It is so good to see you here for our regular Tuesday night minyan.

In 1954, Bette Nesmith Graham had a problem with her job as a typist. When she sought to correct a mistake, the eraser would smear ink over the page. She knew that artists made corrections or covered up mistakes not by erasing their work, but by painting over them.

Graham mixed up some fast-drying white tempera paint at home and brought it to work. She used it surreptitiously, applying it with a thin paint brush as needed.  Eventually her mix, later called Liquid Paper, would be in every office desk around the world, relieving a generation of typists from the pressure of perfection. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/obituaries/bette-nesmith-graham-liquid-paper.html

Painting over what is unwanted is known as pentimento. Some pentimentiare visible on the final canvas with careful inspection; others are revealed only with infrared reflectography. Famous pentimenti are found in works by Da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rembrandt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento

Last summer at the Israel Museum, knowing that Zurbarán also used this technique, I examined the exhibit of Jacob and his twelve sons, but did not discover any pentimento. https://www.haaretz.com/life/.premium.MAGAZINE-after-370-years-jacob-and-his-twelve-sons-arrive-at-israel-museum-1.6133583

Pentimento, from the Italian word for repentance, is related to the Hebrew idea of Kippur, which means to cover up. Teshuvah, turning, returning, changing, repenting, is, of course, a type of repainting.  When we sing Kee Hineh Ka’homer, we compare ourselves to a work of art.I believe that we are both art and artist. Before 8.01 tomorrow night,w e are trying to repaint some flaws in our lives to improved our personal work of art.

Of course, we have to know what to use to properly repaint.A rabbi once put out bids to have the exterior of a small synagogue repainted.  Two bids came in at over $5,000.  One came in at $2,000, so the rabbi selected the low bid. The shul was painted.  After a few weeks, and a heavy rain, all the new paint washed off. The rabbi called the painter, and said: “Re-paint, re-paint, and thin no more!”

Israeli society is also undergoing a pentimento, gradually repainting itself from the original Zionist idea of a new human, rooted in agriculture with military capacity, disconnected from the Diaspora and Jewish traditions. Israel had a government that required workers to change European names to Hebrew, a society which demeaned Holocaust survivors, and a country that put Sefardi-Mizrahi immigrants into isolated towns.

A few years ago a real estate agent described the Moroccan and Kurdish Jews in my Jerusalem neighbourhood as “primitives.” The secular Ashkenazim were the elite in government, culture and business; the Haredi Ashkenazim looked down on their observant Sefardi-Mizrahi cousins.

A political change began in 1977, with the election of Menahem Begin, who appealed to the traditionally oriented Mizrahi community. Other developments took longer. This past summer, Josette and I saw the new Israeli comic-drama, “UnOrthodox,” a close-to-reality film of the 1984 founding of the Sephardi Haredi Shas political party, of the injustice and discrimination it sought to challenge and of the corruption that eventually engulfed it.

Around the same time, Sefardi-Mizrahi music was bubbling up. By the late 1980s, Kobi Oz’ band fused Western-style rock music with Moroccan sounds and a sly sense of humour. The music of small-town Sderot swept secular Tel Aviv.

The band was Tea-Paks, טיפקס, after Tipp-ex, the Hebrew brand name for correction fluid. The name was chosen because they wanted to “white out differences between people. … combining … Arab Jew[ish] Israel with East European Israel.” Last summer in Jerusalem, I was exposed to Kobi’s music and wanted to share it with you.

In 2007, one of their songs, “Push the Button”, was the Israeli entry for the EuroVision song contest. Its video features images of Iranian leaders threatening Israel.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4O13xWDKkw

The world is full of terror,
If someone makes an error,
he's gonna blow us up
to biddy biddy kingdom come….

They’re gonna push the button, push the button,
Push the bu…push the bu… push the button…

And I don't wanna die

I wanna see the flowers bloom
Don't wanna go kaput kaboom
And I don't wanna cry
I wanna have a lot of fun
just sitting in the sun
But nevertheless

He’s gonna push the button, push the button,

Maybe this is too intense
[Israelis] should sing of palm trees
But hai, hai, hai.
I’m still alive, alive, alive

But if it keeps on being scary
Then will I say
I’m gonna push the button, push the button,

The song was controversial because Israeli anxieties about Iran are real. Israelis remember 1973.  Some of you also will remember that Yom Kippur. In shul, news was breaking about an attack from Egypt. 2,655 soldiers lost their lives in a month long war that pushed Israel to the brink.

