Rabbi's
Sermons
Yom Kippur Kol Nidre
Sinai Synagogue, Friday eve, September 21, 2007
Before the Barchu
This evening I am going to go back to a practice I held for a number of years, instead of giving a full sermon this evening I will share several short pieces before key parts of this evenings service. The aim is to highlight these key parts of the liturgy before we recite them. So my text this evening will be our Mahzor and one of the most important religious books produced this year, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Religious themes of redemption and salvation, forgiveness and remorse are found prominently in this series. Now I considered that some may have not yet read the book and I don’t intend to give away the end of how Harry Potter gets killed…Ooops. In fact I don’t even want to focus on Harry Potter but rather the character of Albus Dumbledore, the revered head master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Dumbledore is a marvelous creation. He is a perfect embodiment of the wise and elder master. He is the greatest wizard of his day, he is all knowing, he is kind and good, he is patient and forgiving. But in the seventh book we also learn that even the great Dumbledore is not without weaknesses and transgressions. And so this evening I want to look at three incidents that occur in the final book of the Harry Potter series and relate them to moments in our Yom Kippur liturgy this evening.
Actually I am going to begin with a statement made by Dumbledore at the end of the second book in the series. He says to Harry, “it is our choices Harry that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” This statement serves as the underlying theme throughout the series. And it can also be said to capture the very spirit of this season. For this is the lesson of the Yamim Noraim – that it is the choices that we make which define us - not our circumstances or abilities or in-bred traits.
Tomorrow when we recite the Unataneh Tokef prayer we will state, “vtiftah. et sefer ha-zikhronot ume'alav yiqqare v'hoten yad kol adam bo” (Harlow (mostly): You open the Book of Remembrance and it speaks for itself, for every person has signed it with his/her deeds. The choices that we have made throughout the year bear witness before us, their indelible imprint is recorded and we are defined by those choices.
In this concluding book, we learn about Dumbledore’s past and find out that in many ways his life is not so different than the great dark wizard, Voldemort, whose armies are swiftly taking over the wizarding world. Dumbledore also comes from a troubled family, one whose life has been touched in a hideous way by Muggles. Whereas Voldemort was abandoned to a Muggle orphanage, Dumbledore has a younger sister who is molested by Muggle boys and suffers mental illness from this trauma. His father goes to prison for attempting revenge, his mother dies and Dumbledore is forced to curtail his rising career in the wizarding world to return home and care for his sister. It would be quite understandable if Dumbledore responded to this series of tragedies with hatred towards the Muggle world, or used his vast talents to gain revenge as his father tried to, or even if he merely held the Muggle world with contempt. But he does not. In fact it is he who becomes a champion in the Wizard world towards those who have wizarding talents but do not come from pure blood wizard homes; he among the leaders of the wizard world is most sympathetic to all non Wizards, including other magical creatures that even the most tolerant Wizards usually look down upon.
Dumbledore impresses upon us that one can rise above hatred, one can rise above the prejudices of our community or condition. I remember when Reuven Stein, a member of the Gilo community in Jerusalem, visited us here in South Bend during the frightening days of the second intifada. Arab villages a short distance from Gilo had become centers in which Palestinian snipers would regularly shoot at the high rises of Gilo, and from which suicide bombers would come and blow themselves up on Jerusalem city buses. And Reuven pointed out how despite the attacks on innocent civilian centers by Palestinian gunmen, the only barriers put up at the time to protect civilians were around Israeli population centers because Palestinian civilians were not in danger of terrorist attacks by angry Israelis. It is simply remarkable how sympathetic the average Israeli is to Palestinians and Arabs when one considers the terrorism and hatred that they have had to contend with for 60 years.
It is our choices that define us. On Rosh Hashanah I told the story of Moshe the Woodsman whose teshuvah preparation each year was to write down every single hurtful and insulting thing that was done to him and then burn the papers up, because it was a new year and new beginnings. We too are encouraged to choose differently at this time of year. To choose a course that relies not on retribution and discontent, but rather empathy and kindness.
To get to this point we begin with remorse. In one of the closing chapters of the book, Dumbledore admits to Harry his attempts when he was a young man to exploit his powerful abilities, his resentment at taking care of his ill sister, his vanity in searching for magical instruments that had the power to overcome death, and his lack of trust in Harry in not revealing certain truths about Harry’s own past. He cries and asks for forgiveness. It is this quality, his remorse for past wrongs and humility in asking forgiveness from one less powerful than he, that makes Dumbledore the great man that he is, far more then his wizarding abilities.
And in the climactic battle scene between Harry and Voldemort Harry encourages Voldemort to do but one thing that would bring him salvation. Show remorse.
That is the first step as we begin our journey this evening in our effort to gain atonement.
Before Ya Aleh
So now that we have begun to consider all the wrongs and insults we have brought about, we are feeling remorseful for the wrongs done, now what? We have to change our ways.
