High Holy Day Sermons and Speeches
On this page you will ultimately find Rabbi Fine's sermons and Michael Silverman's speeches that were delivered during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Michael Silverman's ROSH HASHANAH ADDRESS 2009
L’Shana Tovah. It is indeed an honor and a pleasure to be addressing you all today, and to share these High Holy Days with the Temple Sinai family.
The theme of my address today is that every aspect of importance that we attach to Temple Sinai can be expressed in terms of the concept of “connection”. I will be using that word frequently today, and as I do, I encourage you to reflect seriously on your own connections to the synagogue and its congregation.
Personally, I am connected to Temple Sinai on a number of levels, from my daughter Rebecca’s Bat Mitzvah here to my wife Brenda’s minyan attendance to my own volunteer service to the synagogue. But the connection I always find the most compelling is the one that started, in an odd and indirect way, many decades ago on the South Side of Chicago. (I know some of you have heard this before, and to you, I apologize for repeating myself.) As I was growing up in the South Side Hebrew Congregation, our spiritual leader was Dr Maurice Kliers. Rabbi Kliers officiated not only at my Bar Mitzvah, but also – some years later – at my wedding to Brenda. Many years later, I learned that Dr Kliers, before he came to Chicago, had been a Rabbi in Philadelphia – at the shul that the young Jonas Goldberg attended. Ever since, I have had the feeling that my own connection to Temple Sinai is a special one, one that transcends time and space in an unusual but very satisfying way.
Now I am privileged to be sharing the bima with Rabbi Aaron Fine, who has his own historic, and almost mystical, connection with Temple Sinai. Again, the linchpin to the story is Rabbi Goldberg, and again I apologize to those of your who are already aware of this tale. When Rabbi Goldberg graduated seminary and took his first pulpit position, it was as an assistant rabbi at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Detroit, where his mentor was Rabbi Jacob Segal. It turns out that Rabbi Segal’s grandson is Rabbi Aaron Fine, which means that Rabbi Fine has just succeeded his grandfather’s junior colleague on our bima. That, to me, is a remarkable connection, and a powerful one.
In the face of such powerful, and meaningful, connections, I find it impossible not to think about Temple Sinai as the nexus of an extensive and complex web of connections that involve us all. I think it worthwhile, on these High Holy Days, to reflect on some of connections we make here, because this is where our core strengths as a community lie, and where we can take hope in a successful and fulfilling future for the Temple.
First and foremost, of course, is our spiritual connection. This connection is never more evident that during the Days of Awe, but at Temple Sinai it is available and accessible year-round, whenever our congregants need it. Not only do we offer wonderful Shabbat services on Friday night and Saturday morning, but – thanks to a dedicated set of volunteers and attendees – we have a full menu of minyanim during the week, so that mourners and those saying yarzheit always have a place to go for companionship, solace, and support in reciting Kaddish. We are proud to offer a traditional, Conservative style of worship that is free from distractions and encourages deep personal involvement in prayer. If for no other reason, I am most proud to be part of this congregation for that alone.
Certainly, just as important to many of us is a related, but subtly different connection: our connection with Judaism – by which I mean Jewish history, culture, heritage, values, and tradition. This is the connection so clearly exemplified by my stories about Chicago and Detroit. It is the connection that brings us here to enjoy our holiday celebrations, Friday night dinners, Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations, and educational programs. And, crucially, it is the connection that we foster through our youth programs, including Knesset Katan, Junior Congregation, and the North Shore Hebrew School, as we strive to raise the next generation of committed – and, yes, connected – Jews. I am extremely pleased to be able to support Rabbi Fine as he applies his experience and accomplishments as a Jewish educator to help reinvigorate Temple Sinai’s youth and educational programs.
The next indispensable level of connection that our shul provides for us is the interpersonal one, the level in which we meet others, socialize, and integrate into our community at large. Speaking for myself and my wife, I can say that the large majority of the friendships we’ve made on the North Shore can be traced, in one way or another, to Temple Sinai. I’m sure it’s the same for many of you – as you look around and see familiar faces today, I urge you to spend an extra moment reflecting on how a given friendship started, or revived, or flourished, here at the synagogue. Think about that Kiddush lunch, or Freilach Friday night, or morning minyan, where you met someone whose fellowship has enriched your life. Think about what a special place Temple Sinai is, if only for that connection.
Without discounting many of the other possible connections I could recognize – such as educational, or the pleasure of interacting with, and learning from, our exceptional clergy, Rabbi Fine and Cantor Aronson – I would like to introduce one last avenue of connection which is at the heart of Temple Sinai’s spirit and its success: that of service to the synagogue. For many of our members, providing service in support of Temple Sinai’s mission and future is a pivotal part of their week, their way of fulfilling their need to serve their community. Again, on a personal note, a large part of the reason I am here addressing you today was that I felt it was an appropriate time for me to give something to my community, and Temple Sinai is my “provider of choice”, if you will. By the same token, what you are experiencing here today – and indeed, anytime you have any interaction of any sort with the synagogue – can only happen because of untold hours of work by scores of dedicated, committed congregants. These are the people – your lay leadership, committee chairs and members, and generous volunteers of all varieties who keep the Temple functioning on every level – be it ritual, financial, legal, physical facilities, High Holiday organization, and on and on. These fellow members are the engine that keeps Temple Sinai running, the real glue that keeps us all connected. Please join me in offering them all a very special “Todah Rabbah”.
During my installation address in June, my theme was “optimism”. Some may have thought that to be naïve, to be something that would wear out after the honeymoon period. Now, having learned more about the synagogue’s inner workings, its assets, and – especially – its people, I am more optimistic than ever. Yes, we have our challenges – more about that on Yom Kippur – but I think we are entering a time of unsurpassed opportunity. We have passed through a difficult period, have worked hard together, and have become much stronger as a community for it. We have unique strengths and assets, which I believe we can leverage for success. We have a wonderful new spiritual leader, Rabbi Fine, whose arrival at Temple Sinai was clearly b’shert. We have Cantor David Aronson, a fact which makes us the envy of every congregation in the North Shore. We have a full-service, traditional, egalitarian, Conservative shul. We have an excellent, and growing, reputation in the community at large, and perhaps some interesting opportunities to take a community-wide leadership role. We have an extraordinary group of people who dedicate their time and efforts to maintain the synagogue and all it contributes to our lives – and all the connections it embodies.
Let me close by asking you to think, again, about your own set of connections to Temple Sinai, because our Temple and its future is only as strong as our collective connections. Consider this: According to BusinessWeek magazine, the Best Buy retail chain has calculated that every 2% increase in what they call “employee engagement” corresponds to a $100,000 increase in sales at that store. Think about what that means: Becoming just 2% more engaged – which I would translate as being 2% more connected – results in a disproportionately large benefit. Now translate that to our world here at Temple Sinai. What would happen if we all became 2% more connected? That’s only about 1 week, or 7 days, out of a year. What if we all came to shul, or minyan, or a synagogue event, or Shabbat Kiddush, just 2% more – just 7 days more – out of a year? We can’t measure that in dollars, but think how much richer we all would be for those connections.
Shabbat Shalom and very best wishes for the New Year.