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Theme: 5776: Gateways Theme: 5776: Gateways Erev Rosh Hashanah Sunday evening, Sept. 13, 2015 Rabbi’s Message #1 --- Shalom and L’Shana Tovah to each one of you who came this evening to enter together into the New Year. What does it mean “to enter”? I have been thinking about this for several months, gathering ideas for my theme this year, which is GATEWAYS. Certain places have been named Gateways… such as St. Louis, Gateway to the West, since explorers and settlers began their journey West from there, a setting forth point. Other gateways are at the entrance of a special place, like the magical feeling of passing through the gates of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I’d like you to picture a gateway – it could be of any material – stone, wood, iron, wood, painted, weathered, an arbor with vines… Is there any sign or name on the top of the gateway announcing what is within? Does your gate have a door or is it open? If it has a door, is it locked? See yourself with the key or the code to open the door if that is needed, and see yourself entering through the gate. Are you approaching a house, a structure of any kind, a garden, a meadow? Are there trees? Plants? Animals? What is beyond your gate? Focus on something of value, pleasant, intriguing, and bring it back, or bring back the sensation or memory of what you saw, heard, smelled, felt there. In our Elul Workshop we did this exercise and then described to each other the varied types of gateways people imagined. Then we looked at the approaching new moon of Tishri ahead as a gateway to the rest of the year. On colorful half sheets of paper, each person created a diagram of their own gateway to the New Year, with the major goal, hope, prayer for the coming year written on time of the gate. On the sides, they described what they saw, heard, felt, and some way they would celebrate the fulfillment of this goal. Healthy self-care. Letting go of inhibitions, Connection, Tranquility. Hope after loss, Shalom, Safety… and then envisioning entering through that personal gateway to rejoice, dance, and celebrate. Some of these gateway drawings will be displayed in the Meditation Garden behind the synagogue on Yom Kippur. By that time, many of you may well feel you have entered fully through the gateway of this new turning which is the root meaning of Shanah,year, (L’Shanah Tovah) a turning and change, shinui. It is worth noting that many ancient Hebrew texts, as well as contemporary prayer books, have the word GATES in their title: Shaarei Tefillah -Gates of Prayer, Shaarei Teshuvah - Gates of Repentance, The Talmudic Baba Kama, (First Gate), Baby Metzia (Middle Gate), and Baba Batra (Last Gate) – with Baba being the Aramaic word for gate. I find it interesting that so many chapters should be called “Gates”: #1 Shaar HaYichud - Unity of God introduction to God #2 Shaar Bechina - Gate of Examination waking up. essential foundations. #3 Shaar Avodas HaElokim - Gate of Service of God more on waking up. more essential foundations. #4 Shaar HaBitachon - Gate of Trust in God the most necessary of all things in the service of G-d #5 Shaar Yichud HaMaase - Gate of Devotion introduction to falsehood and the evil inclination #6 Shaar HaKnia - Gate of Submission "the beginning and root of repentance" #7 Shaar HaTeshuva- Gate of Repentance the conditions and requirements of repentance #8 Shaar Cheshbon Hanefesh – Gate of Spiritual Accounting exercises for internalizing the book #9 Shaar HaPerishus - Gate of Abstinence and self control cultivating self control and total focus #10 Shaar Ahavas Hashem - Gate of Love of God We speak of Shaarei Tzedek – the Gates of Righteousness (from Psalm 118 - Open for me the Gates of Righteousness… I will go through them and offer gratitude to God). There is a sense of anticipation when at a gate, a kind of feeling of being almost there… Are we there yet? You can see the house, meadow, garden, temple, goal -- but you aren’t yet there. This preparation heightens the sense of excitement. There is something very important that sits deep in our memory – of pre-holiday preparations, the very basic physical ones, cleaning the house, cooking soup and delicious foods, maybe brisket, or a family favorite you come to expect each year, inviting people to share the meal or knowing you will see relatives and close friends, the smells of polish for silver, copper candlesticks and serving dishes and silverware, the buying of something new so that you could say Shehechiyanu… the acquiring of a new Jewish calendar and seeing what the large number of years is up to – 