Edited for 2015 - Delivered by Dale Kaplan

Shabbat Shalom. 

It is a sobering realization that I am in the last generation of Americans 
Who saw the Reverend Martin Luther King alive,
Heard him speak,
Saw him on the news and read about him in the newspapers
With fresh eyes and when, indeed, his message was news.

And not just news, 
But truly as revolutionary, as counter-intuitive, 
As subversive 
As Moses’ voice is to us this morning:
Let my people Go. 

Speaking truth to power 
Was uncommon and uncomfortable; 
Now it seems blasé. 

Speaking truth to power
Seemed to be the soundtrack to the 1960’s, 
And civil protests, civil disobedience, non-violent demonstrations
Were the norm, 
Although often we remember the violence, 
The upheaval, the riots across America. 

It is important to remember the non-violent message, 

And prayer for peace 
that the Reverend Martin Luther King embodied 
in his words and his deeds
When he rose into the national spotlight in the 1960’s 
Until his assassination in 1968. 

And, it is important for us to remember
And memorialize the truth 
That our own Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel
And Dr. King were dear friends
And fellow travelers on the road to non-violence and peace;
As Dr. King challenged Dr. Heschel to engage 
His powerful resources in the struggle for equal rights,
For civil rights for all Americans, 
So Dr. Heschel challenged Dr. King
To engage his powerful resources 
In the struggle against the War in Vietnam. 

And we must not forget that Dr. King 
Was a great support of the State of Israel
Both preceding and following the Six Day War of 1967. 

Just 10 days before his assassination
He spoke to us, 
He spoke directly to the Jewish Community. 
He visited the Rabbinical Assembly Convention 
And, after being introduced by Abraham Joshua Heschel 
Dr. King answered questions posed by Rabbis at the convention. 

In his response to the final question, 

Regarding his response to the report of 
the Kerner Commission;
The Kerner Commission was created by President Johnson
To study the reasons for the race riots of 1967. 
And, lo and behold, the report stated 
That America was a racist country. 
The report ominously warned, 
"Our nation is moving toward two societies, 
one black, one white--
-separate and unequal."

Dr. King responded to the Kerner Commission report 
With these challenging words: 
The religious community, 
Being the chief moral guardian 
Of the overall community,
Should really take the primary responsibility 
In dealing with this problem of racism.”

That challenge still exists for us today,
Throughout America and in many parts of the world.

As I read Dr. King’s words,
I am transported to another time
When great religious leaders 
Took up the challenge of speaking truth to power;
And I am reminded of the challenge that we live with 
Every day;
As Jews, the challenge is one
We are reminded of each day 
In our prayers 
And today because of our Torah portion.

Our Amidah, our standing meditation
Which we are about to recite states: 
Praised are You, Adonai, 
Our God and God of our ancestors;
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob – 
(Of course, we add the names of our matriarchs) – 
And we rarely if ever ask
“where does that formulation of connectedness to the past, 
To patriarchs and matriarchs, 
Where does that come from?

The answer is, it comes from the first chapters of Exodus. 
In God’s introductory words to Moses, 
From the eternally burning bush, 
God says: I am “elohei Avraham, 
Elohei Yitzhaq vay’lohey Ya’akov” –
The same formulation of Patriarchs as in the Amidah. 

Three times each day -and a fourth time in Musaf
On days such as Shabbat -
Our sages urged us:
Consider yourself no less chosen, 
No less obligated to your tasks, 
No less inspired 
That Moshe was as he stood before the burning bush. 

In other words, 
Each one of us is equally challenged to speak truth to power. 
Who was Moshe to speak to next? 
Pharaoh, of course.

Heschel, of course, picked up on this right away. 
What paved the way for the friendship
That blossomed between Dr’s King and Heschel?

In January 14th

52 years ago this past Wednesday, 

King attended the National Conference on Race

And heard Dr. Heschel deliver the opening address.

