volley of articles about the “death of conservative Judaism” and “is conservative Judaism dead?” I’m here... I’m alive. You are all here… How does this line continue to make its appearance? I have come to believe that people perceive the death of Conservative Judaism primarily because they do not know or understand what Conservative Judaism is, or is supposed to be. The old joke goes,
“‘What is a conservative synagogue?—a Reform congregation with an Orthodox Rabbi’ If that is the case, then we are not a Conservative synagogue, because I am fundamentally not an orthodox rabbi.”
As such, I think it’s time we redefine Conservative Judaism in terms that will be applicable to future generations and in such ways that will ensure the vibrant engagement for years to come. We must reassert that we are not “Modern Orthodox lite,” or “Reform with more Hebrew.” We are our own unique rich understanding and practice of the faith of our forefathers. Allow me to present my understanding of what I would call, a Sustainable Theology for Conservative Judaism.
The Conservative Movement is a meeting point for academic scholarship and rabbinic tradition and although there have been several attempts to consolidate the core beliefs into documents in the last half century, I find them either too long or outdated for the modern reader. I do not believe that I am the best person to try again, but it seems no one else is doing it… So I’ll give my best shot. Again, this is what I belief, and while Conservative Judaism has long been a “big tent” movement, accepting of a wide variety of belief and practice, I believe that to be sustainable, we need to clarify the mean, and acknowledge that while everyone is welcome, there are core beliefs.
1) As a Conservative Jew, I accept that historical-critical scholarship is seemingly at odds with the traditional narrative of the Torah, and in doing so accept the difficult process of holding the factual and the mythological truth simultaneously, like the wave-particle duality of light, seeing these not as mutually exclusive, but as mutually beneficial modes of engagement.
2) I see God’s will manifest in the world by the Torah, revealed through the process of Divine-human partnership, in what is best described as a Participatory Theology of Revelation, acknowledging that what is called the “Written Torah” is the oldest development of Oral Torah to be codified in writing, but as oral Torah, it is the result of Divine-human interaction and partnership. Oral Torah has always been a process, and we are still in the process of developing Torah as we continue to experience mutual self-revelation in our journey of discovering the unknowable God. This allows for us to continue to adapt halacha to the time and place we live in, while maintaining authenticity to the tradition.
3) I believe that all human beings are created in the image of G-d, which gives all humans an inherent dignity that must be upheld. However, the people of Israel are chosen through their own choosing to accept the covenant of HaShem, and that with the covenant comes a set of ritual terms expressed through the halachic system—that mitzvot add holiness to our lives and as Rabbi Neil Gillman taught, “ritual is a language [which] creates community.”
4) As such, I believe that Judaism can only be practiced in authentic fashion by and with a community. Being in community means taking part in the ritual and social life of the local Jewish population. Our communities must also become more sustainable in energy, waste, activity, and spending. We must remember that while a community is not only a building (we can survive without a center as we did when the Temple was destroyed), we must continue to care for our building and to fill it with joy and people, and with rituals to elevate it from a mere building to a synagogue. If we choose to not continue changing to more efficient and sustainable equipment and policies for our building, then in the long run we will lose it. A building is only as good as the community that fills it. We must strengthen our community through continued social action programs like the giving garden and coat drives, through education like our weekly Torah study on zoom, through social gatherings like our galas and casino nights, and engagement with the Movement through regional and national event representation at conferences and development opportunities.
5) I believe that God in general wants humanity to succeed and does not want us to suffer. I believe that nature was created with laws that are for the most part, immutable, and that miracles in as much as they have or could happen, do so from within the framework of natural law. Suffering is an unfortunate part of the human condition, and we as partners with God should seek to end as much suffering as possible. God, through the process of creation restricts God’s own power in order for us to exist, and to give us free will. Through free will we have created a long history of hate and oppression and have become the cause of much suffering in the world. When bad things happen, I do not believe “everything happens for a reason,” although I do believe that sometimes there can seem to be a clear indication that something is a desirous outcome.
