Opening Shabbat Sermon by Rabbi Tziona Szajman: July 7th, 2007
Temple Israel, Vestal, NY
Challot in the Holy Ark
In the year 1502, a man named Jacobo, and his wife Esperanza, came to settle
in the city of Tzfat, high on a mountain, in the holy land of Israel. Jacobo and
Esperanza had been born in Spain, but in 1492, Spain expelled all her Jews.
Jacobo and Esperanza, then young and strong, traveled from Spain to Salonika
in Greece, where they lived for several years. There they heard of the great
rabbi, Isaac Luria, who was known as the Ari, who led the Jews of Tzfat, a
community steeped in kabbalah, the mystical teachings. Rabbi Luria taught that
God is hidden and mysterious, but can be seen in the actions of those on earth
who acknowledge God's creative power and seek to obey God's will. And so, in
Salonika, Esperanza and Jacobo boarded a ship and sailed for Eretz Yisrael.
In Tzfat, they found a community of Jews dedicated to serving God, but
struggling to feed themselves. One Shabbat, the rabbi, an elderly man, taught
the congregation that when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, before it was
destroyed by the Romans, God was offered 12 loaves of bread each week just
prior to Shabbat. Jacobo was a simple man, whose honesty, integrity, and
kindness far exceeded his learning. He did not understand much of what the
rabbi had said, but did remember about the loaves, so when he arrived home, he
told Esperanza, "Next Friday morning, let us bake 12 loaves of challah. The rabbi
taught this morning that God loves challah for Shabbat. I will bring them to the
synagogue and give them to God."
Now Esperanza was a wonderful baker, and Jacobo was filled with joy at the
thought that he and his wife would be able to please God in this manner. That
week, they baked the finest 12 loaves of challah they had ever made. They
kneaded the dough with love, expressing their awe of God and their love of
mitzvot through their efforts.
When the loaves came out of the oven and had cooled, Jacobo carefully packed
them in a burlap sack, hoisted them onto his shoulder, and headed for the
synagogue. When he arrived in the synagogue, he looked around to be certain
that no one saw him, then tiptoed to the Holy Ark. Opening the Ark doors and
placing the loaves of challah in the Holy Ark, Jacobo whispered, "Senor Dios, I
have brought You the challah You love so much. My Esperanza and I made it
just for You. Tomorrow, on Shabbat morning, when they open the Ark to take out
the Sefer Torah, I am going to look to see if they are gone -- every crumb -- so
we will know that You like our gift." With that, Jacobo closed the Ark, drew the
curtain closed across it, and tiptoed out of the synagogue.
No sooner had he left, than the shammes entered the room to sweep the floor
and prepare the synagogue for Shabbat. When his eye caught sight of the Holy
Ark, he put down his broom and approached it. "Lord," he prayed, "I don't ask for
much. You know I am not paid for being the shammes of the synagogue. I do this
job out of love for You and the Holy Torah. But my children are hungry. I need
food for them. Even if the people of Tzfat cannot pay me, perhaps You can feed
my children, Lord." It was then that the shammas noticed the enticing aroma of
warm bread emanating from the Ark. Impulsively, he took a step forward and
opened it. Gasping, he exclaimed, "My Lord, a miracle! I knew You would feed
my children, just as we pray ha-maycheen mazon le-chol b'riotav. Oh, thank you,
Lord, thank you so much!"
The shammes gathered the challot and ran home to his wife, who was overjoyed
to see the food for their children. They decided to eat two challot that evening for
their Erev Shabbat meal, two challot for lunch after they davened the next
morning, two more for later in the afternoon at Se'udah Shlishi, and save one for
each day of the coming week. "Next week, we shall see what happens," the
shammes's wife told him, for her faith was strong.
The next morning, the congregation assembled in the synagogue to celebrate
Shabbat. Jacobo waited eagerly for the Ark to be opened. He grew more and
more anxious. Would the challot still be there? Had God accepted their gift? Had
God enjoyed the challot? When Rabbi Luria opened the Ark, Jacobo's prayer
was answered. There was not a crumb in the Ark! "Baruch hashem! Thank God!"
he prayed, and smiled at Esperanza.
As soon as three stars appeared in the sky, Esperanza and Jacobo made
Havdalah to end Shabbat and set about discussing their plans to bake challot for
God every Friday morning. The following Friday, they removed 12 beautiful
challot from their oven, wrapped them in burlap, and took them quietly to the
synagogue. Jacobo checked that no one was about before placing them lovingly
in the Holy Ark. A short time later, the shammes came to clean the synagogue
and, approaching the Ark, found his challah waiting for him, still warm from the
oven.
This scene repeated itself each week, just before Shabbat, for thirty years.
One Friday morning, as Jacobo was placing the challah in the Ark, as he had
done every week for three decades, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to
see the rabbi, now a very old man. "What are you doing?" the rabbi shouted at
him angrily. "What do you mean by putting bread in the Holy Ark?"
"I bring these challot to God every week," Jacobo stammered. "I have been doing
this for 30 years."
"You have been bringing bread to God each week for 30 years?" the rabbi asked
in amazement. "Whatever for?"
"Because of what you taught," replied Jacobo, and he recounted what he
remembered of the rabbi's sermon about the loaves of bread in the Holy Temple
in Jerusalem.
"You fool! God doesn't eat food like people!" said the rabbi.
