Rosh Hashanah 5776 ~ א׳ ראש השנה תשע״ו

Shanah tovah. It remains a great privilege for me to serve you as your Rabbi. This summer, when my grandchildren, Ilana and Amichai, attended services, ate breakfast following minyan and played under the steps in the foyer, some congregants remembered when Josette and I arrived here with our young children. We have been privileged to share much of our life journey with you.

For some who have gathered here, this has been a year of blessing. I hope that you can bring your gratitude and appreciation to your prayers and to your family. It has been a challenging year for others. I hope that you will find strength and solace in the synagogue and our prayers together.

For all of us, I pray that the coming year, 5776, will be one of continued life and good health, safety and security, love and laughter, new challenges and many accomplishments.

We have been blessed by generous members who have enabled us to graciously retire the Silverman mahzorim that have guided our High Holy Day prayers since our founding 60 years ago. Lev Shalem will be our mahzor for the next generation. These copies are for your use in synagogue. Please DO NOT take them from the synagogue. Continue to use your Silverman mahzorim at home.

We appreciate the generosity of our lead donor whose vision and Nediv Lev gift planted the possibility of purchasing Mahzor Lev Shalem.

One mitzvah leads to another.מצוה גוררת מצוה. We also are grateful to our two Tomkhei Lev donors whose support enabled the initial generosity to come to fruition. Their gifts are:

·  in memory of Sam and Rebecca Goldman, from their loving son, Murray

·  in memory of Louis and Sally Sheff, from their loving children, Gerry and Shanitha

One mitzvah leads to another. Each of you now has the opportunity to inscribe one or more mahzorim to honour someone you love or respect. I am pleased that one family has told me of plans to inscribe prayerbooks in memory of grandparents and in honour of their grandchildren.

Using a new prayerbook for the first time is somewhat disconcerting. The Silverman mahzorim may have particular personal meaning to many of you. To assist you this year, I’ll announce the pages in both Lev Shalem and Silverman mahzorim.

I hope that you will find Lev Shalem to be a spiritual support for you in your prayers. Lev Shalem means a complete heart and these books are intended to guide you in your personal prayers and introspection.

For those still working on their Hebrew, there is transliteration. For those more advanced in knowledge, there is commentary. For those whose attention drifts from the rabbi’s sermon or the cantor’s chanting, there are sidebar insights and poetry to open your hearts. For all of us, the prayers are presented in a way that makes them easier to follow with a gender-sensitive, accessible translation. We hope that Lev Shalem will take you on a spiritually fulfilling journey this year and in the years to come.

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Have you ever been misdirected by your GPS?

The Global Positioning System provides location and time information anywhere on Earth. But the first time I used a GPS, I got lost. I borrowed a portable GPS to guide my sons to the Ottawa River for white water rafting. It took me onto a small country road that ended at a fence, rather than on a main highway.

GPS depends on us to input the correct information. Once, Josette and I planned to drive from Milan to Lugano—about 45 minutes north—to see the lake and mountains. I erroneously typed Lugnano and we set off. After an hour or so, I turned to Josette and said, I think we’re messed up. I took out an old-fashioned map and realised that we were driving south toward Florence. It helps to know approximately where and how you want to go in order to confirm the route suggested by the GPS. 

There is something I do appreciate about GPS. Although sometimes the calm voice that simply states “recalculating” can drive me crazy, it is preferable to the agitated voice of someone who loves you who says, “I can’t believe you missed the turn” or “why did you decide to take THAT road?”

I’m sure you have heard of the fellow who couldn't stand his wife's cat. He decided to abandon the cat a long way away from the house. He drove about 20 blocks, then left him at the park. When he got home, the cat was there.

The next day he deposited the cat about 50 blocks away. He drove home and again, the cat was there. The third day he put the cat in the car, drove around, taking turn after turn—right, left, right, right and so on. After about an hour, he released the cat.  A few hours later, the phone rings at the house and his wife answers. It's her husband. He asks: "Is the cat there?" She smiles, “Why, yes. He's been here quite a while. Where are you?” "I'm lost and I need directions.”