Heschel said: 

At the First Conference on religion and race
The main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. 
Moses words were:
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 
Let my people Go that they may celebrate a feast to Me.
Pharaoh retorted:
Who is the Lord, 
That I should heed this voice and let Israel go?
I do not know the Lord,
And moreover I will not let Israel go!

Heschel concluded his introduction as follows: 
The outcome of that summit meeting
Has not come to an end. 
Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. 
The exodus began, 
But it is far from having been completed. 
In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel 
To cross the Red Sea 
Than for a negro to cross certain university campuses.

King and Heschel met after Heschel’s speech, 
King invited Heschel to march with him in Selma,
And they became fast and dear friends.

Friends gathered here today, 

The Torah’s message

As lived through the lives of 

Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel 

Lives on in our midst today, 
Not only because of their message
But more importantly 
Because the challenge has been met but not won; 
We are still a country where civil rights 
Need to be won and defended;
There are always those around us 
Who seek to take away from us our
Constitutionally granted civil rights, 
Be that granting explicit or implied. 

The message from the Burning Bush, 

The message from Sinai, 

The message from God to each one of us
Is that we must be the advocates 
For freedom for all people
And equal rights for all people. 
Either all of us are created in God’s image
Or none of us are endowed with the inalienable dignities 
Of absolute equality, infinite value 
And near-infinite potential to perfect our world. 
As God’s partners in creation
We owe it to ourselves 
To aspire towards these divine gifts. 

As we recite our Amidah,
Let us feel the heat from the burning bush
And recognize the challenge which lies before us:
to bring freedom and equality to our civilization. 

May the gifts we’ve received 
From our Matriarchs, Patriarchs, Prophets and Rabbis
Serve us well as we strive to maintain
Civil rights for all. 
May Martin Luther King’s memory
And Abraham Joshua Heschel’s memory
Always be for a blessing. 

Amen.

The tragic news came to us last evening in the midst of a lecture at the Shalom Hartman Institute. At the conclusion of the lecture our colleague Rabbi Ed Feinstein from California recited an impassioned Memorial Prayer, the Kel Maleh, and we sang Hatikva.

At 10 p.m., I returned to Sarah and Gabi's apartment to watch the news unfold on TV. Just the night before we had watched reports of the hopeful rally at Rabin Square, last night we watched as thousands of teenagers returned to that sacred Jewish space to light memorial candles, sing songs and share their grief at the loss of three young men who were murdered because they were Jewish. We saw interviews with family members and friends who gathered outside their homes to begin the mourning process. 

Today, all Israel, the Jewish People worldwide and all humans who cherish life are mourning.

Our theme at the Hartman Institute is Seeking Peace and Pursuing Peace.  Yesterday we studied with one of Israel's negotiators with the Palestinians, Tal Becker, discussing both legal and narrative approaches
our people have articulated in our 3000 year quest for peace. Although peace feels quite distant from all of us this morning, we continue to pray for both the Utopian peace that God will grant us at the conclusion of
Kaddish, and the practical, human-driven peace we are commanded to seek and pursue in the Psalms.

May these tragic victims of peace-hating murderers rest in peace, and may their memories be an inspiration for us to seek greater wisdom in our tradition and pursue paths of peace throughout our lives.

May the memories of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel be for a blessing, the blessing of peace.

“I now declare you, the Graduates of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America class of 1981 to be Rabbis, Teachers and Preachers in Israel.”  - Rabbi Neal Gillman

“Select a master teacher for yourself;

Acquire a colleague for study;

When you asses people, tip the balance in their favor.” -

-The Ethics of our Sages (Pirkei Avot)

Ordination was over 33 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Did Rabbi Gillman actually say those words? I recall he did, and I felt so good about the profession I was finally going to practice that I hugged whoever was standing next to me as we began to smile and quietly celebrate in the beautiful sanctuary at the Park Avenue Synagogue, where graduation was held.

