Just as it says in our Shofar service: Ha-Yom Harat Olam: today is the birthday of the world. It is the year 5780 on the Jewish calendar, so today marks five thousand, seven hundred and eighty years since the events described in the Book of Genesis. The very first event written in Genesis happens in chapter 1, verses 3, 4, and 5:
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃
“God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”
וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃
“God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.”
וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד׃ (פ)
“God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.”
Of all the things G1d could have created out of that swirling watery chaos described in the opening verses of Genesis, Why did G!d choose to create light?
Rabbi Judah, who lived in the Land of Israel when it was just another province of the Roman Empire, suggested that the light had to be created first in order only then the rest of the world. He compared it to a king who asks his daughters to build him a palace when it was still dark outside. What’s the first thing they’d do? They’d light candles, in order to know where to lay the foundation stones.[1]
I enjoy Rabbi Judah’s 2nd century feminist midrash of the Royal Daughters’ Construction Company. I imagine that these princess-construction workers would use some very high intensity candles to light up the building site before breaking ground for the King’s Palace. I also imagine that their high intensity candles provided not only illumination, but they also provided warmth in the dark since their father (for some strange reason!) couldn’t wait until the morning for construction to begin on his palace. I imagine that those candles even provide some inspiration for the structure the Royal Daughters Construction Co. would eventually build on their foundation.
Illumination, warmth, and inspiration are three gifts that light gives. We will need all three of these gifts of the light — illumination, warmth, and inspiration at Congregation Beth Shalom this year.
First, I think — and I hope you’ll agree — we certainly have illumination here at Beth Shalom. From our own b’reishit, from our very beginning just about nine years ago, this congregation has committed to transparency as one of its core values. Other congregations might work and make decisions in obscurity; but at Beth Shalom, we insist on transparency.
Yet,let’s face it: we are in the midst of a great transition together. Once, Beth Shalom was simply a chavurah. Today, we have grown into a fully-fledged congregation with me as your first-ever full-time rabbi. I am so honored by this faith you have placed in me. I feel so challenged by your trust. What is it going to mean for us to have this b’reisheet; this new beginning together?
Some of our procedures have already having to change in order to grow into our new, more mature identity. Yet we can and should be proud of our congregational commitment to transparency in our governance and translucency in our character. That is, we’ll strive together to ensure that wherever Beth Shalom is concerned, what you see is what you get.
As we grow, I hope that we will be like a chuppah at a Jewish wedding, open on all four sides, with what takes place underneath visible to all. The chuppah is a reminder of the tent of Abraham and Sarah, who were famously open to visitors and guests. We are fully committed to sacred partnership with one another, and with our community, with our nation, with our People Israel, with our world, and with our eternal, majestic G1d. In a sacred partnership, shenanigans and decisions made by a privileged few behind closed doors are unnecessary, even unthinkable.
When we really have such sacred partnership,the Or Elohim, the light of God, will come shining through, illuminating everything we are, and everything we do. Sacred partnership will make us translucent; it could even make us luminescent, a source of light.
Yet our commitment to transparency alone will not be enough to secure our future.
The second gift that light, especially sunlight, bestows is warmth. Sunlight warms the earth encouraging all living things to grow.
To feel the special warmth of Beth Shalom, all we have to do is look around. See how far we have come in making Beth Shalom into a friendly, nurturing Jewish community? From our Friday night kabbalat Shabbat service, bubbling with effervescent energy, to the joyful noise of our Sunday morning religious school community, to the creative energy of brotherhood and sisterhood, it’s almost like a greenhouse, or an incubator in here. It’s been a delight to find a Jewish community like Beth Shalom that has built so much on its own and is proud of its self-sufficient volunteer efforts. Yes, we can be very proud of this house we are building where we can dwell together. But we must not take our current warmth for granted. For one thing, A Jewish community is only as ‘warm’ and as ‘welcoming’ as someone who has never been there experiences when they walk by.
