Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5786
September 23, 2025
Who are we? What does it mean to be Jewish?
What exactly are we doing here this morning? Why do we recite these words mostly written hundreds and thousands of years ago, with numerous additions over the centuries, from all around the world?
Before most of you got here this morning, our Machzor Lev Shalem asked that question. The same prayer is found in our daily services. It asks us Who are we? Do our achievements last? Are we valuable for what we do, when so much of existence is ephemeral and lasts but a moment.
The answer is NO. We are not valuable for our productivity. Instead, we are valuable because of our Brit, our Covenant, our relationship with God and with one another. We are valuable because of our very existence, because we are necessary to the fabric of humanity and the fabric of the universe. We are inherently valuable as creations, not because of what we do, but because of who we are. We are valuable as a reminder to the world. We are valuable. Period.
The Jewish people are barely 0.02% of the world’s population and just 2% of the population of the United States of America. There are more people in the greater NYC area, Mexico City OR Cairo than there are Jews in the world, yet the influence of the Jewish people is completely disproportionate.
I am not talking merely about nobel prizes or inventions or diplomacy or even about faith. I am talking about our very existence. While we may have shared law, the Ten Commandments, the Bible, prophets, and more with half the world through Christianity and Islam’s reinterpretation of our holy texts, we have stubbornly refused to disappear. Even more radical, nearly half the world’s Jewish population has gone home, to our ancestral and indigenous homeland--the land of Israel. While many of our brethren continue to assimilate, vast numbers of our brothers and sisters are doubling down on their faith, demonstrating their commitment to tradition through birthrates as well as birthrights!
As Jews, we have excelled at argument. We have found ways of debating literally everything--from what synagogue we don’t go to, to what is the right way to have a Seder--to the nature of God and the universe--to what exactly is kosher food? One of the greatest challenges the Jewish people have offered to the world is differing and different perspectives. The result has been disproportionate attention to us and our nation.
As Jews, we remind the world of a very irritating psychological and neurological principle. Human motivation is about what feels good RIGHT NOW, not what is necessarily good for us in the long term. The cake or cookie in front of us is far more motivating than the diet we are on. Sitting on the couch is much more comfortable than jumping on the bike or picking up our weights. Complaining that our friends don’t call is far easier than picking up the phone and calling or texting them ourselves! Yet what does Judaism teach us to do? Judaism teaches us how to focus on long term motivation.
It teaches us the discipline of self examination and meditation through regular prayer. It teaches us the discipline of regular study and growth through weekly Torah readings. It teaches the discipline of eating through kashrut. It teaches us the power of rest through Shabbat and Festivals. It teaches us the value of family and friendships through the networks that are required to make those Sabbaths and Festivals meaningful. It teaches us the value of community through every lifecycle event--on a personal level I was so moved to celebrate Onyx’s B Mitzvah here. It was not only about seeing my child demonstrate their Jewish knowledge and connection, but about seeing how a community celebrates one of their own, how we build community over years of hard work.
All of these lessons are countercultural. They go against the grain of individualism that is fundamental to most American visions. Our resilience and persistence and refusal to disappear is a thorn in the eye of true colonizing powers around the world.
When we look at the world today there are tremendous global conflicts leading to starvation and death of hundreds of thousands and even millions of people, yet Israel’s supposed “genocide” in Gaza sucks the air out of every conversation. We have seen how genocide and starvation are redefined to demonize Israel; the world’s attention is repeatedly drawn to the shiny object of the Jewish people as the bad guy--because we refuse to assimilate and because we refuse to disappear.
Let me come back to this room though. Who are we? What is our light? What is our hope?
We are the people that remain. We are the people that continue to find holiness, to demand better of ourselves--AND the world around us.
My own path to the rabbinate came from USY, from seeing joyful Judaism, from bentching and ruach and fun. There I saw that Kabbalat Shabbat could be raucous and exciting. Whether with or without musical instruments, gathering a whole bunch of teenagers together and praising Hashem could be an incredible experience.
For my own family, Camp Ramah has been that window into joyful Judaism. There we have found enthusiasm for prayer, learning and Torah. In addition to our annual summer pilgrimage to Camp Ramah Darom, we will be going to Winter Break Family Camp as 2025 becomes 2026. I have flyers out and if you have a child or grandchild that you can bring, you are welcome to celebrate Shabbat at Ramah, too. They’ll even let you try archery or the ropes course. That spirit, that energy of lived, joyful Judaism is what I strive to bring to CBI, to continue our 100+ year history in St Pete and ensure that our next 100 years are as filled with possibility.
In that vein, we need the words on the pages of the Machzor. We need our connection to the thousands of years of Jewish history. We need our connection to our ancestors in Israel, the Mediterranean, Europe and even closer to home. AND we need to make sure that the connection to our past also leads to our future. We need passion, yearning, drive in our prayer. We need to open our hearts, as well as our books.
The challenge is if these words are unfamiliar it is hard for them to resonate and if they become TOO routine, we must work to make them break open our hearts and souls anew.
This year I am praying that my class on prayer will be successful. I will be sharing times to look at our prayerbook, our melodies, our souls, and minds. Our tradition demands to be wrestled with. (We are the people of Israel after all, the people that wrestle with God.) Our sacred traditions are not meant to be accepted or ignored. They demand engagement of our whole selves.
When we engage with that prayerbook, we find that Israel is central to who we are. As Jews, we are a faith, a people, a nation, a family, a community. We are the people that were born in a tiny land, the crossroads of multiple civilizations, that was conquered and reconquered by more powerful nations, yet we did the extraordinary. When we were conquered we did not disappear. We did not entirely assimilate. Instead, we continued. We kept our identity.
Today, we find ourselves in a very strange and unique situation. Half the world’s Jewish population has returned to our indigenous home. Jewish ingenuity turned malarial swamps to technological powerhouses, built cities in the desert, created innumerable medical innovations, and don’t get me started on the ways Israeli technologies are found in virtually every electronic device you own. You can check out the A-Team’s website or any of Eric Pastman’s Israeli innovations classes to hear about some of the remarkable new inventions that are actively making life better for people all around the world.
Many of you know the miracles and blessings of the modern State of Israel first hand. Whether for the first time or the fourteenth, I would like to invite you to join me on a pilgrimage to Israel in just a few months. This March (2026), come with me to Israel. Join me at the City of David and the Western Wall Tunnels where archaeologists make discoveries daily, where we see the history of our people brought back to life. Come with me to the new JNF culinary school in the Galilee where chefs can learn not only knife skills and farm to table cooking, but entrepreneurship and kashrut. Walk where our ancestors journeyed and see what our family has created in this generation.
To be a Jew is told multiple truths at once. It is counter-cultural. It demands that we are aware of those around us but that we not simply follow the crowd. It is to be the eternal other.
To be a Jew is to hold multiple truths at once.
To be both ancient and modern.
To be both local and global.
To be rooted in a homeland and yet spread across the world.
To be historical — and yet eternal.
We are Am Yisrael, B’nei Yisrael — the Children of Israel. We are the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, who first heard the call to go to the Land and be a blessing. We are the people who take adversity and turn it into opportunity, who take darkness and find holiness within it. This Rosh Hashanah, my prayer is that we answer the question Mah Anachnu? — “Who are we?” — with courage. That we stand proudly as Jews, as lovers of Israel, as students of Torah, as builders of community. That we bring both our heads and our hearts into this new year. Because we are more than just a people that survived. We are a people who choose — every single day — to thrive.
Comments
Post a Comment