RH Day 1 5777
September 12, 2026
A number of you today are wearing pins that I gave you. Those who have not yet received one by attending a non-Shabbat CBI program can pick one up tomorrow. These pins have the CBI logo and a single Hebrew word: Hineni, HERE I AM. I share these words, this pin to remind you about what is central to the Jewish story--showing up.
Hineni, I am here. These words are the answer to God’s question to Adam and Eve--Ayekah--Where are you? These words are in tomorrow’s Torah reading when Abraham is asked to go to Mt. Moriah for the Akedah. These words are demonstrated in the Brit Milah, the circumcision of Isaac that opens today’s Torah reading and are seen in the actions of Hannah in our Haftorah this morning. Hineni, I am here. I am ready. But ready for what?
Before we begin Musaf, the Hazzan sings Hineni, crying out that his prayer should be accepted even as he is an imperfect vessel.
The Hazzan chants Hineni to say that he is ready to offer prayer with and on behalf of our community. We say Hineni to say we are not merely observers but participants in our Jewish lives. We say Hineni to share with the world around us that our Judaism is not peripheral, not ancillary, to our lives but is central to us, vital to us, and inseparable from our souls and our bodies.
On Yom Kippur, we remember not only the ones who we loved, but those who gave up everything, up to and including their lives for their faith. In Talmud Berachot it says of Rabbi Akiva that he said Shema even as the Romans tortured him.
He said to them: All my days I have been troubled by the verse: With all your soul, meaning: Even if God takes your soul. I said to myself: When will the opportunity be afforded me to fulfill this verse? Now that it has been afforded me, shall I not fulfill it? He prolonged his uttering of the word: One, until his soul left his body as he uttered his final word: One. A voice descended from heaven and said: Happy are you, Rabbi Akiva, that your soul left your body as you uttered: One.
Rabbi Akiva gave us one way of showing up with our entire selves. I pray we never have a need to show up in that way. And in this world, right now, we can still demonstrate our passion and our love for our tradition, our people, and our understanding of God.
The way we show up, the way we say Hineni, Here I am, is to learn and grow in our faith. I am not going to go into an advertisement for all the CBI programs, events, classes, etc that you can join--look at our program guide or listen to our podcast for more information. Instead let’s discuss the meaning of THIS DAY.
Hayom, today is a day of contradiction. It is a day of great celebration. It is a reminder of judgement. It is a day of remembrance of the sound of the Shofar on the day when we expect to hear the Shofar. It is Shabbat and a day of great joy and it is a day of awareness of our mortality. It is a day of considering judgement and a day of celebrating the birth and renewal of our lease on life.
According to traditional Jewish sources, today is the renewal, the rebirth of the world. Each year, God grants the universe a one year lease. Each year, it must be renewed. If it is not, all of the blessings and challenges are no longer. Talmud Yerushalmi Rosh Hashanah 1:3 teaches that “ordinarily a person awaiting judgment sits as if in mourning. Yisrael does not do that. They dress in finery, eat and drink, secure in the knowledge that God will perform the miraculous for them.” The Netivot Shalom, the Slonimer Rebbe of blessed memory, teaches that we expect a miracle, even as we understand how vulnerable we are with our own sins. Today is not the day of change, but the acknowledgement that we have been working on improving ourselves for the last week and month and year. We are confident that the work we have done will continue to unfold, to pay dividends in the year to come. Today we connect to the blessings of our Creator, giving thanks, finding joy and being open to all that will continue. (58-59 Netivot Shalom Insights on Holidays compiled by T. Yitzchok Adlerstein)
Today we stand up before our Creator and say, Hineni, I am here. We say it literally by being in this room, together. We say it metaphorically, by considering how else we will be here going forward. Hayom, Today, I offer a challenge to you. How do you say Hineni, I am here, to your soul, your people, your faith, your community?
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, synagogues have a beautiful challenge, how to welcome those who come regularly and ensure their spiritual needs are met, while also ensuring that those who come less frequently also find meaning in the day.
I am grateful to all who are here. I truly believe that simply being here is a gift both to the entire community and to you. We live in a world of constant chaos, of unprecedented times. Being in this space reminds me of the precedented times. It reminds me of the continuity of our tradition and our Jewish world.
