Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

When I was a child, an alarm clock sat on my bed stand. It was a real alarm clock-not a phone with a ring, but an old-fashioned clock with a bell. On some days, I dreaded that sound ringing in my ear, and on other days, I could not wait for the ring to wake me up for exciting days ahead.

On a family trip to San Francisco, we visited Alcatraz. As we walked up the steep hill to the cell block which housed the country’s top criminals, our tour guide said, “The guards and their families kept their doors unlocked at night—they knew the bad guys were all locked up.”

The Daat Zekenim teaches that there are seven different names that refer to prayer. The common word we use is tefilah. There is rina, joyous song, tzaakah, shouting out to God, nefilah, falling down, and several others. So why does Moses choose a techina, pleading with God when speaking before the revelation of the ten commandments? We learn that Moses wanted God to know that though he pleads, he is aware that even if God responds favorably, this response would be a gift rather than something he is entitled to.

The Rabbis teach that senseless hatred, sinat chinam, destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Beyond the physical destruction, the Jewish community needed to pivot and create what would become modern Judaism, a Judaism spread around every corner of the world.

As Jews, we focus less on destinations and more on journeys. It is no surprise that the book of Numbers ends with a travelogue of places the Jews travelled in the wilderness. You can literally trace this route without WAZE today by holding a Tanach in your hand and reading through Parshat Masei. Yet, WAZE would be frustrated with the route the Jews took, as the people journeyed forward but also journeyed back towards where they came from.

The countdown starts… ten weeks until Rosh Hashana. We know this by the Haftorah cycle that the Rabbis put in place. First, we are faced with three Shabbatot of rebuke, starting with the book of Jeremiah. The Sages characterize Jeremiah as “a book of destruction.” We read of the image of a boiling pot, representative of the impending doom of the Temple in Jerusalem. Most commentaries focus their debate around the question of hope—is there time for redemption?

Tents are scary and unstable. They are difficult to build and unreliable if not built well. At the same time, a good tent withstands the elements and becomes a sacred place. What child does not reflect upon their first camping trip, relationships built with their tent mates, star gazing in the wilderness, and blessing God’s natural world?

JAMODI is a made up word. It stands for, “Just a matter of doing it.” It is a term I learned when speaking with high school basketball coach and former Baylor University player Matt Sayman. His coach used to tell him when he practiced as a kid, JAMODI, “Just a matter of doing it.” That was the way he would meet his goals. When Sayman was in college, he experienced a traumatic incident: One of his teammates murdered another teammate. His dreams of being a college star ended because of the actions of others. His faith in God faltered, he hit rock bottom, and he substituted parties for God. In conversation, Coach Sayman compared his journey to Joshua and Moses. Moses hits the rock instead of speaking to it, and in turn, he cannot enter the Promised Land. He hit the rock out of frustration of the people he led. As the greatest leader of our people, Moses’ small actions mattered most in his quest to enter the land of Israel. Those are what his followers observed, and his small mistake was the one that prevented him from entering the Promised Land.

There are moments in our lives when we recognize greatness. Sometimes these voices are loud, and other times, they are reminiscent of the kol dmama daka, the still small voice where we find God.

From the day after my Bar Mitzvah until I graduated high school, I was the baal koreh, the Torah reader in the daily minyan. Not only did my Torah reading skills improve drastically; I also had a note that permitted me to be ten minutes late to school on Mondays, Thursdays, Rosh Chodesh, minor fast days, and holidays...for religious reasons. Each time we read the Torah, I recited a mishebeirach, the prayer for those in need of healing.