“How can we use the month of Elul to prepare to turn the wrongs we have done into merits?”

Torah reading: Deut 10:12-14

What does the Pope’s encyclical mean for the Jewish community?

Text :

The morning wind forever blows,

the poem of creation is uninterrupted;

but few are the ears

that hear it.

by Henry David Thoreau, in Mishkan Hanefesh Rosh Hashanah prayerbook, p. 145

Why I am going to Susiya | Rebecca Strober | The Blogs | The Times of Israel.

(Rebecca is the daughter of Fred Strober and grew up at RS)

“Why do we confess to wrongs we have not personally committed? The 16th-century mystic Rabbi Isaac Luria teaches that the people of Israel may be likened to a body of which every Jew is a living part. The vitality of the whole depends upon the health of every organ and limb. That is how deeply we are connected to one another. Therefore, each individual sin inflicts damage on the whole organism, and all of us share responsibility for healing the body of Israel.”

“I want to make a confession, to give an accounting to myself, and to God.  In other words, to measure my life and actions against the lofty ideals I’ve set for myself.  To compare that which should have been with that which was… ” – Hana Senesh (1921-1944), diary entry of October 11, 1940

From what person or event in Jewish history or in Jewish text tradition do you draw inspiration?

From the new Yom Kippur Prayerbook (p 198)

In the depths of the night, by the edge of the river, Jacob was left alone.
In heartfelt longing, in the temple of God, Channah uttered her prayer alone.
In the barren wilderness, in doubt and despair, Elijah found God alone.
On the holiest day, in the Holy of Holies, the High Priest entered alone.
We are bound to one another in myriad ways, but each soul needs time to itself.
In solitude we meet the solitary One; silence makes space for the still small voice.
For the Psalmist says: “Deep calls unto deep.” For the depths of our soul, we seek what is most profound.
Adonai, s’fatai tiftach, ufi yagid t’hilatecha.  Adonai, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.

Freedom: Breaking the Bonds:

In honor of the 4th of July, we celebrate the birth of our nation when we broke the bonds of tyranny and dedicated ourselves to freedom.
During the High Holy Days we ask, “What bonds do you hope to break in your life today?”
We will discuss the prayer below from our New High Holy day prayer.

Please share your thoughts.

To Break the Bonds of anger,
To be generous of heart;
To break the bonds of shame,
To live with self-respect;

To break the bonds of envy,
To serve one another in joy;
To break the bonds of boredom,
To be attentive to all God’s gifts;

To break the bonds of fear,
To live with courage and strength;
To untie the knots of betrayal;
To love with fullness of being.

To break the bonds of loneliness,
To receive a hand of hope;
To break the bonds of self-centeredness,
To extend a hand of help;

Released from the darkness,
Our people found their freedom at the sea;
And we pray for liberation
At the dawning of this year.

Crowdsourcing Sermons: Contribute your Thoughts

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

For this summer’s sermons from July 3 through August 28, we’d like to incorporate your perspectives. The clergy will pose a question regarding the readings and interpretations in our new High Holy Day prayerbook, Mishkan Hanafesh at the beginning of each week and we encourage you to respond to that question by responding on the blog (rodephshalom.wordpress.com) or on Facebook (“friend” us!).  Your responses will help to inform our words in the sermon for that week.

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It is such a great honor for me personally, as well as our members who are here from Congregation Rodeph Shalom to be able to worship  with you this morning.  I’d like to thank your Rev. Mark Tyler for inviting us and thank all of you for welcoming us so warmly to share in this fellowship with you, as we hope to deepen our relationship between these two historic congregations in our City.  We are so blessed to welcome Rev. Tyler and your wonderful choir and so may of you to our congregation each year in January, as we share in the celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday weekend.  That service is one of the real highlights of Rodeph Shalom’s year, because I believe it is so important for our two congregations to build on our friendship and our meaningful relationship, as we work together to make our City a better place.

I am proud that we have ongoing dialogues, Bible Study, and that we work together on POWER and more.  This partnership is good for our congregation, and I hope you find it meaningful as well.  I bring greetings from Rabbi Maderer and Rabbi Freedman, who are not able to be here today, but who love the Mother Bethel/Rodeph Shalom relationship.   We join together today in prayer, just a few days after the 47^th anniversary of his assassination on April 4, 1968.  I believe it is so important for us to celebrate Dr. King together because I believe his life points out how many similarities there are between the African-American and Jewish experiences.  While there are differences, we certainly have more in common than not.  And the life of Martin Luther King is an inspiring example of how we do share so much.

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