After Tea-paks broke up, Kobi spent several years, in his words, “soaking in the sweet marinade of Judaism” and emerged with an acoustic world music sound. He mashed classical texts and modern cynicism, religiosity and secularity, seriousness and wry humour. His songs grapple with issues that concern all of us on Yom Kippur.

In “Prayer of a Secular Jew, תפילת החילוני,” Kobi expresses a desire for some faith.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXJvIx-7ubE

Av ha’rahaman, merciful Father 
Be my trusted soul-mate 
Shelter my heart in your faith
Give me awe at the sound of your name

But instead, as modern people, we seek support elsewhere.

I never found myself a teacher and my laws are improvisedWhen I am in distress I take a pill…And for all my weaknesses my parents are to blame There’s no well-ploughed furrow, it’s a multi-lane highway That leads to the general mall 

He describes a minyan gathered to pray, and points to divisions in Jewish life.

I prayed at a minyan, and who was with me?
A Haredi trembling like a volcano with fear
For the sake of God he is like a robot 
Big and sweaty, he is blessed with children that we pay for,
Next to us an Orthodox settler who worships land,
He invokes the past, but praises military uniforms, 
And we all live by his sword …
There is a Reform woman …wearing a tallit….
An Ashkenazi celebrating without Sefardic joy
And from behind the mehitza,
there is rustling and whispering
Headscarves, wigs and uncovered hair
On the other side is a sensuous sound
The feminine voice of those who are not-counted.

But then, he reminds us, in a hope that we share:

All of them, God, are yours, Bless your children of all kinds, both religious and secular
Be a trusted soul-mate Shelter my heart in your faith
Give me awe at the sound of your name

“Prayer of a Secular Jew” reminds us that we want something deeper than shopping therapy. We deeply desire a relationship with God who will be a trusted soul-mate. We want the Jewish people to feel a basic unity that holds us together.

In “Zalman,” Kobi reminds us that we are not defined by what we think we possess or control. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlaLDDYdF5s

Zalman wandered the world confusedAsked himself: “Who am I and what for?…
Zalman phoned here and thereTold himself  “I am the boss of my timeI make a little callAnd right away everything is fixedI have status around the clock…”But hop! A heavenly voice spoke out:
You are just….

Zalman, here  comes the Sabbath BrideYou’re going to restYour people are those who prayYour status is not youYour land is not youYou, You are just ….
Zalman lay back in his reclining chair…“My home is my castle, it’s a kingdom”
And again a heavenly voice called out:
Zalman that’s not you 

It’s Sukkot now – go out to your sukkah…Look up at the stars… Your house is not you Your wife is not you Your status is not you Your land is not you You are just…
Zalman asked his ailing father “How do I define myself in this world?” “You are my son,” said his wise father And closed his eyes forever …

Zalman remained with the same question

And a heavenly voice called out:

…You get confused Between what is yours and who you are Between your work and the meaning of your world 

Zalman …When will you finally find yourself? You are not your property Not your success You are not your surroundings …You are just … Zalman

A Mizrahi Jews sings about a European Jew, asking to consider who we truly are. We are not what we imagine we possess — land, status, house, spouse. As I make my transition from the congregational rabbinate — and I welcome the selection of my successor — I also ask who will I be I when I’m not the Rabbi here.

Kobi Oz’s grandfather was a rabbi and religious poet. He composed and sang hundreds of short prayers. After his grandfather died, the family found recordings. Kobi's song, “My God,” begins and ends with the rabbi-grandfather’s plaintive Moroccan inflected prayer that articulates an intimate relationship with God and a hope for the Jewish people and the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUFWuEcykSg

 You are God, my God.
You are my God who gathers the scattered of Israel
My God, 
Gather our scattered from throughout the earth 

Then, in contemporary music,  Kobi offers his prayer.