Dumbledore admits to Harry in Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows that as a young man he desperately wanted to find these magical objects called the Deathly Hallows which promised that the bearer would become a Master of Death. He sought ways to gain ever greater power as a wizard. But these attempts failed miserably and caused pain to those he loved most. He renounces all attempts to become the Minister of Magic, the most powerful political post in the Magic world because he has learned something about himself, he is not to be trusted with power. He devotes his life to teaching. He becomes a champion among the Wizards of non wizards, both magical and non magical, creatures. He uses his powers to fight against Voldemort. In effect Dumbledore never rests on his laurels; he uses his self knowledge to correct certain faults and perseveres in doing good in the world.
In a short while we will recite the Shema Koleynu. In it we call on God to hear us and spare us and be merciful to us. We request of God “al tashlikheynu” don’t cast us off, don’t turn away from us. It is that turning away that is so painful, we need to know that God is still near. Al tashlikheynu l’et ziknah – Don’t cast us off when we are old. In its pshat, literal meaning it is quite poignant. Anyone who has ever visited a loved one or gone for the sake of a mitzvah to a nursing home cannot help but recite this verse with greater fervor. But the Baal Shem Tov interpreted these words in a different way. Taking ziknah not as old age but that which is old, stale, he understood this line as “Don’t cast me away into staleness” The greatest sin said Abraham Joshua Heschel is to become stale , to become bored. When our Judaism becomes old , stale habit , then we have atrophied, we have no spiritual life.”
Our physical lives depend on constant sustenance and growth, so too our spiritual and intellectual lives. We can learn new ideas, new habits, take on new mitzvahs at every moment. Hamechadesh btuvo b’khol yom Tamid ma’aseh vereshit . You renew your Creation in goodness every single day. Every day is a new day, every day is a new opportunity for growth.
We are about to recite the Al Chet, the confessional. I have mentioned that Dumbledore’s great strength, spiritually speaking, is his willingness to identify his past failures and express remorse for them, and then move past them by changing his ways. When he reveals to Harry his past mistakes with a fellow wizard who was much more ambitious and power hungry than he, the evil wizard Grindelwald, he cites a common error that many of us make.
Dumbledore is resentful that his promising career as a powerful wizard has been curtailed by his responsibilities in caring for his impaired sister. While at home he meets this ambitious Grindelwald who has come to Dumbledore’s village searching for magical items known only in legend that will give the bearer the power over death. Dumbledore is enchanted by the idea of finding these powerful items and leading a wizard revolution over the Muggle world. But Dumbledore was not evil like his fellow traveler, Grindelwald. So how could he agree to join him on his crusade?
Dumbledore explained to Harry, “Oh I had a few scruples. I assuaged my conscience with empty words. It would all be for the greater good, and any harm down would be repaid a hundredfold in benefits for wizards. Did I know in my heart of hearts , what Gellert Grindelwald was? I think I did, but I closed my eyes. If the plans we were making came to fruition all my dreams would come true.”
There is a sin on our list of confessions in which we recite For the sin that we have committed against you knowingly and not knowingly. How can you do a sin knowingly AND not knowingly? Jack Reimer suggests, the real sin is knowing and not knowing , seeing and not seeing. We see and don’t realize what we see. We see a human being with a hand stretched out for help and we turn away, not realizing that this person is an image of God. We see a sunrise or a sunset as we yawn , not seeing what a wonder it is . We know and yet don’t really know. In effect we don’t appreciate it truly.
But it can also be as Dumbledore states that we know things but act as if we don’t, we convince ourselves that we don’t know what is going on. We act in ways politicians call plausibility of denial. I did not know that so and so was abusing his wife, I wondered where the bruises came from sure but I did not know. I did not know that my kid was smoking pot, I was concerned about the poor grades recently and the friends he hung out with but I did not know. I did not know that there was such horrible poverty in our community, I read articles in the paper about such problems but I did not know it was going on here. We know and we don’t know. That is what we atone for tonight.
We conclude tonight and I leave you with one last thought from Harry Potter. Ultimately what saves Harry Potter is love. His mother’s love and sacrifice for him protect him against Voldemort, and his love for his friends and teachers lead him to offer himself up on their behalf. This is not an introduction to the martyrology section, rather it is about the redemptive power of love.
When we ask God to forgive us on this day we admit that we have no merits to call in on our behalf, when we ask for additional life we confess we don’t have anything to offer in exchange. All we can do is plead with God to be merciful and forgive our sins. But we have one trump card – Ki anu amekha v atah elokeinu – we are your people and you are our God, we have this relationship. And it is one based in love – anu reyatekha v’atah dodeynu. We are your loving friend and You are our Lover.
Let us leave here this evening and consider how to increase the amount we love.