It should be no surprise that Rabbis see themselves primarily as teachers, and that many of us believe that our primary cohort to educate are those the Torah deems “educators” - that is to say, parents. (In the Sh’ma the Torah commands parents to teach their children; we recite the Sh’ma morning and evening, so the message could not be more clear.)  Continuing Adult Education is my passion, and inspiring Jews to be “life long learners” is my ultimate goal.

Do I hope to inspire congregants and others to deepen their spiritual connection to God and the world of God’s creation? Do I yearn to hear that I’ve inspired congregants to keep Kosher more seriously, to keep Shabbat and the holidays more seriously, to keep their marriage vows more seriously, to keep their hands out of each others bank accounts and to keep their eyes off their neighbors possessions?

Of course I do, all of the above. But I yearn more deeply for the opportunity to teach each congregant a little more about the vast heritage we have been given by our ancestors and inspire them not to sell themselves short by making excuses as to why they can’t attend my classes. I desire that my classes raise more questions than they afford answers, because that is where Judaism teaches us God resides: not in the certainty of the faithful, those who have answers to every question, but rather in the inquisitive mind of the faithful, of the skeptic, of the agnostic, of the non-believer. 

To achieve these ends I teach many different classes with different styles. For adults, I teach “one offs” - at Java and Torah on Shabbat mornings before services, during services on Shabbat and Holidays, and some Saturday evenings between Mincha and Ma’ariv. I teach classes, featuring the study of Jewish texts, Philosophy, religious issues, historical periods and Mysticism from November through Passover. I also teach a rolling admissions Introduction to Judaism course addressing the issues that potential Jews by Choice should be learning and discussing.

For our children, I meet with the entire Religious School on Wednesdays for a few minutes but focus my attention on the pre-schoolers at “Tot Shabbat” on Friday evenings and on the B’nai Mitzvah when I work with them on their Divrei Torah. For our teenagers, I teach in our Hebrew High School a variety of courses.

I formally teach three to five hours a week, and that’s not including preparing for classes and writing sermons, which are also lessons on Judaism.

I have been invited to teach one semester a year at Dickinson College, and I have been privileged to include two of Beth El Temple’s students in my classes. Next Spring Semester I’ll be teaching a course in Interfaith Bio-Medical Ethics.

In addition, I teach interfaith classes and teach interfaith lessons. This year I’m giving two of the four lectures at Interfaith Luncheon Series discussing our Biblical book of Jonah. Amy and I represented the Jewish Community at Bishop McFadden’s Installation and I represented the Jewish Community at Bishop Gainer’s Installation and received personal blessings from each Bishop. I also represented the Jewish Community at Bishop Dattilo’s Funeral Mass. I also work with the Interfaith Clergy Bible Study Group which facilitated our wonderful Amy Jill Levine Marcia Robbins Wilf Scholar in Residence weekend last year. 

To create a strong, up-to-date foundation for my teaching, I believe I cannot rely on the lessons I learned in Rabbinical School, but must continue to acquire colleagues, teachers, Rabbis who can be my Rabbis and teach me to develop my own modern insights into ancient wisdom literature that our predecessors produced. My “master teachers” are primarily from two sources. My teachers from JTS and I meet for a few days every winter at the Rabbinic Training Institute at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Baltimore. I meet my teachers from the Shalom Hartman Institute two weeks every summer in Jerusalem.

I began with the above to remind you why I was engaged by Beth El Temple congregation 11 years ago at the Annual Meeting. Now, on to the issues of the Rabbi’s Report.     

Many different elements have characterized the congregational political year which ends and begins tonight, just like the Torah reading year ends and begins on Simchat Torah, just like the spiritual year ends and begins the evening of Rosh Hashannah.

First, our search for and discovery of a wonderful new Executive Director. Ben Wachstein has been here for almost three months and we pray he and his family are with us for a very long time to come. Abby Smith and her committee deserve a tremendous “yashar kochachem” for their work in searching for and finding Ben.

