Bless What You Have, Play From Your Heart,
and Always Have Hope
Kol Nidre 5772
Rabbi Andy Koren
Temple Emanuel
Greensboro, NC
How did she do it? Was she a superhero? Superheroes wear special outfits and she had a special leotard. Maybe she was a superhero?
Superheroes belong to teams with cool names. The Justice League. The Fantastic Four. Her team was known as “the Magnificent Seven.”
Superheroes can fly. And so could she. Well, sort of... She could fly through the air, but that was only after she sprinted down the runway, jumped on a springboard, and propelled herself off of the vaulting horse.
Most of us had never heard of her until the 1996 summer Olympic games in Atlanta. It was during those games that Kerri Strug, an 18-year old Jewish American gymnast captured the attention of our country and the entire world.
The drama was intense. The US women had never won the Gymnastics Team Competition Gold Medal. Entering the final rotations, they were ahead and poised to make history, unless there was a complete collapse. The Russian team's remaining event was the floor exercise. The US team would be vaulting. The US gymnasts simply had to land their vaults cleanly.
They had practiced since they were little girls. They could do this blindfolded. One by one, they vaulted. Each vaulted well, but then failed to stick the landing.
Kerri Strug, small but mighty, was the last to compete. She ran with everything she had, hit the springboard, and then... something went wrong. She came up short. And, like her teammates before her, she failed to stick the landing. It was ok since she had one more vault remaining.
But, as she was walking back to the starting position, she began to limp. When she missed her landing, she badly injured herself.
It was clear from the look on her face that she was in pain. But, the gold medal was on the line. What now?
The cameras caught Kerri talking to her coach. “Do we need this?” she asked.
Her coach replied: “Kerri, we need you to go one more time. We need you one more time for the gold. You can do it...”
If you were like me, watching this at home, you were probably holding your breath. Kerri herself had a look on her face of deep prayer, concentration, and determination.
Then, she ran down that runway one more time, flew through the air after hitting the springboard, vaulted gracefully and... put her hands over her head after successfully sticking her landing.
A second later, she hopped onto her good foot and then fell to the floor. She wasn't a superhero, but she had done it.
Her coach ran to her and carried her back to the team bench. Shortly thereafter, he carried her to the podium as she and her teammates were awarded their historic gold medal.
How is it that we pick ourselves up and make the best of tough situations?
How is it that we can go on, even if we have stumbled or been injured physically or emotionally? How can we dig deeper, even if we have to make do with so much less than 100% of our strength, or – as many of us know – far fewer resources than we were used to?
What athletes do in challenging situations is not that different than what our tradition suggests.
What does our tradition suggest?
BLESS WHAT YOU HAVE
PLAY FROM YOUR HEART
and ALWAYS HAVE HOPE
As rich as our history has been, the Jewish people have known our share of defeat, disappointment, and suffering over nearly 4000 years. The stakes were often much more serious than whether our team would come in first or second. Take, for example, when our people were exiled from Israel by the Babylonians almost 2600 years ago. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and we were carried away as captives. The prophet Jeremiah was asked: “what should we do?” His answer was not “give up” or “give in.” Rather, he sent a letter for all to see.
Build houses there, and dwell in them. Plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Get married and have children. Your children should do the same so that they may have their own children. Grow, and do not be diminished, there. And seek the peace of the city where you find yourself captive, and pray unto God for it; for in the peace thereof shall you have peace. (paraphrased from Jeremiah 29)
Go on living, Jeremiah says. Grow strong. Bless what you have.
Jewish tradition tells us that we should say a minimum of 100 blessings each day. We do this to remind ourselves that what we have should never be taken for granted.
All too often, whether times are good or times are tough, we overlook what we truly have. Or we look at what others have and wonder “what if…” We spend far too much time dwelling on what we do not have or what is broken.
The High Holiday prayerbook contains a list of our sins – an alphabetic acrostic of what we have messed up or grossly lack. But should we not also use this time to take stock of what we have and bless it. If we have a roof over our heads, bless that. If we have food on our tables, bless that. The simple things that we may overlook, should not be taken for granted. We should be aware of them, use them, and bless them.
But this is not only about our possessions. Whether or not we are athletes, whether or not everything in our body works, we should bless what we have. I learned this from a quick conversation I had a few years ago with the actor Michael J. Fox. He was speaking at the Reform Movement's Biennial conference. Some of us suffer from serious, even chronic illness. Others of us are caretakers. Michael J. Fox developed Parkinson's Disease at a relatively young age. I only needed a few minutes with him and, as a Rabbi, worked my way backstage so that we could talk. “Michael, what is the one piece of advice you would give to someone living with a chronic illness?” I asked. Without hesitating, he said to me: “Be grateful for what still works.” He told me how he wakes up in the morning and runs through his mind what parts of his body work. Then he blesses what works. Some days fewer things work. Instead of cursing what is wrong, he blesses what is right. Each and every day.
You do not have to live with a chronic disease to appreciate this. In fact, among the 100 blessings that we have is one that we are supposed to say after using the bathroom. I am being serious about this. Thank You God for creating our bodies with a series of intricate passages, valves, and stops that all have jobs to do. This blessing is so holy that it is posted next to the bathrooms of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. At its core, it acknowledges what Michael J. Fox taught me that day: be grateful for what still works. Bless what you have.
All of this talk about blessing, we should also bless the people in our lives. We should blessing our families, our friends, and our community. I hope that you had a chance to gather with those you are closest with under our chuppah in the lobby, if only to tell someone else how much he or she is a blessing in your life. We do this on the High Holidays, but we should also do so throughout the year and throughout our lives. Do it in person. If not in person, call, email, text, Facebook. Tell others what they mean to you and bless them.
As we stand before the ark on this holiest of days, let's bless what have.
