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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There’s an old expression from the great city of Chicago – vote early and vote often.   The first part of the saying is good advice.  We actually have a similar idea in Judaism.  We should be so excited to do a mitzvah that we do it first thing – early in the day; this is why brises are often done in the morning.  The second part of this saying is obviously a tongue-in-cheek reference to the corrupt practice of voter fraud, for as we know so well, every person is entitled to one vote and one vote only.

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I have an embarrassing secret.  I love BuzzFeed.  For those that don’t know, BuzzFeed is the website that brings us amazing articles like, “17 Nail Art Designs Perfect For Earth Day,” “Are You More Like Woody Or Buzz Lightyear?” and “15 Texts You Send To Your Mom Vs. Your Best Friend.”  While mindlessly surfing the site, I came across another reason to love BuzzFeed, an article titled, “51 Facts About Israel That Will Surprise You.” The list includes:

3. Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship in the world.
4. Out Magazine names Israel the gay capital of the Middle East.
5. Only two countries began the 21st century with a net gain in their number of trees; Israel was one of them.
6. Israel is the only country to revive an unspoken language and establish it as its national tongue.
7. Israel is one of only nine countries in the world that can launch its own satellites into space.
8. More than 44% of all lawyers registered in Israel are women.

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A few months ago I received a very exciting email from the director of the Jewish museum in Munich.  Apparently he was searching the internet for “Jews and Beer” and my name came up!  No, this is not just because I like beer so much, but because there are actually a few great articles out there about our Men of RS sponsored brewing club, BrewRS, as well as our interfaith brewing relationship with St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. (A quick plug – we will be having the second annual Biblical Brew Off on May 30^th, where we will go head to head with St. Tim’s to see who brews the best beer!)

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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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Tonight I pray for the State of Israel. And I pray in dismay and worry, having heard the statement from the Prime Minister, broadcast around the world: We are willing to become smaller, so we don’t have to think bigger; we would rather cover the bud than take this chance to bloom.

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The Super Bowl was the number one watched program of all time in the US with almost 115 million viewers.  Now this may be because you wanted to watch the ads or the halftime show with Katy Perry, but I would guess, that like me, many of you are football fans.

As you know, I am from Boston and a passionate New England sports fan.  So, I should be on cloud nine right now, as the Patriots just won their 4th Super Bowl.  I am pretty psyched – come on, an interception on the 1 yard line with 20 seconds to go – it was amazing.  Yet, it is with mixed emotions that I reflect on this year’s Super Bowl and really this entire NFL season.  How do I, as a moral person, continue to support as league that has disappointed me in so many ways.

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Do you remember that scene in the movie Mary Poppins when Jane and Michael jump into Burt-the-chimney-sweep’s chalk paintings on the pavement and actually become part of the scene depicted?

I have had one experience in my life where I felt like I stepped into a story. I was in my junior year of college, which I spent studying at the University of Bristol in England. I met my father in Amsterdam for a weekend while he was there for business. As you may know or remember, my mother is Dutch and her entire family is from Amsterdam. When I took this trip, it was my first time in The Netherlands. I took a flight from London, arrived at the Schipol airport outside Amsterdam and boarded a train to the center of the city. I sat on the train…and was devastated to look at the faces around me. I recognized these strangers. They looked like my relatives, the ones I knew, and the ones I only knew through pictures. I felt I could be one of them. I was devastated to feel in that moment that I might be experiencing in some small measure how it looked, the scene, to be on a very different train in the 1940s as the Jews, some of my family members, were transported away from Amsterdam. At the same instant, I knew I could be looking at faces that were not Jewish, and I wondered how those faces would have looked upon that scene of the Jews being rounded up and forced to board that train.

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by Rabbi Jill Maderer

It’s a week since I participated in a “Die-In” rally that, in the wake of the Ferguson and Staten Island grand jury decisions, was organized to stop post-game Eagles traffic for 4 1/2 minutes and give participants the chance to peacefully stand together against racism.  The event was organized by POWER our multi-faith community organizing coalition of which RS is a part.

I am grateful to POWER for organizing such a peaceful, vision-filled event that promoted social change, justice, equality and collaboration.  I am grateful for Rabbi Freedman’s leadership in our connection to POWER.  And I am grateful to the Police for being a part of that collaboration.  POWER had communicated with the police ahead of time, so the police were ready to protect and support us.  The minute I came out of the subway station, an officer saw that I looked disoriented, and gave me directions to the corner where the 200 people were gathering for the rally.  Only in America, Continue reading

I imagine many of you are familiar with the traditional story of Thanksgiving that you learned about in kindergarten where, in 1621, the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people came together to give thanks and share a meal. However, not many of you may be aware of the events that led to the first official “Day of Thanksgiving.”

As a holiday, Thanksgiving began in 1637 when it was proclaimed by governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to celebrate the safe return of the men who had gone to fight against the Pequot in Mystic, Conn. The fighting led to the enslavement and massacre of over 700 men, women, and children from the New England-based tribe, a bloody precursor to what would be centuries of strife for native peoples in the U.S.

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