Second, Marsha Davis’ “lame duck” year featured a high flying and vigorously paddling bird who, like the Energizer Bunny, just kept running and running and running. Filling in at the Executive Director’s Desk, Marsha because a devoted greeter, telephone operator and manager for the office. And, in her second year she is the President responsible for the Gala, our new Building Superintendent Richie Tavernilla, our new Executive Director and our Capital Campaign Dedication Board. She is also responsible for having my contract renegotiated, which means I’ll be here for the next few Presidents.

Third, life cycle events which transformed my life and our congregation. Personally, the loss of my mother (may her memory always be for a blessing) the week before Rosh Hashannah and Labor Day meant that I didn’t really have the opportunity to sit Shiva and fully mourn. And the birth of two grandchildren framing the Holiday season - my grandson Michael Noam born the week after my mother’s burial, and whose bris was in Chicago on the first day of Rosh Hashannah, and my granddaughter Ma’ayan Hannah who was born the two weeks after Simchat Torah in Jerusalem- gave a different and unusual meaning to mourning my mother. My presence at Minyan every day to say Kaddish has sensitized me in a different way to the challenges Bob Lieberman, Ron Lench, Dale Kaplan and Adam Wiener face in adding up the 10 throughout the week. While our egalitarian principles make counting easier, it is still a challenge to insure that we are saying Kaddish every morning and evening.       

This past year has been a year of celebration and challenge, joy and sadness. We’ve celebrated the B’nai Mitzvah of Michala Butler, Jacob Aaron, Lexi Weikert, Ryan Jacobs, Jacob Nudel, Hannah Merwin, Brian Reback, and Eli Adler. In the next 10 days we’ll celebrate both Eitan Bronner and Jason Weitzman becoming B’nai Mitzvah.

We’ve said goodbye to Dorothy Yesser, Herman Lichterman, Helen Cytryn, May Lipsitt, Janet Stein, Patti Bednarik, Eleanor Darrow, Idelle Schwartz, Albert Bryant, Margaret Evans, Ruby Sablosky, Esta Wolfe Platkin, Adiv Vivek Lift, Nickolay Serebrenikov, Ruth Rogoff, Sandy Snyder and Leon Lock. May their memories be for blessings, may they rest in peace, and may those who mourn them be comforted by God, who consoles all who mourn in the world. Some 28 congregant families suffered losses this past year, and one week we had three different Shiva Minyanim that we were supporting.

For some, “may you live in interesting times” is a curse; many interpret it as meaning “may you experience much disorder and trouble in your life.” We are living in interesting times, and no one knows what the future will bring. Four different Shabbat discussions were held about “The Pew Report: A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” I am fond of quoting the pre-eminent historian of American Judaism, our teacher Jonathan Sarna, (who we are praying has a speedy recovery from his current illness), who reminded us that a demographic study is history once it is published, it is not a prediction of the future nor a prescription for the future.

Whatever the future will bring is also a misnomer, a passive reading of our potential to transform the historical realities predicted by our friends and our enemies. We are going to evolve, we are going to change, whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not. Jerry Garcia once remarked that adding a second drum to his band in 1976 made changing the musical dynamic more like turning on ocean liner than a sailboat. Turning our congregation might be analogous to the double drummer Grateful Dead. 

Each President of our congregation has managed change to the best of their ability, and one reason we are here this evening, one reason we gather together annually not to pray for atonement but to celebrate the great accomplishments of the outgoing President and pledge our support for the new President is that they have been successful.

Marcia Davis has done a great service to our congregation by addressing our financial insecurity, our staffing expectations and requirements, our volunteer potential and our future leadership needs. Excellence was her expectation, and we have accomplished many excellent things in her two years. She will be remembered for stepping into the breach when we needed her and for getting her peers and her friends to step with her into leadership roles.

Marcia, Yashar Kochaych. You will be a tough act to follow, and we look forward to Paul Latchford’s Presidency with great expectations.