B'nai Chaim - Rabbi's Sermon: 2003/10/10 Succot

Rabbi's Sermon

B'nai Chaim

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November 17 , 2006 (26th of Cheshvan,, 5767– Yom Kippur Service)

SARA’S LEGACY

By Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman

This week’s portion is called /Chayei Sara/, the Life of Sara.
Ironically enough, in it, Sara dies. The rabbis tell us that Sara
probably died when she hear about what transpired in the previous
chapter as Abraham, at the behest of God, nearly sacrificed Isaac on Mt
Moriah. The shock of her husband’s act was too much for her.

Now we find Abraham seeking a burial spot for Sara in /Chevron/ at the
Cave of /Machpelah/. Not just a grave site, but a location that would
satisfy the burial needs of his people for generations to come,
realizing now that the God’s promise of progeny had been fulfilled…this
is what Abraham was after as he negotiated at extreme prices what will
become his stake in /Eretz Yisrael/. We realize that this is the first
_purchase _of land in what will one day become Israel as Abraham
concretizes “God’s promises to mundane, practical purchase.”

There are, of course, those today who would wish that all of Israel
would be for Abraham’s descendants a grave yard. Such was the
realization of many of the five thousand who attended the United Jewish
Community’s General Assembly in Los Angeles, this past week. As
president of the Rocky Mountain Rabbinic Council, the RMRC, I was
privileged to attend this gathering, and, tonight, I want to share with
you some of what I learned there.

First of all, this was a meeting of North American Federations. Its
theme was “One People, One Destiny.” Given all the divisions these days
within the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I thought, at first,
that it was a rather audacious theme to have chosen. And yet, given
Federation’s mission to raise money for Jewish causes around the world,
but particularly for Israel, it was a very suitable and appropriate
theme for this conference. The North American Jewish communities raised
a half a billion dollars on Israel’s behalf during and following the
Hizballah War this past summer…and $500 million is nothing to sneeze at.
This money helped move thousands of children to summer camps in safer
parts of Israel during the 4000 missile attacks on northern Israel. It
paid for air conditioners and other upgrades for the life-saving bomb
shelters. It bought food and medicines for those who were forced to
remain in the war zone, and is now helping to rebuild the north. As one
Federation worker put it having visited Kiryat Shimona and frustrated to
find damaged buildings, schools and homes to photograph, and finding
everything already repaired, “Israel has our money, $2 million of which
we raised right here in Denver, to work and fix what was destroyed.
We’re still waiting for New Orleans to be rebuilt after Katrina. It’s
amazing the speed with which the North has been restored.”

Federation raises enormous amounts of money from the relatively small
North American Jewish community. It does so efficiently and effectively.
There are those who resent the job that Federation does, as much as they
would a dentist extracting teeth. But, having seen some of the outcomes
of this intensive fund raising, I have a new appreciation for the work
and a greater dedication to the collaboration I am attempting to affect
with our local Allied Jewish Federation.

A great deal of the study-breakout-session time I spent at the GA was
devoted to war, its aftermath and to potential threats that now exist.
Although, I attended sessions dealing with the war with Hizballah and
its continuing aftermath, with Darfur and the genocide we all must
confront there, with leadership issues, mediation and problem solving
techniques, and although I also attended social functions which helped
me network with folks from Ramat Negev, the Israeli sister area of
Denver’s Allied Jewish Federation, and with the Jewish Community
Relations Councils, a social justice advocacy wing of Federation which
was my entrance portal to Federation work, the over-arching theme of
this GA, aside from our love for Israel, was the threat of Iran to world
peace.

Those of you who were here for Rosh Hashanah know that raising the alarm
over the rise of radical Islam and the threat of a rabidly anti-Semitic
Mahmoud Ahmadenijad was my theme. However, I felt no pride of ownership
as I watch and listened to session after session, speech after speech
attempt to spread the call, to alert the free world, to wake the
sleeping, freedom loving countries to Iran’s coming nuclear threat.

It was former Prime Minister and leader of Likud, Be-Be Netanyahu, whose
tag line was the ominous sentence: “It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany, and
Iran is lurching headlong toward developing an atomic bomb.” Over and
over in his speech, Netanyahu returned to this line, driving the point
home that Israel and the Jewish people must be prepared to meet this
existential threat.

Ehud Ohlmert, the present Prime Minister of Israel, after his profuse
thanks to the Jews of North America for standing shoulder to shoulder
with Israel during this summer’s war, and after bringing to the podium,
once again, Karnit Goldwasser, the wife of kidnapped Israeli soldier,
Ehud Goldwasser, and publicly promising her that he would do everything
in his power to bring Ehud, Eldad Regev (held by Hizballah) and Gilad
Shallit (held by Hamas) home, went on to talk about how Mahmoud
Ahmadenijad denies the Holocaust and mocks its victims in order to
perpetrate another one in a nuclear conflagration. It was chilling to
hear the Prime Minister decry Iran threats and fire back that Israel
will answer threat for threat, provocation with resolve, and will not be
the first one to blink in a nuclear standoff.

This was far from the Prime Minister’s only message. He poignantly cited
a letter from the father of a fallen soldier which urged him to be
strong in the face of threats to Israel and steadfast in the course of
prosecuting the war against Hizballah, Iran’s proxy. He spoke of his
meeting the day before with President Bush, calling him one of Israel’s
greatest friends. He intimated that he and the President had come to
agreement about Iran’s threat to the world. He then went on to tout
Israel’s burgeoning economy and innovative accomplishments in the fields
of electronics and medicine, and, lastly, he, of course, urged us--one
and all--to come and visit Israel to witness first hand the miracles of
a resilient Jewish homeland.

The GA was a time to celebrate the generosity of North American Jewry.
It was a celebration of the social services provided, the schools and
businesses that have been rebuilt since the war, of the capital
investment that has taken place in Israel throughout this past year and
which continued in the midst of and despite the Hizballah War. It was a
conference which also helped to give Federation workers new skills,
exposure to “best practices,” and to other from similar-sized
communities with whom to network. It was three days of witnessing
tremendous dedication to our security….I have never seen so many police
and security details at any conference like I did in LA…and of a
vibrancy and energy I have seen at few other Jewish events, save our own
URJ Biennial.

A SOLDIER’S THREE ANECDOTES: THE MORROCAN WEDDING, THE OLD LADY AND THE
POODLE, AND THE DINNER IN KIRYAT SHIMONA’S RESTAURANT.

Sara dies in our /parashat hashavuah/, but, indeed, she lives on in us.
Her wisdom is demonstrated in our abilities to organize ourselves in
common purpose; her love of life is apparent in our refusal to despair
in the face of violation and destruction; and her strength of will is
established in our resolve to meet the evil in our times with courage
and with the fortitude to say, “we shall not allow you to complete
Hitler’s dream. Our dream will outlive yours, our resolve will overcome
your intent to conquer and rule your neighbors and us, and indeed, the
entire world; and our unity of purpose and oneness of a shared destiny,
as descendants of Sara, will awaken the world to the call for what must
be done to confront this present, savage tyranny and at the very same
time to light the future, so filled with potential for humanity and for
what we can constructively achieve, with hope.

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