Tuesday Morning Torah – October 3, 2017
Before I share this morning’s message, I wanted to take a moment to once again thank all of our volunteers and office staff who made our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur experience so meaningful. From chair and book set up and take down, to handling all of the ritual honors, to handling our youth program, High Holiday mailings, and more- we simply could not do all that we do without them.
For those who are interested, my sermons from the holidays can be found here. If you did not get a Starbucks card as a part of the Hinneni challenge to take someone out for coffee and strive to have a conversation with no smart phones visible, please let me know. I still have some cards available.
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We are about to celebrate the Festival of Sukkot. Following the intensity of Yom Kippur with its focus on life’s mortality, we move into Sukkot with a sense of happiness and joy at having reached another year in the season of our lives. But that joy is coupled with the recognition that life is all too fragile. That is one reason that we celebrate by sitting in rickety booths that are fragile and not meant to be as sturdy as our homes. The sukkah is a reminder to celebrate life with friends and family with a recognition that life is precious, and so extremely fragile.
The tragic events of yesterdays mass shooting in Las Vegas are a stark, painful and unspeakable reminder of this fragility. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of the victims, their families and friends, all of the first responders, officers, and volunteers who offered assistance during this terrible tragedy. There are simply no words that can mitigate the pain of such a tragedy. I am reminded of the scene in the Torah when Aaron’s sons are suddenly struck down by a strange “alien fire.” The Torah teaches “vayidom aharon,” and Aaron was silent He had no words. There was nothing to say in the face of this unspeakable tragedy. (see: Leviticus 10).
May the memories of all of those lost in this latest horrible shooting be for a blessing. And may we, who are left behind, take time to consider what our tradition might ask of us as caretakers of a society where these tragedies seem all too frequent.