5776 this year. And if you didn’t grow up with these home rituals, extended family gatherings and special holiday recipes, or High Holy Day royal melodies, then we are creating those memories here now at our Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley. We are holding each other’s hands as we enter the New Year together, the gateway to deeper connections with each other and with joyous, juicy Judaism. To help us find our way through the Gateway onto the path beyond I have prepared several gifts and guides: (show examples of each) You can take them with you after the service: - A home ceremony which many of you already used tonight at your table to usher in the New Year with blessing and sweetness; the other side contains a brief Erev Yom Kippur home service before the fast begins. - A Book of Life journal for writing very brief notes about the past year with hopes for your New Turning in the coming year. (There is a “seal” glued on the back so that at Yom Kippur when we say “May you be written and SEALED in the Book of Life” you can peel off the seal and close this Book of Living Fully. - A Jewish calendar that enables you to anticipate and plan for each Jewish holy day and festival, and let family and friends know when Hanukkah and Passover and the other important dates on the Jewish calendar will fall this coming year. - A Traveler’s Prayer in anticipation of a trip, since so many of you travel during the year. Keep that with you. - At home you can use our JCSVV.org website as a gateway, a portal, to discover what is coming up in our programs, services, and celebrations, and a way to order on Amazon that benefits the synagogue as you explore the vast array of products you search for and buy. During the year there will be many gateways through which you can enter the realm of Jewish community. Choose your gateway. Follow the path ahead. Find treasure and value and a sense of safety and growth. Enter with me. Let us enter the gateway to the year ahead. L’Shanah Tovah – wishing you a sweet and good new turning. -Amen. Theme: 5776: Gateways Rosh Hashanah Day Monday, Sept. 14, 2015 Rabbi’s Message #2 Boker tov. Good morning, on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah. You have heard, said, and sung so many prayers, blessings, and readings this morning, in Hebrew and in English, spoken and chanted. I spoke to you last night, as the New Year began, about GATEWAYS, my theme for these Days of Awe, as the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur are known. I was a licensed tour guide during the years Itzhak and I lived in Israel, and was always struck by the feeling of anticipation and expectation when I took groups through the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. There was a sense of “Now we are going back in time. Now we are about to enter a sacred area toward which we have been turning in prayer for years. Now I am about to step on ancient stones containing millennia of history.” Once we moved to the United States and established our home in Los Angeles, I had to find new gates, new ways to bring the joy of our Jewish heritage to people. I did this as Museum Educator of the Skirball Museum, at that housed on the Hebrew Union College Campus near USC college campus. My tools were the art and artifacts – menorahs, ketubot – decorated marriage certificates), ancient archeological finds of pottery and metal, as well as contemporary expressions of Jewish culture in fiber arts, works in glass, silver, and ceramic. With each tour, gallery hunt, or school program, I found ways to make Jewish culture come alive by entering through the gateway of art, architecture, archeology, and artifacts. Later as Program Director in a large synagogue in Beverly Hills the gateways I offered were through adult education and holiday celebrations for youth, adults, and elders. The gateway that I yearned to find was the gateway of BLESSING… and that I slowly found through my studies in Rabbinical school and as a volunteer chaplain in hospitals in L.A. Now as a rabbi, I am able to offer these gateways to you as a tour guide, not of the land of Israel, not as a museum guide, not as coordinator of studies and programs, but as a tour guide of the soul, offering blessings as you come up to Torah, as you come to simcha Shabbat and receive blessings for birthday, anniversaries, births of grandchildren, or other joyous occasions. I am transformed by bringing down blessings when anyone is ill, or when a visitor comes to the sanctuary and we open the ark and stand together next to the open ark wrapped in a tallit.
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