Drasha Yom Kippur Yizkor - 5773 Bend Down Low One of my favorite places to visit in Israel is the holy city of Tzfat. Perched atop a mountain overlooking the lush Hula valley and the steep ravines that descend towards the Kineret the Sea of Galilee, Tzvat is mystical center of Israel. They say that each of the 4 holy cities in Israel represent one of the elements: Hebron- Earth Tiberious- Water Jerusalem- Fire Tzfat- Air, and I can tell you that the air is perfect on that mountain. The town is filled with small, beautiful synagogues that are each different in layout and artistic flavor. My favorite is the Ari Synagogue. I can’t describe the feeling I get when I walk through the door of this ancient shul. It is a holy place. The Ari Synagogue was built in the sixteenth century. The founders were Kabbalists, mostly followers of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and they were joined in 1570 by Rabbi Isaac Luria. Known as the great AriZal, he was the founding father of modern kabbala. His custom was to pray in the synagogue on the Eve of Sabbath, proceeding from there with his disciples to a nearby field to welcome the Sabbath. It is said that it was during these sessions that popular Shabbat melody, Lecha Dodi, was created. During the 1948 War of Independence, there was fierce fighting around Tzfat. The local Arabs turned on their Jewish neighbors and they were joined by strong forces from the British trained Jordanian Legion. The Jews were in big trouble. One day I’ll have to tell you the miraculous story of the Davidka and how the Jews of Tzfat were saved, but many miracles happened around Tzfat during that war. One took place in the Ari synagogue: One day during the war, the synagogue was packed with worshippers seeking shelter from the battles raging around the city. Little did they know, but as they were saying aleinu, a mortar shell was about to fall and explode just outside the shul. Va’anachnu Korim! Everyone bowed down. The mortar shell hit and the shrapnel tore through the synagogue, flying right over the heads of the bent worshippers and embedding itself into the base of the bema. You can still see the hole in the bema where the shrapnel hit. Many people put notes in the hole as they do at the Western wall. Miraculously, no one was hurt. They were saved by bowing. Saved by bowing… Page 1 of 7 Drasha Yom Kippur Yizkor - 5773 Bend Down Low 2. Bowing is one of the fascinating and often overlooked ritual aspects of our religion. Did you know that there are many types of Jewish bowing! The most simple is a bend at the waist- that is why an archery bow is called a bow, it looks like a person who is bowing. Like in Modim. A little more complicated is the bend of the knees and then the bend of the waist. This we encounter during Aleinu and the silent meditation. Those are the bows we are most familiar with, but it barely scrapes the surface when it comes to the tradition of Jewish bowing. There is one bow, mentioned in the Talmud, called a kidah. They said that only Moshe was able to do it properly. Only the head, two fingers, and two toes could touch the ground. It’s like Jewish Yoga. Downward facing OY! In the days of old, when the temple still stood in Jerusalem, our ancestors would bow before God in more intense ways than we bow today. First, they would fall to their knees. Then they would bend their heads to the ground. Eventually they would fully prostrate themselves before God, lying flat on the ground. One of the famous miracles that occurred in the Temple had to do with this bowing. You may think we have a lot of people in shul today. Does everyone here have enough leg room? On Yom Kippur the Temple was packed. Hundreds of thousands of Jews together- it was standing room only as the temple courtyard was completely full. L’Havdil, think Times Square on New Year’s Eve except with a lot more kvetching and with the High Priest instead of Lady Gaga. L’havdil…terrible comparison, Al Chet… During the service, the Kohain Gadol- the high priest would call out the name of God as he blessed the people. As God’s holy name left the mouth of the Kohain Gadol, every Jew who was standing and listening hit the deck. First they dropped to their knees and then stretched into a full prostration. Miraculously, the temple courtyard that was packed when everyone was standing, somehow stretched out so that everyone had enough room to bow. Let’s just say everyone was very friendly with their neighbors. This part of the Yom Kippur experience was so vivid and important to the rabbi’s who composed the Yom Kippur prayers, that after the Temple was destroyed in 70AD, they attempted to reenact the experience every year during the Yom Kippur davening. We play the part of our ancestors, gathered together in the courtyard. The chazzon chanting the story plays the role of the High Priest. The rabbi…well, I don’t know what the rabbi is for. Who said that?!!! Soon we will be taking part in this yearly reenactment. In the coming Musaf service, we will read the entire story of the Temple Service on Yom Kippur. The climax of the reenactment is when we retell how everyone bowed to the ground when God’s holy name was called out. Page 2 of 7 Drasha Yom Kippur Yizkor - 5773 Bend Down Low In traditional synagogues around the world, when the Chazzon says the words, “Va’anachnu Korim- and the people bowed”, everyone recreates the Temple scene and falls to the floor. It is the prevailing and correct custom. I can tell you that bowing to the ground is a powerful prayer experience. For that moment, your prayer ceases to be intellectually or even emotionally driven. For the moment you bow, it is your entire self that is praying to God. It can stir up the soul of even the most jaded and uninterested High Holiday veteran. For those who have a difficult time “feeling” the spirituality of the High Holiday service, bowing is a great place to start. 3. So why don’t we bow here at MMAE? How did the custom for much of American Jewry become that just the rabbi and the chazzon bow to the ground and prostrate? I’ll be honest, I don’t know. Perhaps it didn’t fit with the sense of decorum that was the desire of 19th century synagogue leadership. There was a desire to make our prayers and our synagogues less eastern looking and more like our Protestant neighbors. Thus pews were introduced- something you never saw in synagogues prior to the 1800’s. In the shteible, the synagogues of Eastern Europe, you had a chair and a shtender. You owned the chair and the shtender. If you didn’t like the rabbi or the shul anymore, you didn’t just move yourself, you would physically take your chair with you. Perhaps in the desire for conformity, bowing was frowned upon as something foreign, strange, and backward. Maybe there were other reasons as well that the traditional bowing of Yom Kippur became passé. I can think of practical reasons. If everyone here tried bowing to the ground, life alert would have a system overload. When the rabbi drops to the ground, two men are designated to help him back up to his feet. All the fasting and praying could make it too difficult for the poor rabbi to get up on his own. That’s what happens when a rabbi hasn’t eaten a square meal in 30 minutes!! For everyone here who is physically able and spiritually adventurous, I would encourage you to try the full bow this year. It happens a few times and I will let you know when. You may want to go into the aisle if you need more room. What’s the worst that can happen? You get to stretch a little bit? You get stuck on the ground and create a scene? Either way, no big deal. If you are not physically able to bow to the ground, try to picture yourself in your mind bowing to the ground. I’ve tried it and it has almost the same effect. Page 3 of 7 Drasha Yom Kippur Yizkor - 5773 Bend Down Low If all we get out of this speech is that more of our congregation bows properly on Yom Kippur, I would say “Dayenu”. But that’s not it… We haven’t even begun to touch on why bowing is important. What is its purpose? 4. Added onto the question of: Why do we bow? Is the question of: why has the more serious form of bowing survived only for the High Holidays? Why don’t we drop to the ground every time we say aleinu? The simple answer is that bowing is intrinsically tied to the High Holidays. Bowing is the primary form of asking for forgiveness from God. There are many examples of this but the most important comes from our greatest teacher and prophet: Moses. The Israelites had just received the Revelation and Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Moses is coming down the mountain and what does he see? The people have rebelled against God and made an idol- a Golden Calf.