I challenge you to bring that spirit into your life on a regular basis. Judaism is an incredible gift for you and your family--in whatever configuration that is. We have opportunities to connect every single day, from morning to night. Do not wait another year, but show up, say Hineni to prayer, to study, to volunteering, to teaching, to growing, to BEING with our community.
When I talk to Jews, whether in my office, in a class, at kiddish, over a cup of coffee, on an airplane or in the grocery story, I often hear “I am a bad Jew. I don’t observe x, y, z.”
I challenge you not to demean yourself. Don’t see yourself as less than. See yourself as “not yet or not right now.” Judaism is a faith of growth and possibility. It is one that reminds us that all of us are imperfect and all of us have more to learn--not in a derisive or insulting way--but in a reminder of possibility. In my life, I am continually reading books, articles, Jewish texts and lighter works. I strive to ensure time to care for my physical self--to exercise, my spiritual self--to pray and study, my whole self--to ensure that I am present for my wife, my children, the people who I love. There is no perfect balance. I will always drop at least one ball a day--but I pray that they are the bouncy ones and not the glass ones. I strive to show up for you, for me and for God.
Rabbi Akiva shows us the best and worst versions of showing up, of saying Hineni. I pray none of us should ever find ourselves in that situation, but how many of us are willing to stand up for ourselves and our faith when people speak against God, Torah, Israel, Judaism? How many of us ignore a slight or a comment because we don’t want to be too political? How many of us pretend like it is acceptable American civil discourse to speak of Jews in ways that would be completely unacceptable for any other minority? How many of us are willing to bluntly question people when they say truly offensive, horrible things about Jews?
For decades at CBI, we have had an Israel Bond drive on Rosh Hashanah. We pledge to give direct support to the State of Israel, the only, imperfect, work-in-progress nation that is rooted on the indigenous land of the Judean (Jewish) people. Does that mean we agree with every decision of the Israeli government? NO! I am a proud American citizen and I do not agree with every decision of the American government. If I were to travel to Australia or France or even Canada, I might speak to individuals who love or hate this country and her politicians, but I would NOT hear anywhere a call for its eradication. Yet, the only country of our people, by our people, with its own incredible blessings and its own flaws is regularly held to an entirely different standard. That standard is based on a lie. It is a lie that says “Whatever my problems are, it must be the fault of the Jews!”
How do I say Hineni when someone wants to blame me for their problems? How do I say Hineni if I don’t really know what it means to be Jewish? How do I teach THAT to my children?
The world feels very fragile at this moment. We have had primary elections and soon national elections. Political winds are fickle and there is great diversity in this space. Outside of these walls, we have often forgotten how to speak respectfully to one another. We stopped listening. We see people who disagree with us as enemies. We see the rapid return of antisemitism seemingly everywhere. It is incredibly painful. Yet within these walls, we have an incredible gift. If we say Hineni, here I am, we can talk to one another knowing that even when we disagree, we have common ground. We can see one another’s humanity in our shared faith. We can show up together to ensure the safety, the wellbeing, the education of our next generation of Jews, ldor vador. We can feed the hungry together--don’t forget to make a financial donation to the William and Sally Israel Food Pantry at Gulfcoast JFCS this week or bring nonperishable goods for Operation Isaiah at Kol Nidre next week. We can support one another in the challenges of this moment.
When I first came to St Petersburg, an African American pastor shared with me a book on the lessons of the Jews. It was a (positive) book that spoke about Jewish achievements in medicine, law, business, and civic society. It was written as an example for other communities to emulate Jewish practices of building community and caring for one another. Yet opening the book I felt deeply uncomfortable. I did not want to read something that felt so other-ing of our people.
Today, I feel differently. I am grateful, proud, and blessed to be an American. It is an amazing country with the gift of a Constitution and Bill of Rights and spirit of freedom. AND in my core, the essence of my being is Jewish. This is not a statement about dual loyalties. Every American and every human has multiple layers--child, parent, ethnicity, faith, family, culture.
A century ago Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan spoke of Judaism as a civilization. To me, it is mishpacha, family. It is the crazy uncle, the sibling who we talk to every other year, those who are related by blood, and those who have become closer than blood. It is the ones that we say “Here I am” at 3am or 2pm or anytime in between.
By walking INTO this room, or watching online, you have said Hineni today. Will you say it again tomorrow, next week or next year? May this be a year of blessing for us all. Amen!
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