6) I believe that the Land of Israel is tied to the People of Israel through an inseparable bond of shared destiny and we have a responsibility to the land and the state, to support and improve both. This does not mean a blind following of political policy, but rather, we must critique the government as necessary when they have fallen short of upholding the values of Jewish ethics, morality, and law. This does not mean holding the State of Israel to a double-standard, it means holding them to our own standards, which we as family can and should do. This kind of critique should be done out of love and care for the state and the people. It means taking seriously the security needs of our sole democratic nation in the Middle East, and the only Jewish majority nation in the world. It means recognizing the inherently Jewish nature of the land, the long and unbroken history of Jewish habitation in the land, and the acknowledgement that overwhelming the Torah is a book about living ethically in and on the land of Israel. Around 26 mitzvot can only be fulfilled in the Land of Israel, not counting those that can only be fulfilled at the Temple in Jerusalem. There are volumes on agricultural law written throughout the ages, showing the nearness that Jews have always had to the land.
For me this support includes praying as we do in the Amidah and in the prayer for Israel, for freedom for all of Israel including hostages, an end of warfare and repeated attacks against Israel. In the end, prayer only goes so far, and there are real things that can help. Supporting organizations like The Jewish National Fund, Sar-El, The Lone Soldier Foundation, and through investing in Israel with Israel Bonds, and in our prayers and our actions we must call on world leaders to support Israel in ending the war with Hamas and terrorism and to bring stability and peace to the region. I also want to acknowledge that I do not believe Israel is committing a genocide, yet I do believe that the destruction of Gaza is not something that we should be proud of and there have been instances where military leaders and soldiers clearly made poor decisions and they should be held accountable for those actions.
This is a short list of my core beliefs.
“In order for our future to be assured, we must make our theology and our policies sustainable, both as institutions and as individuals. A policy that recognizes human expression as binary will not be sustainable in a future that is increasingly non-binary. A Judaism that has no theological mechanism to accommodate non-Jewish participation in ritual life will find itself at odds with continued involvement of inter-faith families seeking Jewish engagement. A synagogue that isn’t concerned with greener energy and food practices, will have a lot to contend with as we face potential energy and food crises on the horizon. We must work together to find the long-term solutions—but I believe we can find them. And I believe it is only possible to find them together. ”
Here at TBA, we are living out many of these principles as we make significant upgrades to the building, exchanging old and inefficient systems for new and energy-saving heating, cooling, lighting, etc. but somehow we haven’t yet found the way to exchange ineffective programing for vibrant engagement. We haven’t found the inspiration to renew our spiritual energies and to make this institution a true community of learning, practicing, and living together. These are the things that I believe. What do you believe? Not what do you think… what do you really believe in? What matters to you?
A final thought for you: Today is a lot about teshuva. Coming back to the covenant, and to our authentic selves, to what we believe in. To do the hard work of real reflection on how we show up in our lives for the people who love us, and to be better this year. Being honest with yourself is hard. But now is the time. Do you believe you can change for the better?
As we say the vidui and confess for all these sins as we do today, I want you to reflect on the times that you didn’t show up for others in the way they needed you… your friends, your family, your community. Then, you can become one of the choosing People and choose the covenant with HaShem and to choose to live by our tradition, which has guidance for how to be a good person for everyone in your life. After that, I want you to commit to helping me make this the greatest Jewish community in the world —well, at least in central New Jersey — but believing in us and our ability to be more together than we are apart, by being part of it.
I tried recently a campaign for 18-for-18, asking for 18% of the congregation (about 60 people) to come to shul for 18 weeks in a row. We failed pretty miserably at that goal. So I have a new challenge… Our tradition says that at any given time there are 36 righteous tzadikim in the world—lets get them all in one room and have 36 people come on shabbat… 36 people for 36 weeks. Does that sound doable? Do you believe?
I believe that the only reason articles about a fantastically vibrant and wonderful community, that is experiencing growth, renewal, and booming expansion of Jewish life in “small central Jersey synagogue” aren’t being written is because we aren’t doing it. Let’s change that this year.
You never know who might be one of these tzadikim, and it could even be you… I believe in you and your ability to help keep this community strong and to make it stronger. I believe in the Torah to teach us how to do that. The only question left, is: do you believe me?