There is a second lesson of this time of the year. Like athletes in the heat of competition, we should play from the heart.
I think of Kerri Strug that summer. And I also think of the winter Olympic skaters who grace the ice every four years. Those few minutes we see on TV are the product of years of hard working and training. On occasion, even the best skaters will miss a move or even fall during competition. What do they do? Do they leave the ice? No. Giving up is not an option. They continue and complete what they started because their commitment and dedication come from deep inside. They come from the heart.
We Jewish people know this type of heart-felt commitment. Such dedication isn't only expected when we have to pick ourselves up. It also essential to our celebrations and observances. Miriam was one of the greatest leaders of our people. After we crossed the Red Sea, she led the first hora in Jewish history. Spontaneous, it was danced with more than our feet. It was danced with our hearts.
The same could be said about the music and musicians here at Temple Emanuel. If we think that they are only singing with their beautiful voices, then we are not truly getting what they are doing and modeling for us. It is impossible, for example, to imagine a Kol Nidre without our Cantorial Soloist Mitchel Sommers singing from his heart. The same goes for our choir and the many voices and instruments that are shared with us during the High Holidays. Our hearts are moved because they do not hold back. If they can do it, how much the more so should we pray and sing from our hearts.
Why do we Jews talk with our hands? I ask this seriously. Why do we talk with our hands? The reason, I once heard, is that when you look around a Temple, you see no drawings of God. Such images are prohibited by the Torah. We are the people who insist that God has no human form. When the Torah says “God spoke,” we are adamant that God has no mouth. When the Torah speaks of “God's outstretched arm,” we argue that God has no arms. God lacks hands, legs, anything bodily. And then we realize what this is all about. We – all of us – are God's voice, God's arms, and God's legs. When there is injustice, we have to speak up. When someone has fallen down, we need to help pick them up. When someone needs help, we should run to assist. We talk with our hands because, on a deeper level, we sense that we have something the God lacks. We have the ability to help by using our bodily forms.
The same might be said about God's heart. On the ark doors in front of us all, a giant Jewish star appears. But if you look closely, you can see that there is a heart surrounding each of the triangles of this star. The heart pointing downwards might symbolize the heart of God, reaching out at all times, wanting to connect with humanity. The heart pointing up might represent the heart of humanity striving to connect with God. The meeting point, the Jewish star, shows that such connections are always available.
Maybe we have to be God's heart, too. Or maybe it is our responsibility to bring more of God's heart, love, and connection to our world.
Once we realize this, we cannot help but approach life with everything we have. We cannot help but put our heart into everything we do and also give from our heart.
I see so many examples of this in our community and beyond. For more than 20 years, Temple's Brotherhood has modeled this by serving dinner once a month at Greensboro Urban Ministries. Temple's Social Action Committee's work with the Hot Dish & Hope program also exemplifies this. If you haven't been to one of these programs in a while, I highly encourage you to do so.
One more thing: I see a tremendous amount of giving from the heart each year when I take a group of high school juniors and seniors to work for four days in New Orleans. Six years later after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has for better or for worse become last decade's forgotten news. This December will be our fourth annual trip to New Orleans. Much of what we do is in areas which are still years and years from being fully repaired. What amazes me each year is not just the gratitude of the people of New Orleans that we keep coming to help. What gets me is the dedication of our teens. What inspires me is how they put their hearts into what they are asked to do.
The same could be said about any of the volunteer efforts than any of us have done.
I have heard it said that words spoken from the heart directly enter the heart. Actions that come from the heart have a similar effect.
Our world needs more heart in so many ways these days. Playing from the heart is something that we can and must do.
Last but not least, we have to always have hope.
If any people would have the justification for abandoning hope, giving up on tomorrow, it would be us Jews. Yet, for 4,000 years we have done just the opposite.
Hope. I especially want the middle school, high school, and college undergraduate and graduate students to hear this message. For years now, you have not only heard about but also lived through very tough times. God willing, things will change. For now, we need you to maintain hope.
Without hope, I do not think that Kerri Strug would have done what she did. Without hope, Abraham would not have left home, Esther would not have gone into the king’s quarters. Without hope, we would not have crossed the Red Sea, and we would not have persisted in the desert and made it to the Promised Land. Hope helped us survive the horrors of our past. It also helped us build. Without hope, we would not have the modern state of Israel. It is not a coincidence that the national anthem of Israel is titled HaTikvah which means “the hope.”
Temple Emanuel was established in Greensboro 104 years ago by families that could only have hoped we would become what we are today. We are what they dreamed and hoped for. And the Jewish community 104 years from now, 1004 years from now, will hopefully carry forth our hopes and our dreams.
Hope is the key to our past. And hope is the key to tomorrow.
Yom Kippur, considered by many to be a solemn and heavy day, is actually a day of hope. Maybe our prayers for peace and prosperity throughout Israel, the Middle East, our country, and the entire world will be realized. Such prayers take tremendous hope.
The same is true for teshuvah – usually translated as repentance but better rendered as change. Judaism boldly states that change is possible. We look at our lives and imagine what we can do to improve. Cynics and pessimists might tell you that change is impossible. Jewish people will tell you otherwise. The message of Yom Kippur – our holiest and most hope-filled day – is that anyone can change. Anyone.
Olympic gymnastic competitions are judged. Over the next day, each of us will be judged. But not in the way that we normally think about it. We do not have to be superstars or superheroes. Unlike Olympic competitions, there is no panel holding up numbers. Today, we are all sitting or standing before God and God alone. Our moment to dig deeper, to get up and give it our all, is now.
Let us pray to be included in the Book of Goodness for the coming year. May our blessings be many, our hearts guide us, and may hope shine forth from all that we say and do. And may God’s blessings and goodness be ever abundant.
AMEN