Do you ever feel lost? Wonder where your desired destination might be? What would it mean to arrive there? I speak with young people who have clarity of plans and direction for life. But there are many others who are uncertain about where they are going.

I’m facing this myself. After the synagogue and I announced that my service here will conclude in 2017, I felt both excited and anxious, enthusiastic and uncertain. Just the way a student feels upon first entering university. Similar to the way some couples feel before their huppah. Or new parents bringing their baby home. Or people starting a new job. Or mourners trying to feel their way forward in a world without their loved one.

During these Days of Awe, I’m going to explore the question of our life journeys, where we as individuals and a synagogue are going; where our lives are taking us and how Torah might help us find direction; where God is in this process and what our ultimate destination might be.

This year, I’m particularly thinking of people in motion. Our congregants, Yacov and Judy, who escaped Nepal after the terrible earthquake. Josette’s cousins, who were not shopping at the HyperCacher supermarket in Paris when the terrorist entered. And, on a day when we recall the fragility of all life—“who shall live and who shall die?”—I hold the images of refugees in small boats, hiding at border crossings, waiting for the train to nowhere.

Hart Nemoy read in the Torah this morning, “God heard the cry of the child where he is ~ “באשר הוא שם” and a messenger instructs Hagar to “lift up the boy and hold him.” It is not only Hagar who must do so for Yishma’el. We also carry the responsibility to lift up the boy and hold him.

Last spring, I joined a group of religious leaders to appeal for Canada to do more for humanitarian relief in Syria and Iraq as well as for refugee resettlement in Canada. The Government responded positively to our requests on behalf of the religious minorities of the Middle East, indicating that Canada would accept 10,000 refugees.

In June, I was among a group that gathered to announce Lifeline Syria, an initiative to resettle refugees in Toronto whose status has been confirmed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and whose credentials have been verified by our Government.

At the time, Mayor Tory and I spoke about the particular challenge this might present to the Jewish community. I am pleased to report that JIAS is the lead agency of our community for this local effort and that the Joint Distribution Committee is working on the ground in Europe to respond to the refugee crisis.

When I presented the issue to the lay leadership of our congregation, they immediately accepted responsibility to provide a platform for the resettlement of a refugee family. A letter circulating today indicates three ways that you can help.

Strikingly, the 100 times we sound shofar is associated with the cries of the mother of Sisera, a Philistine general who sought to defeat the people of Israel. Notwithstanding all the Jewish women whose voices the shofar could represent, the Rabbis chose to link the shofar cry to the mother of our enemy, for the shofar's call reminds us of suffering and pain, even within the families of those who otherwise stand against us.

During musaf prayers today we say “זה היום תחילת מעשיך, זכרון ליום ראשון - this day marks the beginning of your creation, a reminder of the first day”. There is an ancient tradition that the human being was created today. By referencing Genesis, our prayers point to a shared humanity. We recite aleynu which imagines a time when all people will be devoted to God and the divine ideals of justice and peace will flow through the entire world.

As Beth Tzedec marks our 60th anniversary, we strive to remain a leader in the community, a congregation on the move, seeking to do our best for the stranger and for our own community. We have accepted responsibility to bring a platoon of former Israeli soldiers to Toronto in May, as part of the Peace of Mind initiative, to provide psychological support for those who have served three or more years in high-risk combat units. During an intense week here, discharged vets will be guests in our homes and will receive both therapy and time for relaxation.

In addition to our annual Out of the Cold project, our annual Jewish service network trip for high schoolers will take them to Northern Ontario to volunteer in the community, hold Shabbat services in the local synagogue, and spend a day with First Nations youth at the Nipissing First Nation reserve. This initiative is part of our response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

We also will be partnering with V’Ahavta to send a group of young adults to provide social relief to distressed communities in either Africa or Central America.

