D'var Torah
December 3, 2004
90th Anniversary Service
B'shert
The Yiddish word b'shert expresses the idea that something is "meant to be, destined." I believe b'shert aptly describes this moment.
This Shabbat marks the tenth anniversary of Aaron Berkowitz becoming a Bar Mitzvah. What we want our young people to learn is not only Hebrew letters and vowels, trope symbols and root words but, even more importantly, the values which these words teach. We want them to learn not as an intellectual exercise, but as the sound foundation for lifelong living our faith.
In this congregation, preparing our young people to be educated and committed Jews is a high priority. Forty-seven years ago, Temple Israel invited Harold Orbach to become our first full-time Hazan. We could not mark this celebration tonight without remembering Norbert Rosenthal, my distinguished predecessor who was instrumental in that decision to became the first Reform congregation in the entire Southwest Region to have a fully trained Cantor. That tradition begun 47 years ago continues to this day in the presence of our congregation's sixth Hazan, Cantor Siegel-Eglash, and our commitment to the position of a full-time Director of Religious Education, so capably served today by Dr. Cathy Kass. Quality education for Jews of all ages remains one of this congregation's highest priorities. Cantor Orbach especially wanted to be here tonight; this congregation continues to have a special place in the lives of all who are privileged to serve here.
The sedra for this Shabbat is entitled "Vayeshev, and Jacob settled." Jacob, of course, had his named changed to Israel. We are Jacob-become-Israel; and tonight Temple Israel celebrates its settling here in Tulsa, a frontier of Jewish life, nine decades ago.
We read in this week's sedra about Joseph, the spoiled snoop, tattle-tale, insufferable egotist, whose dreams lead first to his being cast into a pit and later to his ascent from the dungeon. Joseph changes, slowing growing into one of the most admirable of our heroic figures. Joseph is a work in progress, and so is our Temple – from humble origins of meeting in rented rooms to an edifice and program of prominence in our community 90 years later, but with future achievements still very much in our dreams and plans. A synagogue must always be a work in progress, just as a good human being is.
And listen to what Aaron is about to read in Genesis 39. The handsome young Joseph is pursued by the wife of Potiphar, his Egyptian employer. She is frank in her sexual demands; "lie with me!" she commands. Joseph puts her off, but she persists. Finally, she captures him alone in the house, seizes him bodily and insists that he take her to bed. Joseph, almost unaccountably, becomes a hero. Defying his master's wife, resisting the urgent call of his own adolescent hormones, he tears himself away and flees.
How does Joseph find the strength to resist the wiles of Potiphar's wife? The Talmud suggests that at first he was not sure how to handle the situation. He came into the empty house, perhaps ready to give-in to her demands, but at that crucial moment, says the Midrash, Joseph saw his father's image before him. He saw Jacob's face, he heard his voice, and all at once Joseph knew the right thing to do.
The Temple is where we teach and learn the right things to do. It is where memories are created, where role models are raised up so that at the challenging points of life we, too, will know what God wants us to do.
Finally, we note these candles which our devoted past-presidents lighted tonight. Light is so important a symbol in Jewish life – the Ner Tamid, Shabbat candles, Temple menorah and, b'shert, Wednesday of this coming week, December 8th, 90 years to the very day Temple Israel was chartered, is the first day of Chanukah. We celebrate Chanukah not just as a military victory, but more importantly we say in our prayers, "a victory of the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, the arrogant into the hands of them that occupy themselves with God's Torah."
We Jews are to be a lamp and a beacon unto the nations, a light to the peoples of the world. At the beginning of each Torah service I say Beit Yaakov, O house of Jacob-become-Israel, Temple Israel; l'chu v'naylcha b'or Adonai, come let us walk together, as a congregation, by God's light. That is what this moment is all about, being a congregation which is together in its commitment to bring God's light into this world which so desperately needs it.
B'shert – it is meant to be and we, once again, humbly accept the challenge of being vessels of God's presence and beacons of God's light from generation to generation. Amen
