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This week we have a special reading for Sukkot. It can be found in Parashat Ki Tisa. Ki Tisa contains the story of the egel zahav, the Golden Calf. As a reminder, Moses was alone, atop Mt. Sinai, receiving more mitzvot. At this moment, they were concerning further instructions regarding the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, the portable structure the Israelites were to construct to worship God in the wilderness. He is also informed that he is to task Bezalel and Oholiab to oversee this sacred work. At the end of this, “Upon finishing speaking with him on Mount Sinaia, [God] gave Moses the two tablets of the Pact, stone tablets inscribed b’etzbah Elohim, with the finger of God.” 

It is at this moment that it is revealed to Moses what was happening below as the Israelites had compelled Aaron to create the Golden calf. In the short version, Moses hurries down, carrying the two tablets. Upon witnessing what was going on in the Israelite camp, Moses either hurled down the tablets, or dropped them (according to various midrashim), smashing them at the foot of the mountain. He then “took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.” 

Moses then implored God to forgive the Israelites, which is where we pick up the Torah reading during Sukkot. In two key moments, Moses first carves two new tablets and heads back up the Mountain with them. And then Moses proclaims God’s merciful nature, which we recite throughout the High Holy Day season and at other moments: “Adonai, Adonai, El rachum v’chanun, The Eternal! The Eternal! A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness … forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.” 

It is at this moment, where Moses and the Israelites are forgiven that God makes a new covenant with the Israelites. One might argue that this covenant is another version of the 10 Commandments. It is much more religiously focused including the mitzvot to observe Shabbat, Shavuot, Passover, and the Feast of Ingathering, which is a reference to Sukkot. This is in part why we read from this section during Sukkot. At the end of it all, as the Torah says, “and he was there with the Eternal forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water, and he wrote down on the tablets the terms of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” 

It is a powerful narrative. Moses is alone atop Mt. Sinai doing the sacred work for the Israelites. The Israelites panic fearing both God and Moses have abandoned them. They appeal to Aaron to bring them comfort in the form of an idol, a familiar symbol from their days in Egypt. They celebrate the idol. God almost destroys the Israelite community over their lack of faith. Moses has to directly intercede on their behalf, even though he was probably also feeling incredible anger and hurt as well. He appeals to their better nature, and a new covenant was formed and founded out of the literal ashes of the old.

I have been thinking about this narrative quite a bit as we read the news regarding the beginnings of a potential peace deal soon to be implemented between Israel and Hamas. Some of you have asked me my thoughts on the deal, and I have expressed cautious optimism, as we have been down this road before. 
And yet, as it is being implemented, Israel has pulled back its troops. Israel has published a list of 250 Palestinian prisoners it will be releasing, and Hamas has agreed to return the estimated 20 living hostages and the remainder of the other 28 hostages, though they have stated they are not confident of the location of some of the deceased hostages. 

There is still much more to be negotiated, though the Knesset has agreed to the preliminary outline of the ceasefire deal. Though there is still much to be done with regards to the remainder of the 20 points of the ceasefire plan proposed by the Trump administration.

According to CNN “Substantive discussions have not yet begun over what comes next for the war-torn Gaza Strip, with the current focus on implementation of the ceasefire and hostage-release deal...The negotiators in Egypt this week set up committees on multiple tracks to tackle the next steps in the overall plan, the regional source said. But active discussions on those topics will begin after the first phase of the deal...” 

And we will all be watching, I am sure, with both trepidation and hope as the coming days either move us more towards a peaceful resolution or towards a resumption of hostilities. I think, given all the international players involved, an end to this war is the most likely outcome. But I recognize that to create a lasting peace is going to take a new approach, and a new mindset unlike any we have seen in recent memory.

So, at this moment, I am simply grateful that there is the prospect of a return of the last living hostages and an end to the violence and suffering.

That all being said, there is also another important topic that now must also be addressed. Not only what does Gaza look like going forward, but what does it look like for the Jewish people moving forward as well? What is going to happen to this tremendous rise in antisemitism that has occurred throughout the world? How are those people and voices going to direct their hurt and anger moving forward? Are we going to continue to be a target, or will it be directed elsewhere?

