From the Rabbi’s Desk

Rabbi Manes Kogan

Yom Kippur

5759

Among young people it is very common to hear this: "It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick". This saying replaces a previous one, very well known, that says: "It is better to be poor and healthy than rich and sick". Those young people, arrived at a right conclusion that it is not any contradiction between being rich and being healthy. Moreover, if you are rich, you have more possibilities to keep good health, because a good health insurance plan is very expensive.

The question is the following: If it is so obvious that "it is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick", why do some people continue keeping the old saying that says "It is better to be poor and healthy than rich and sick?"

I investigated the issue and I arrived at the conclusion that there is a background of guilt in all these kinds of sayings. Two Thousand years of dispersion, pogroms, persecutions and fears, seem to have taught us that you can not have all the good options in your hand. That was really true during a big part of Jewish History. During the Roman conquest of the Land of Israel, at the beginning of the first millenium, the choice was: living as slaves or dying free. In Spain, during the Inquisition, the choice was: living as a Christian or dying as a Jew. The Holocaust brought us again a lot of terrible options and we know many stories about difficult choices during this difficult time.

Also we can not forget that dilemmas are a vital part of life.

However, life isn’t only dilemmas. As my friends like to say, you can be also rich and healthy, handsome and intelligent, pretty and smart.

In order to enjoy more from life, to be happier and also more authentic, we must be able to see the difference between true dilemmas and false ones.

We are in front of a true dilemma when we have two or more options in front of us and we need to choose only one of them.

A true dilemma can become, for example, if I applied to Yale University and to Columbia University and I am accepted at both, or if I am offered a position as a doctor at Mount Sinai in New York or at Hadasha in Jerusalem.

We face a false dilemma when we can definitively choose both options of the dilemma. In this case, we are actually not facing a dilemma, but rather facing two or more opportunities and we can choose all of them.

One of the most famous false dilemmas that we find in the relationship between the Jewish people and its Jewish identity, is the dilemma between being an observant Jew and a good person. Some people stated this false dilemma in these terms: "What is better, to be an observant Jew or to be a good person?", or "I don’t keep Kosher but I am honest in my job. Is that not good enough?"

Of course, if a member of your congregation is an honest person, it’s hard to tell him, or her, that this has no relationship with his or her level of Jewish compromise or observance.

Another false dilemma is between being a practicing Jew and being involved in the modern world. In Germany or in France, in the last century, this was really a dilemma. Jewish people were not accepted in Universities or in the government. Nevertheless, today we can find observant Jews in almost all of the science fields and in government offices.

For our parents or grandparents in America, in the beginning of this century, to be Jewish was really very difficult. Most of them were very poor and to get kosher meat or to stop working on Shabbat was very difficult. Many places were closed for Jews, and to wear a Kipa in public could be dangerous or at least embarrassing.

However, Jews live today in prosperity. You can get your Lulav and your Etrog by mail in 48 hours, nice people in your congregation can build a Succah for you if you only pay for the materials, and you can get round Halot for Rosh Hashanah for only five dollars. Jews are on TV, in the government and in public offices. To see a Kipah at Harvard University is not very rare, nor seeing a Rabbi in the White House.

A last false dilemma is between being spiritual and keeping the Jewish rituals and the Jewish law. You can pray three times a day, be very meticulous with the Kashrut laws, have a long beard, and still be a very sensitive and spiritual human being. Moreover, it is written in the Mishnah (Makkot 3:16): "Rabbi Chanania ben Akashia says: The Holy One, Blessed is He, wished to confer merit upon Israel: therefore He gave them Torah and Mitzvot in abundance". That means that all the commandments with their abundance of details are for the spiritual benefit and merit of the people of Israel, and there is no reason to believe that if someone follows these rules and commandments he will become spiritually insensitive or merely ritualistic.

To be a good person, to be involved in our real world, and to be spiritual are three important characteristics that aren’t contradictory with being an observant Jew. Not only that: religious commandments and ethical behavior are two indivisible aspects of being Jewish. Taking only one aspect would be like having the body without the heart, or the brain without the soul.

Today we read in the Torah a very ritualistic and meticulous description of the High Priest’s service at the Sanctuary. The details about his garments and the different kind of sacrifices, highly contrast with the spiritual message from the prophet Isaiah we read in the Haftarah. However, both of them, the ritual and the spiritual aspect, belong to the same people and to the same culture.

Some Christians and "modern" Jews tried to see in Isaiah’s words a rejection of the ritual aspect of Judaism. Nothing is farther from the truth, and the inclusion in the Torah reading for Yom Kippur of the worship of the High Priest in the Sanctuary, emphasizes, the importance of keeping alive the ritual aspects of the Jewish tradition.

Without a big effort, you will discover, at the end of the second millenium, that you can be a good person and also an observant Jew, a modern business woman and also Shomer Shabat. You will also discover that there is not any contradiction between having a very good handicap in golf and putting on Tefilin every day, or between loving Rock and Roll and participating in a Mincha Service.

Moreover: when you start having a more committed Jewish life, you will be surprised how much your friends –Jewish and non Jewish- will respect you.

You can add more Judaism to your life without losing all the other aspects of it: you will keep being a good and modern person, you will continue to be involved in the community, and some of you will continue doing very well in business and in sports.

Lighting candles before Shabat, keeping a Kosher home, having a Kosher Mezuza in your house, putting on Tefilin every day, and dedicating one hour during the week to study Torah will not damage your other human qualities and abilities, but rather will enrich them, and will allow you to look at them from a new perspective.

As you can see, I am not talking about feeling Jewish (I know that all of you feel very Jewish), but about behaving Jewishly. In Judaism –as in life- what you feel is very important but it is more important what you do.

I would like to challenge you today, to make a personal commitment in your personal and family life, to add more color to your Jewish practice and Jewish experience.

As I mentioned before, people will respect you, because people respect authenticity, and for a Jew (and I am talking about a simple Jew, not only about Rabbis), nothing is more authentic than being Jewish.

And may God bless every one of you and your families with health, and joy, with peace of spirit and sustenance, with a good and sweet year.

Gemar Jatima Tova!