Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

Today, we welcome the month of Tammuz. Each Rosh Chodesh, we recite Hallel, a series of Psalms of praise. It appears contradictory to sing with joy as we enter a month that begins three weeks of mourning, on the 17th of Tammuz, where we commemorate the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls prior to the destruction of the second temple.

Last week, I received a call from a doctor who is a member of Sinai Temple. He told me about a patient who brought him an envelope with a message attached. It read, “Here is a donation, please give it to someone who will bless the people of Israel.” On the envelope was a sticky note with the words of Isaiah, a blessing to the future of the Jewish people.

There are no words to describe the feelings we felt this week, beginning with the preemptive Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and concluding with Iran’s direct missile hit on the Soroka Hospital emergency room, which miraculously was evacuated 24 hours earlier.

Graduation season arrives once again. As I watch our youngest move up from pre-school, our middle schoolers head to high school, and our high school seniors head to the college campus, I am always impressed by their connection to our spiritual home, Sinai Temple. Inside the physical walls of Sinai Temple, these graduates have been spiritually nourished, created life long relationships, and built sacred connection. While we play "Pomp and Circumstance" for our graduates today, the Torah tells us of a different ritual for the leaders of the past. We are told to make two trumpets of silver and they should be used to call the congregation to travel.

Sunday evening, we once again reenact the revelation at Mount Sinai. The holiday of Shavuot is called Matan Torateinu. It is often translated as the receiving of Torah, but the accurate translation is the giving of Torah. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that while Passover is our Exodus and Sukkot is our exile, Shavuot is our homecoming.

We often read about heroes and see their pictures on a screen. To shake their hands, to hear their voices, and to offer gratitude for their heroic actions is unprecedented.

Rav Kook, the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, pointed out a small difference between Psalm 104 and Psalm 92.

We have entered the Hebrew month of the yom’s, “the days.” These are not Biblical or Rabbinic holidays or commemorations. Rather, they are modern moments in our Jewish history. On Wednesday evening, we lit six candles to remember the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. As a child, I have a vivid memory of watching Holocaust survivors, like my Hebrew teacher Mrs. Szafran, walking down the sanctuary aisle to kindle the flames. This week, all six candles at Sinai Temple were lit by children of survivors, for as time passes, it is now our generation that must carry the responsibility to tell their stories.

This past winter, Sinai Temple hosted a basketball team consisting of teenagers from the destroyed kibbutzim on the Gaza border.

This is a most unique Passover, as we have to be prepared a day earlier than the Seder because Shabbat precedes Passover. In a normal year, we would have another 24 hours to prepare for the Seder, up until the moment it begins.