And just as importantly, what do our fractured and broken communities do in the face of such anger, hurt, brokenness, and distrust? Your clergy, here at Temple, have tried over these past two years to create space for everyone to be seen and heard. We have tried to hold all of your pain, hurt, anger, and frustration. We have spoken enumerable times about not letting the violence half a world away tear apart our community. And yet, in so many ways, it has. We have continued to live in moments of moral certainty and self-righteousness that have diminished opportunities for curiosity and dialogue. We have held each other accountable for actions that none of us are responsible for. We have lived in our own little bubbles upset that our community has not only not validated our particular beliefs but also has not completely taken one side or the other. Some have left over this. Others have disengaged. But even among those who remain, none are unaffected. In some ways, we are like the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, seeking comfort in the idols of certainty rather than in the comfort in community.

If so, where do we go from here? I think it begins with the thirteen attributes of God’s forgiving nature as taught by Moses. That is the beginning of what it means to forgive. And yet, as tradition teaches, God can only forgive us for what we have done to God; God cannot forgive us for what we have done to each other.

That is the beginning of the path to create a new communal covenant. But it is only the beginning. To continue the sacred work means it is upon all of us to begin the work of healing the community. As Danya Ruttenberg writes in her book On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, “… as one early medieval Jewish allegory shows the path to atonement isn’t infinite, or insurmountable. What it demands of us is that we go as far as we can. That we do what is within our power. 

A ruler had a child who had gone astray on a journey of a hundred days. The child’s friend said, ‘Return to your parent.’ The child said, I cannot.’ Then the ruler sent a message to the child, saying, ‘Return as far as you can and I will come the rest of the way to you…’
We don’t have to get all the way there, we just have to start walking.” 

In this peace deal, as the New York Times writes: Hamas is taking a risk. The group would give up much of its leverage over Israel by releasing the remaining hostages. There is no certainty that by doing so, it will achieve its main goals: the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza and a permanent end to the war.
Netanyahu is thinking ahead (and taking a risk). He had promised “total victory” in Gaza and is pulling back before Hamas has disarmed. But welcoming home Israeli hostages is a major political boost, and he will soon be up for re-election…” But it could also spell the end of his political future as there are some within his own coalition who leave given that their vision did not come to fruition.

I would argue, now perhaps is the time for us to take a risk as well. To take a risk on each other and on our sacred community. What our forebearers have spent the last 150 years building should not be abandoned nor torn down. What we have here represents the hope for an ever-dying, yet ever-living people who are struggling to find ways to fully express their Jewish selves in an incredibly fraught and challenging world. But it won’t be easy because as Ruttenberg writes, “to put it bluntly, American society isn’t very good at doing the work of repentance or repair.”  But just because it may be hard for the larger communal world, it does not have to be the same with us. We just have to remember that we are all on this sacred journey together. A sacred journey where we now have the opportunity to create a new covenant of community and relationships. We have an opportunity to build and rebuild on the values of dialogue and relationships and repair. It does not mean forgetting. What it means instead is understanding that we are all hurting. 

As Ruttenberg writes “harm is of course not dualistic – we can sometimes both be hurt ourselves and hurt others…”  As she continues “ … it’s time to get started. The work of repentance demands curiosity, care, and a willingness to face hard things with bravery and honesty. While we can’t undo the past, we can address the present with integrity and endeavor to create a future that is much more whole than anything we can imagine from here. So let us begin.”  My prayer on this Sukkot is that we find the courage and strength to start walking towards each other even if taking those steps can be hard. 

And in the meantime, it is our fervent prayer that we will soon be able to lovingly bury this picture on our bimah of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin with the knowledge that all the hostages have finally been able to return home. And to offer up the prayer,“Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’olam, Matir Asurim.” “Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who frees the captives.”

And of course, the most important prayer of all, Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melen Ha’olam, O’seh Hashalom, Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who helps us to create peace.

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Watch the entirety of Friday’s service here.

Temple Talk is a recap of sermons given from the Bimah for those who missed a Sermon or who wanted to revisit the words spoken at a previous sermon.