For another, we want to be a Beth Shalom, a House of Peace. Yet I’ve already seen a discussion grow contentious, threatening to blow holes in our fragile little house, or even blow it down. If our warmth disappears as soon as we disagree, we’re liable to become fearful and risk-averse, tiptoeing around each other, and eventually becoming cold and brittle. We will retain our warmth as long as we trust one another.
We’ve got the warmth. And we’ll make it last. But like illumination, warmth itself isn’t enough.
A ray of light bestows a third gift, one which I believe we need this year. A ray of light gives inspiration.
A ray of light emanates from its source and travels unswervingly to its destination. It is direct, discrete, and focused.
What is going to be our inspiration in this new year? What will be our direction? What will be our focus?
I don’t know yet. I’m going to need you all to help me figure out that question.
But here’s what I do know: People in our country and in our world today are yearning, deeply, to reach out across boundaries of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and culture. Religious fellowships like our own have tremendous potential to let a great many different kinds of people come together. People can find the common ground that has been so lacking in their lives on the sacred ground that we are so good at providing.
We want to be a source of light – of hope and inspiration for one another, and even for other people throughout our greater Indianapolis community. We want grounds for action: sacred enough that people want to remove their shoes; yet common enough that they feel invited to step right in.
In order for our Beth Shalom to be such a sacred ground, we must make our House of Peace a home of Jewish learning. Open to all, we learn the Torah’s sacred obligations in order to do them; and we do the Torah’s commandments in order to learn them. The Torah should illuminate us, warm our passions, and be transparently at the center of everything we do.
Two great inspirations of my religious life are the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his close friend and colleague Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. I can almost feel their presence, here now, assuring us that it only takes a little light to dispel a great deal of darkness. We don’t need to be discouraged by these dark and anxious times. We just need to find our light and let it shine as brightly and purposefully as we can.
Perhaps the question is: what bestirs us as a congregation? What keeps most of us awake at night when the light is low? What makes us jump out of bed in the morning when the light illuminates our sleeping chambers?
What could we do, as a congregation, right here at home that would help fulfill some sacred obligation in our Torah? That would help fulfill a need here in Indianapolis? That would bring us together as a unified temple? What might even attract people from religious, ethnic, cultural, social circles beyond our own to partner with us?
For me personally, there are several things that keep me awake at night; yet also make me jump out of bed in the morning (And I’m not talking about my kids, even though they sometimes keep me up late at night or wake me early in the morning). No, the global climate crisis, immigration, and human trafficking are some of things that keep me awake.
Just for example, take the Global climate disaster unfolding in real time. Human activity increasing carbon in our atmosphere is remaking our whole world for the the worse. The U.S. Department of Defense says, “The effects of a changing climate are a national security issue.” None other than ExxonMobil’s vice president of corporate strategic planning, says “The risk of climate change is clear and the risk warrants action.” “Take care of my world,” says our Holy G1d.
“But rabbi,” you say, “the Global Climate Crisis is, well, global! What could such a small congregation as Beth Shalom do about it?”
Well, what if we made our own local climate… change? What if we calculated our whole congregation’s carbon footprint and committed ourselves to neutralizing it, visibly and locally? What if we challenged every other synagogue, church, mosque, meeting and religious community in the Indianapolis region to do the same?
I have some other other ideas about ways we might think and act about the global problems of immigration and human trafficking right here at home. And I have some thoughts about why the Torah might be commanding us to act on them here and now.
Yet there are any number of other energizing rays of light to inspire and direct us. Just think about it, and let’s talk with one another about it: what would energize us if it became our congregation’s focus this year?
Y’hi or. Let there be light for us. Let this light illuminate us, warm us, and inspire us in this new year of 5780, and for many joyful, healthy years to come.
היום הרת עולם:
Happy birthday, dear world.
And as that prayer that begins with Hayom Ha’rat Olam concludes:
ותוציא כאור משפטינו, איום קדוש:
On this Rosh Ha-Shanah, shed the light of your judgment upon us, O holy and awesome G1d.
Keyn y’hi ratzon. So may it be G1d’s will.
Copyright 2019 by Rabbi Justin Kerber. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Genesis Rabbah 3; Exodus Rabbah 50.