What is this all about?  We seek to intensify Jewish life within our shul and reach beyond our congregation to provide hesed support to Jews and all people. Your generosity enables us to build a strong kehillah committed to prayer, Torah study and acts of justice and compassion. We can be immensely proud of what we strive to accomplish.

I appreciate when GPS technology works and my car tells me, “you have arrived at your destination,” but is that always true in life?  I think of the Paul Simon song:

Slip slidin' away

You know the nearer your destination

The more you're slip slidin' away

God only knows

God makes his plan

The information's unavailable

To the mortal man

We're working our jobs

Collect our pay

Believe we're gliding down the highway

When in fact we're slip slidin' away.

Sometimes, we move ahead on GPS and fail to consult an old fashioned map to make sure we are, indeed, going in the direction we want. We may be “slip slidin’ away” from where we really want to be.

The Hebrew words for Jewish law is halakhah, a path, suggesting that it is heading somewhere. We are taught to speak and study the words of Torah “ובלכתך בדרך ~ when you walk on your way.” Walking is the earliest form of human technology. With Torah as a map, in the midst of a high tech world, we can take another look at where we are heading. Think of walking Jewish as a set of practices that orient us on a path for life.

Every year, the awesome prayer unetaneh tokef shakes me up. It pulls me from a false sense of security to remind us that there are no guarantees.

Torah won’t protect me from a breakdown or accident on the road, but it will help determine my derekh, a way forward, in spite of everything.

If you look in Lev Shalem on page 144, you’ll see a different translation from the one found in the Silverman mahzor on page 148. Instead of “repentance, prayer and righteousness AVERT the severe decree”, implying that these actions will cancel the difficult challenges we face, the newer translation says that despite all the uncertainty in life - and we are witness to it on our screens and in print - “t’shuvah, t’fillah and tz’dakah - how we see ourselves and deal with others - have the power to TRANSFORM THE HARSHNESS of our destiny.” Our religious and spiritual attitude, our moral actions, affect how we face the problems on our journey.

When Avraham is called, “לך לך ~ go forth,” he embarks on a journey to an unknown destination. In the reading tomorrow, he will be called to “go to the place that I shall show you.” The future is unknown and uncertain. Most of the truly important decisions we make take us to places we don’t really know. We must constantly re-evaluate, recalibrate and recalculate our route.

The Christian theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr, uses the image of pilgrimage for a life journey. “… the past [must] be intentionally carried forward … [otherwise] we become aimless and wandering individuals instead of pilgrims.” When we gather during these Days of Awe, we seek to transform ourselves from wandering individuals to a pilgrim people progressing to a redemptive future.

I hope you will join others to make a commitment to Beth Tzedec. Time and effort, tzedakah and generosity. Our congregation can help people on their journeys because your caring support sustains our core community.

The Torah enumerates 42 different stages in the journey of the newborn Jewish nation from the land of Egypt until its entry into Eretz Yisrael. A tradition attributed to the Baal Shem Tov suggests that these stages in our people’s Wilderness journey are mirrored in our lives. We proceed from birth—our personal exodus—until death ushers us in to ארץ החיים ~ the Land of Life, the spiritual counterpart of Eretz Yisrael.

This H̱asidic personalisation of the national journey suggests that even locations associated with negative events may move us in a positive direction. At each stage, particularly when we falter, we may not know which way to turn or how to proceed, but the Torah teaches us that our journey is not over.

A temporary descent can lead to an ascent-  ירידה לשם עליה - if we can harness the power of the three Ts:  teshuvah- turning inward, tefilah- turning to God, and tzedakah- turning to others. Through these acts of spiritual service, we recalculate, regain perspective and renew our daily journeys.

The Torah tells us that before his death, וילך משה - Moshe went out to the people. Even at the end of his life, he is still a moral force, going to comfort and console, to warn and to bless, to challenge the community and to emphasise the future continuity of the covenant.

The shofar sounds, saying “recalculating.” It calls us to reconsider where we want to go and how to get there. May the blasts of the shofar, the teachings of Torah, and our daily mitzvot get us to our desired destination.