יֵשׁ לִי כָּל כָּךְ הַרְבֵּה דְּבָרִים לְסַפֵּר לְךָ

וְאַתָּה הֲרֵי הַכָֹּל יוֹדֵעַ

יֵשׁ לִי הַרְבֵּה

בַּקָּשׁוֹת לְבַקֵּשׁ מִמְּךָ אֲבָל אַתָּה הֲרֵי חָפֵץ בְּטוֹבָתִי מִמֵּילָא

I have so much to tell you,yet you know everything I have so so so so many requests to ask of you,but you already want the best for me 
I give you a little smile for every thing of beauty I notice,impressive or delicate And I’m a bit embarrassed –
dunno what to call you – Elohim or Elokim?

יֵשׁ לִי הָמוֹן תּוֹדוֹת תּוֹדוֹת תּוֹדוֹת עוֹמְדוֹת בַּתּוֹר מוּל

דַּלְתְּךָ אֲבָל תּוֹדוֹת יוֹצְאוֹת לִי קִיטְשׁ.

יֵשׁ לִי מָלֵא בַּקָּשׁוֹת בַּקָּשׁוֹת בַּקָּשׁוֹת בַּקָּשׁוֹת לְבַקֵּשׁ מִמְּךָ לַמְרוֹת

שֶׁאֶצְלִי בְּסה”כּ הַכָֹּל בְּסֵדֶר.

I have so so so so many thanks in line at your door,
but my thank yous always come out corny and kitsch.I have so so so so so many requests to ask of you,
though I’m basically ok. 

My God, if you hear my prayer maybe you can send my love to my Grandfather Tell him that his Sephardi moderation has been replaced by zealotry and extremism But despite everything, tolerance is bubbling beneath the surface 

Look how people try to leave the conflicts

and just want to be united In this great synagogue called the Land of IsraelWhere everyone is welcome to look up at the heavens, pray for rain, and watch out for missiles

I have so so so so many thanks in line at your door, but my thank yous always come out corny and kitschI have so so so so so many requests to ask of you, though I’m basically ok.

Kobi’s prayer speaks to me. I want to maintain a connection with God, I have a lot of thanks, but I don’t want them to become kitsch. I have lots of requests, but basically, I’m ok.

Kobi Oz is repainting Israeli society and Jewish life. His pentimento seeks to reconnect to the depth our tradition with humility and hope, to get back in touch with our deep-most yearnings. Repaint Israel from commerce to connection, from politics to personal, from external to inner security.

In 1972, just prior to his death, my teacher, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who served at Beth Tzedec as our first High Holiday rabbi, was asked, in a television interview, what he wanted to say to young people.

…let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we do — everyone — our share to redeem the world, in spite of all absurdities, and all the frustrations, and all the disappointment. And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live life as if it were a work of art.

None of us is a finished product. Not I, not you, not this community. As long as we live, we shall be making corrections, using some spiritual white out, a touch of TeaPacks for teshuvah, pentimento to repaint our personal canvas, hoping to improve our personal work of art.

Let’s use this Yom Kippur well. Live your life as if it were a work of art.

Re-paint.

Pentimento

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento

White Out

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/obituaries/bette-nesmith-graham-liquid-paper.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/liquid-paperback-writer/

Zurbaran exhibit

https://www.haaretz.com/life/.premium.MAGAZINE-after-370-years-jacob-and-his-twelve-sons-arrive-at-israel-museum-1.6133583

Kobi Oz

http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/701/features/psalms-for-the-perplexed/

https://www.haaretz.com/1.5083283

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJsntrAx7TE

http://makomisrael.org/blog/artist/kobi-oz/

http://makomisrael.org/blog/album/mizmorei-nevuchim-psalms-for-the-perplexed/#prayer-of-the-secular

http://makomisrael.org/blog/album/mizmorei-nevuchim-psalms-for-the-perplexed/#zalman

http://makomisrael.org/blog/album/mizmorei-nevuchim-psalms-for-the-perplexed/#elohay

http://makomisrael.org/blog/artist/kobi-oz/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUFWuEcykSg