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Intro
Schedule
Simchat Shabbat
Sermons
Past Sermons
Dr John Lantos Sermon: Yom Kippur Morning 5770 - September 28, 2009
Rabbi Levin's Yizkor Sermon: September 28, 2009
Rabbi Levin's Kol Nidre Sermon: "The Possibility of Hope" September 27, 2009
Rabbi Levin's Sermon: "Compassion" Rosh Hashana Morning - September 19,2009
Rabbi Levin's Sermon: "The Main Thing is Not to Fear" Erev Rosh Hashana - September 18,2009
Rabbi Harris' Yom Kippur sermon, "A Shabbat State of Mind", 5769
Rabbi Levin's sermon, "How Long the War?" February 7, 2009
Rabbi Levin's Yizkor, Yom Kippur sermon, 5769
Rabbi Levin's Kol Nidre sermon, "Standing Idly By", 5769
Rabbi Levin's Rosh Hashanah Morning 5769 sermon, "Calm Living"
Rabbi Levin's Erev Rosh Hashana 5769 sermon, "Forgiveness"
Rabbi Levin's Yizkor, Yom Kippur sermon, "Living on the Edge", 5768
D'var Torah on the Occasion of Ryan Gale's Bar Mitzvah
Rabbi Harris' Yom Kippur 5768 sermon, "Get Your Feet on The Ground"
Rabbi Levin's Kol Nidre sermon, "Therefore Choose Life", 5768
Rabbi Levin's Rosh Hashana Morning sermon, "Judging Your Neighbor",5768
Rabbi Levin's sermon, "The Menorah" June 2, 2007
Rabbi Levin's Erev Rosh Hashana sermon, 5768
Rabbi Levin's sermon, "Thoughts on the Omer" April 13, 2007
Rabbi Levin's sermon, "Miracles in Our Own Time" March 31, 2007
Rabbi Levin's sermon "A Community Together" June 9, 2007
Rabbi Harris' sermon, "Living in Jewish Time", Yom Kippur 5767
Rabbi Levin Yizkor sermon 5767
Rabbi Levin Kol Nidre sermon, "Israel: A Present Reality", 5767
Rabbi Levin's Rosh Hashana Morning sermon, "Dignity",5767
Rabbi Levin's Erev Rosh Hashana sermon, "Training the Soul", 5767
Rabbi Levin's sermon, "Proportionality in War" - September 1, 2006
Rabbi Levin's sermon, "The State of the Jews" - August 19, 2006
Rabbi Levin's sermon on the Israel/Lebanon War
Rabbi Harris Sermon - Praying for Peace in Israel - July 22, 2006
Rabbi's Tisch Simchat Shabbat - April 21, 2006
Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut Sermon - April 20, 2006
6th Grade Shabbat Sermon - April 15, 2006
Mythology and Religion: the Case of Prof. Paul Mirecki - December 3, 2005
Yizkor 5766 - October 13, 2005
Rabbi Harris YK 5766 The House of God - October 13, 2005
Rabbi Levin Kol Nidre Sermon 5766 - October 12, 2005
Rosh Hashanah Morning 5766 - October 4, 2005
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5766 - October 3, 2005
Holidays
Blessings
Music
Lifecycle Events
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Rabbi Levin's sermon, "How Long the War?" February 7, 2009
Emily Goldman Bat Mitzvah
How Long the War?
Parashat B’Shalach
February 7, 2009
Emily read for us this wonderful Song of the Sea, which encapsulates the experience of the Jewish people as they flee Egypt and cross the Sea of Reeds. This portion has been captured in movies, in paintings and in song. It depicts the final triumph of the former slaves who, freed by God’s own outstretched hand, confront the Egyptians one last time crossing over to freedom. It’s a triumphant moment, and the natural enthusiasm of a people escaping near-catastrophe rises up and produces a song that has been preserved so that we can feel their joy. You would assume that Israel is done once and for all with Egypt; but that is not to be.
In this week’s haftarah Emily read to us from another triumphant poem, preserving the victory of the Israelites under the prophetess Deborah over Sisera and the Canaanites he led in battle. Here too you might assume that the war ended the fighting and brought peace. But such was not to be the case. The land only remains peaceful for so long, and then fighting returns again and again, so that the land is filled with blood and sorrow.
In last week’s haftarah we saw that once again, in the time of the prophet Jeremiah, Egypt became a problem that Israel had to deal with in the 7th century b.c.e., 600 years after today’s Torah reading and the Exodus. And so it has been each time we have lived in our ancestral land. In our own day, too, we find that Egypt long remained in conflict with Israel. But since the peace agreement with Anwar Sadat in 1979 there has been a time of quietude; and right now Egypt is trying, for the sake of their own eastern border, to help achieve a peace in the Gaza Strip.
It seems that Israel and her neighbors, whether in biblical times or now, are condemned to war. And yet, war must be considered a tragedy, and to be prevented if at all possible.
I don’t know how many of you have seen the youtube tapes of what happened to the family of Dr. Ezzedine Abu El-Aish of Gaza. Dr. El-Aish is a Palestinian doctor who treats both Israeli and Palestinian patients. But he is also active in making peace. He has sent his 8 children to a summer peace camp in the United States, so that they can work for peace. Dr. El-Aish can be seen as a hero, because he chose to stay in Gaza during the recent war and was interviewed every other day by channel 10 in Israel about events in the Gaza Strip.
Two years ago Dr. El-Aish’s wife died of leukemia. His oldest daughter, then 18, told him to continue his important medical work, saving lives regardless of nationality, and promised that she would stay home and take care of the other children. On the last night of the war, Dr. El-Aish’s home was bombed by the Israelis and 3 of his eight children were killed, including his eldest. It is a huge tragedy of the war.
Once the killing starts, it is almost impossible to control who will be a victim. Tom Friedman wrote in this week’s New York Times that the Fatah faction of the Palestinian government had been pushing Israel to wipe out Hamas in Gaza, regardless of the number of casualties. War takes a horrible toll, and Dr. El-Aish is suffering the consequences of the continued hatred between some Palestinian factions and some Israelis.
In the most recent youtube segment I have seen with Dr. El-Aish, he tells newsmen that some Israelis’ eyes have finally been opened to the fact that there are two sides to every story. With Israel’s peace camp in disarray, with elections coming this Tuesday and the probable election of a hardliner in Benjamin Netanyahu, the hopes of peace have descended to a new low. Yet we see that we cannot accept this state of continuous war, or there will be more Dr. El Aishes on both sides of the conflict. This injustice must come to an end.
Our new president, Barack Obama, has displayed a clear interest in trying to settle the conflict. This will require steps that Israel and the Palestinians will both protest vehemently. The settlers may kill to keep from evacuating the West Bank. Palestinians will certainly continue to lob rockets into Israel, and even now they are rearming from the Iranians. I encourage you to support the efforts for peace. Write to President Obama and congratulate him on his efforts; encourage him to continue. It will not be easy for him. The Israel lobby will resist all the way. But it is unconscionable to perpetuate the tragedy of war.
When Israel crossed the sea the children of Israel sang. In a famous midrash, a commentary on Emily’s Song of the Sea, God says, “My people are drowning and you sing songs!” In other words, all war is tragedy. God had ordained the deaths, but God did not rejoice. There are other songs. There are also songs of peace, and the triumph of saving lives. Perhaps in the coming years we can sing a new song to God, and song in which Muslims and Jews can join together, a song of cohabitation and unity, a song in which there are no more El-Aish tragedies on either side of the border, in which every person sits under his vine and fig tree, and none can make them afraid.
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