Yom Kippur 2024
On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. Throughout our High Holy Days, our liturgy puts this phrase on repeat. On Rosh Hashanah this year, we talked about what happened in Israel on October 7th, 2023. We revisited and visited the collective trauma that much of the Jewish world is still going through, We talked about the surprise attacks, the morning of infamy. On October 7th it was written…it was written, that which has been written so many times throughout Jewish history. Before October 7th, 2023, there have been many instances of those trying to blot out our name from the Book of Life as a people. The Holocaust of Europe during World War II is one of the most recent and horrific examples, but certainly not even remotely close to the only one. We know that the Jewish people were exiled from their homeland in 586 BCE by the Babylonians. After eventually rebuilding the destroyed first Temple, the Romans this time caused the destruction of the temple in the year 70 of the common era. Jews were forced again into exile; An exile that some say still exists to this day, save for the Modern State of Israel. Jews in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula, who were so prosperous during Medieval times, were eventually expelled from Spain in 1492 by the Catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Some were forced to convert, or they faced certain death. In England, King Edward I’s Edict of Expulsion forced the Jews to leave in the year 1290.
Antisemitism, often referred to as “The oldest or longest hatred” has been in existence for what is now thousands of years. From descriptions and depictions of Jews as “Christ Killers,” to the simple accusation of distrust, dislike, and at best, disinterest in groups outside of Jews, stereotypes and prejudices abound. One of the more outrageous accusations is the Blood Libel. I have to admit, I had not directly been exposed to a modern-day blood libel believer (at least knowingly) until the last high Holy Days. Meghan was involved in a small fender bender on her way to one of our services. She got to talking to the occupants of the other car, and was having a friendly conversation with a daughter and her mother. They were wearing hijabs, so they were likely of the Islamic faith. Meghan was dressed for the holiday here at Temple, and the women inquired as to why she was dressed nicely. “I am on my way to Temple. We have high holy day services today for Rosh Hashanah,” Meghan replied. The older woman began to look uncomfortable. She said, “Oh no.” Meghan replied with a truly concerned, “What’s wrong?” The older woman replied…”I don’t like what they do with the blood. How they sacrifice with the blood.” Her younger, more modern daughter looked embarrassed, and gave her mother a quick and curt “Mom!”, before moving on. The older woman was referring to the Blood Libel, where in it is *FALSELY* believed that Jews abduct non-Jewish children and use their blood for Passover rituals, more specifically using their blood for unleavened bread making. Meghan, in a state of dazed disbelief, assured this woman that we were not sacrificing children and using their blood as Jews. Jews have been depicted as having horns, and more than a handful of people have told me of experiences where someone, upon finding out they were Jewish, has legitimately asked “Where are your horns?”
The historical stage has been set many times. It has been written. We are now at Yom Kippur, where the book of life is sealed, the gates close with neilah, and we move forward into a world wherein God’s decree will likely reign supreme. October 7th in Israel again put our names into a strange section of the book. OUR JOB IS TO PREVENT THE SEALING of a future of antisemitism abound. We talked about the pen being put to the book’s paper during Erev Rosh Hashanah last week. We mentioned the 873% increase in antisemitic incidents over the past ten years. We talked about 2023 containing the most antisemitic incidents on record since recording these events began. Our college campuses became hotbeds of antisemitism, often referred to as anti zionism, which I have become convinced is a thin veil in semantics covering up blatant Jewish hate. Many universities, so widely respected and lauded by so many for so long, became uninhabitable for many Jewish students. Many university presidents, standing before the House Education committee, failed to condemn and label the calls for Jewish genocide as a violation of school policy. One of the Rabbis I happen to follow closely, Rabbi David Wolpe, was doing a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s divinity school, and he stepped down from the university’s antisemitism advisory group. A respected rabbi, feeling obligated to resign from an Antisemitism advisory group, wrote of his reason: “the ideology that grips far too many of (Harvard’s) students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil.”
Our Torah reading this morning comes from Deuteronomy. It begins with the words, “You stand this day, all of you, in the presence of Adonai your God.”
I stand here this day before God and before all of you with this message and this confession. I am tired of qualifying, I am tired of making small excuses. I do not want to begin any conversation about Israel and the way that our country’s lauded institutions of higher learning have handled its very existence with a feigned sense of apology on my tongue. We do not have to agree with everything that the state of Israel does in order to love it. We do not have to agree with everything America does in order to love it. This is not political. This is survival.
I was with my middle and high school best friend on another infamous day: 9/11/2001. We were sophomores in High School. He was a large part of my younger years, and we still stay in touch, but not as much as I truly would like, to be honest. My friend just so happened to be half Afghani. His father and uncle escaped from Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war in the early 1980’s, before my friend was born. Upon hearing the news that Afghanistan was even associated in any way with 9/11, my friend had a look of horror on his face. He knew what might be coming his way. He wasn’t wrong. Some of the things I heard said to him by other young people, in a school environment, are not appropriate to repeat from the bimah.
Why do I bring this up? Sometimes the events of the world inscribe us in the book, and we must work vehemently to make sure that these sentiments, these words, these thoughts, these pen strokes of generalization and reductive conclusions are NOT sealed. As rockets fly in the middle east, we are not the explainers and apologizers of Judaism. We love our neighbors with the mitzvah of v’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha, but we must protect ourselves. Never again should we feel unsafe being publicly Jewish, as my friend should not have felt unsafe in his own skin. The Jewish Federation of North America released the results of a poll in the months following October 7th. American Jews now feel less safe and are worried about increasing levels of antisemitism..after being attacked. After being victimized. Around 70% of Jewish respondents said they feel less safe than they did a few months before. None said they feel safer. Three-quarters of Jews were concerned that their communities would face security problems as a result of the war.
Elie Wiesel, famous author and holocaust survivor, warned us about silence. He said: “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever people are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.” SHEMA KOLEINU, Hear our voice. The first words of our Haftarah reading this morning come to us from the prophet Isaiah- “Cry from the depths says God–do not hold back, lift up your voice like the shofar!”
We need the world to hear our voice…Shema Koleinu. The prophet Isaiah, whose book we read from this morning, also asks about the fast that God desires? What is the fast that God desires? Perhaps we must fast from fear. We must fast from silence when allyship is fruitful. We must fast from complacency. We must fast from the belief that God will take care of everything without us meeting God somewhere in the middle. There is a theme that runs through these High Holy Days that resonates like the piercing sound of the Shofar. We have to lift up our voices, to demand that others voices be lifted up as well. Rabbi Gerald Wolpe, of blessed memory, wrote of this responsibility in a short anecdote. He wrote: “A man once cried to God, “Lord, the whole world is in such a mess–everything seems wrong. Why don’t you send someone to help and change the world? The voice of Adonai answered: “I did send someone. I sent you!”
On this Yom Kippur, on this day of atonement, let us all be blessed with the clarity and strength to see the writing in the book. To lift up our voices and let it be known that we will not accept a fate as a people that we have not written in concert with our One God. Let us stand before God and fight the script that history and the world seems to have written in a permanent pen of repetition. We are here, and we are not going anywhere. Let us refrain and fast from the words of qualification and explanation. Our Jewishness does not need apologetic sentiments. We should never be forced to hide again. We will lift up our voices, stand before the open ark of the world, and sing out loudly AVINU MALKEINU- SHEMA KOLEINU. Our parent, our sovereign, hear our voice! This is the ancient voice of our people…we are here. We will seal the book with the hand of God holding ours.
G’mar Chatima Tovah- A good Final Sealing.
– Rabbi Josh Gray