Posted on January 17, 2025 by Rabbi David Katz
At a Brit Mitzvah service I often say something like this: “For Jews a facility in prayer is important and the world of the intellect is prized but superseding spirituality and education is the Jew’s responsibility to strive toward personal moral perfection and the creation of the more perfect world.”
The world took a step forward on Wednesday with the announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. With every transition or crisis comes an opportunity. President Biden proposed nearly the same agreement last May but it was the change in administrations, most agree, that created enough pressure on both sides of the conflict to finally agree. More work will be needed to make the agreement stick but for now just the prospect of a resolution is an accomplishment.
A special energy is felt when human beings collaborate to make the world better, whatever the specific circumstance might be. At our Temple we have committed ourselves to feeding the hungry, collecting clothes for the poor, and sheltering the homeless (as President Jimmy Carter taught us with Habitat for Humanity) – all noble undertakings that bring out the best in us and create a moral charge.
In their first year every religious school child is taught that the word ‘shalom’ means hello, goodbye and peace. Not exactly. The root ‘shin-lamed-mem’ actually means “wholeness.” Shalom is not only peace, it is a state of being, a deeply felt contentment, and a coming home – a wholeness of body and spirit bathed in goodness. This is the energy that we feel when we are engaged in repairing the world.
So it will be a special Shabbat tonight when the Tikkun Olam Coalition leads our service and reminds us that our end goal as Jews is to become partners with God in God’s creation. What is broken is to be repaired. When there is war, peace must be made. To create goodness in the world is is the task of every Jew.
See you this evening,
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Katz
P.S. Tomorrow we begin the book of Exodus. Usually our Shabbat morning service includes 15-20 minutes of study that is conversational. Tomorrow I will start our study with a 10 minute talk on how scholars determine what is historically accurate as opposed to what is more in the realm of fable and legend. Is anything in the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt actually true and, if so, what tools do historians use to determine fact from fiction? Our study tomorrow should be quite interesting.
