To Life Itself--Rabbi Yitzhak Miller, Kol Nidre 5770

To Life Itself

Moshe goes to see his Rabbi.  “Rabbi,” Moshe says, “I must make a confession and ask your advice—last week I missed saying grace after meals.” 

“Why would you make such a transgression?” asked the Rabbi. 

“Because I forgot to do the ritual hand washing before the meal and without the hand washing we’re not supposed to say grace after meals.” 

“OK, so now you’ve told me about 2 Jewish laws you broke last week, but still you haven’t told me why.” 

“The food at the meal, Rabbi, it wasn’t Kosher—so I didn’t think I should do the ritual handwashing and therefore I shouldn’t say the grace after meals.” 

“Your meal was of non-Kosher food?” inquired the Rabbi, “That’s now 3 transgressions and you still haven’t told me what would inspire you to commit even one.  You are a knowledgeable Jew, Moshe.  If you were a schlemiel I would understand, but you know all of these laws.  In fact, you know them well enough to come to me to confess them!” 

“Well it was a non-kosher restaurant and they don’t serve kosher food in non-kosher restaurants,” replied Moshe. 

“What?  You went into the restaurant knowing that they only had non-kosher food and then you didn’t say grace after your meal because you didn’t do the ritual handwashing before the meal because the food was not kosher because you chose to eat in a non-Kosher restaurant?  With all these other transgressions, couldn’t you have at least eaten in a kosher restaurant?” 

“What?” replied Moshe exasperated, “How could I do such a thing?  On Yom Kippur?”

I won’t put anyone on the spot, but I bet if I asked how many people here are fasting for Yom Kippur, essentially everyone here would raise their hand.

The tradition of fasting of Yom Kippur is one of the most widely observed Jewish traditions.  But I wonder how many people have ever thought about why we fast on Yom Kippur.

We have a lot of very intelligent people in this room.  In fact, the odds are good that an adult Jewish population will have more college and post-graduate degrees than people.  Yet if all the intelligent, gifted, clever people in this room tried going without water for 3 days, we would see how much all those college degrees influence the body’s dehydration.

We have a lot of very committed people in this room.  I bet that every person in this room has a resume so stocked with social justice projects, humanitarian activites, and charitable work that they’d be hard pressed to fit it on one page.  Yet if all the caring, compassionate, committed people in this room tried going without food for 3 months, we would see how much all that compassion influences your body’s starvation.

There’s a traditional greeting at the end of the Kol Nidre service that absolutely drives me up a wall.  When leaving tonight, people will traditionally say to each other “May you have an easy fast.”  What kind of a crazy wish is that?  If we’re going to have an easy fast, why bother to fast at all?  The purpose of fasting on Yom Kippur is not to have a pleasant Yom Kippur.  In fact, the purpose of fasting on Yom Kippur is to remind us all the other 364 days of the year what an amazing life we have—to remind us of the thousands and thousands of blessings we have in our life that are so basic we often take them for granted. 

By this point in this sermon every person here has taken approximately 100 breaths.  Not one of those breaths required a single bit of conscious effort.  By this point in this sermon every person here has had approximately 500 heartbeats.  Again…not one of those heartbeats needed you to think about them.  But what if they weren’t there.  Put food and water aside for a moment.  Try going 10 minutes without breathing.  Try going 20 minutes without a heartbeat.

The Talmud tells us that we should strive to say at least 100 blessings a day.  On the surface, that may seem like a daunting task.  100 blessings!  Do I really have that many things in my life to be grateful for?  But even 2000 years ago the Rabbis of the Talmud struggled with the same reality, but recognized the answer—the answer is not to find 100 transcendental realities every day that give us such awe we can’t help but bless them.  The answer is to find recognize that these transcendental realities are found in the simplest, most ordinary parts of our lives.  Blessings are all around us.  Our job is to look for them, and to look for them in the simplest parts of life.  And when we find blessings there, we sanctify life itself.

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