תשרי תשע''ח

'Sermon fro Yom Kippur, Mincha'

​

​

​

Where are you, my strength?

Where are you, my fortress and my rock?

Where are you, circumciser of my heart?

Where are you, my belief?!

 

Maybe you too in the heavens are asking

Where are my faithful? Where is my people?

 

And now, when I’m not asking after my disbelief

I lie back in my question and ask:

Where are you, my faith?

 

What is belief? Is there one belief? What is the “right” way to believe? Is it our way? Does it even exist? These are among the questions that can trip us up as we walk in the paths of religion.

 

Doubts and questions like these trouble us again and again and block us from enjoying religious  experiences. These thoughts are what can lead people to suspect that their spiritual experience isn’t sufficiently authentic or not part of the religious world. They have been taught that religious experience has only one form of expression, but that just isn’t true.

 

A covenant was made between the Eternal God and Abraham and his descendants, a covenant which belongs jointly and equally to the whole nation and isn’t the private property of any particular individual, sect or group. It’s everybody’s valuable possession. No Jew can give up their part in this covenant, because it doesn’t belong to them as individuals or as members of any sect or group within the nation. It belongs to each member of the Jewish people as a whole.

 

It’s also important to note that a covenant is made every day between each individual and his or her Creator, whenever a Jew chooses to be a Jew. This is a daily choice full of questions and challenges from moral difficulties and doubts. Nobody has the option to minimize the necessity of this private covenant or to make light of it, just as nobody has the option to make fun of their customs or their friends’ customs. The two covenants, collective and individual, complement one another and support one another like a body made up of different organs, full of varied spirits.

 

As well as the contract between the God of the Patriarchs and Matriarch and us, the Jewish people, and the contract with each individual Jew, God also has a contract with every nation and every person in every nation. We may not mock their beliefs in order to strengthen our position as a people or as individuals, because they too are expressions of faith in God. His ways are hidden, and we may not sit in judgement on the reality of their beliefs, because we have an obligation to walk in the ways of truth and peace.

 

We must add that the experience of belief isn’t easy, comfortable or shallow. On the contrary, it’s a kind of amusement park which is sometimes fun and sometimes scary, sometimes lifting us up and sometimes bringing us down. Sometimes we feel safe, sometimes full of doubts, because that is what belief is – certainty accompanied by uncertainty and certainty which can’t stand on it own without a knowledge of doubt.

 

Gemar Hatima Tova!

​

​