"Ah, you are learned and wise," said Jacobo, "but you don't know everything.
You see, every week God accepts our gift of challah. For 30 years, there hasn't
been a crumb left in the Ark come Shabbat morning."
Now the rabbi was curious, so he said, "Jacobo, let us hide in the back of the
synagogue and see just what happens to your challot." So the two men hid
behind the last row of benches and waited patiently. They didn't have long to
wait.
Several minutes later, the shammes entered the room and immediately
approached the ark. Opening the door, he prayer, "Lord, for 30 years you have
feed my family and sustained us in good times and bad. We give you thanks."
The rabbi jumped up and screamed, "You, too, are a fool! Do you think that God
bakes bread and leaves the loaves in the Ark?"
The shammes hung his head in shame and began sobbing. "I don't get paid for
cleaning the synagogue, Rabbi. I thought this was God's way of repaying me for
my work."
At just that moment, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, walked into the synagogue and,
hearing the loud and angry voice of the rabbi and the sobbing of the shammes,
asked what was happening. The shammes was miserable because he knew he
would never find challah in the ark again. Jacobo was miserable because he had
simply wanted to please God and now he could no longer do this. When the
entire story had been explained to him, Rabbi Luria smiled and turned first to the
rabbi. "Rabbi, never since the Destruction of the Temple, has God had such
pleasure as from watching what has gone on in your synagogue each week.
Thirty years ago, you were an old, sick man and God had decreed that you would
soon die. But since your teaching resulted in so much righteousness on the part
of these people, God wanted you to live." Then the Ari turned to Jacobo and the
shammes. "Now that you know who is eating the challot, it will be more difficult to
continue as you have for 30 years. But I want you to continue as you have, and
believe with perfect faith that if you, Jacobo, bring your challot directly to the
shammes, God will be pleased no less than before, for it is through acts of love
and kindness that we serve God and repair the world. And you" the great Ari
turned to the shammas, "know that these challot were baked by Jacobo and
Esperanza, but they come from God, as well, because Jews are commanded to
do the work of God in this world, feeding the hungry and binding the wounds of
those who suffer."
From that day on, Esperanza and Jacobo baked a dozen loaves of challah each
Friday, as they had for three decades, and brought it to the home of the
shammas, who gratefully accepted the loaves.
In our Torah portion today, Numbers 28:1–2
"The Lord said to Moses, saying: Command the Israelite people and say to them:
Be punctilious in presenting to Me at stated times the offerings of food due to Me,
as offerings by fire of pleasing odor to Me."
Does God really need nourishment?
Numbers uses an ancient near east image of feeding the gods…
The Torah corrects this anthropomorphism in many places, perhaps most clearly
in Psalm 50:
“I am God, your God.
I censure you not for your sacrifices,
and your burnt offerings, made to Me daily;
I claim no bull from your estate,
no he–goats from your pens.
For Mine is every animal of the forest,
the beasts on a thousand mountains.
I know every bird of the mountains,
the creatures of the field are subject to Me.
Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
for Mine is the world and all it holds.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of he–goats?
Sacrifice a thanks offering to God,
and pay your vows to the Most High.
Call upon Me in time of trouble;
I will rescue you, and you shall honor Me.”
(Psalm 50:7–15)
In Psalm 50, we are asked to sacrifice a “thanks offering” to God. Our hearts,
our intention, our actions to one another are what is important. These are the
sacrifices God desires.
"Lovingkindness I desire, not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6)
Acts of goodness to our fellow human beings is central Judaism.
Take for example our minyan. It struggles, except when the word goes out,
through Steve Gilbert, God bless him, that people are needed so someone can
say mourners Kaddish. Then people come out of the woodwork, Thursday
evening our minyan was overflowing with community support and loving
kindness.
At our core, we understand that giving loaves of challah to the hungry is more
desirable to God than leaving them in an ark, that acts of loving kindness are a
form of prayer and worship.
Prayer effects no change in God, but it can surely transform our lives by
exposing us to God's presence. -- transform our lives in being present for one
another as a community.
This summer, our goal is to have minyan every evening at 5:30pm. We will be
available every day for people who need our community to say kaddish, or
otherwise need our support and love. I am forming a Minyan Task Force group.
We have some fabulous people on board and if you are interested please
approach me about joining. Our task force will work on the best ways for Temple
Israel to meet our minyan needs and come up with innovative solutions.
People want to give.
Recently I was bicycling and was side swiped by a passing car. Surprisingly the
driver didn’t even notice she had hit me. I was unharmed but decided to stop
and rest a while. In the next ten minutes two different people stopped their cars,
got out and asked me it I was OK. They had seen me sitting by the side of the
road and were concerned. I assured them I was fine. The meesage for me was
clear: for every nitwit there are two beautiful kind people just around the
corner…
A key part of this weeks parashah is the geneology, the list of those families in
the desert on a journey to Israel. People and joining together as community is
the strength of Judaism. We survived without a land of our own because of our
emphasis on people over places and objects. Pikuach nefesh, life of a person
takes precendence over all else.
I was first attracted to Temple Israel because of the strong sense of caring here,
the warmth and kindness. This is our strength and from this we can build
anything. In the coming months I hope to meet one on one and in small groups
with as many of you as I can. Please drop by my office or call. I want to know
about your lives, your dreams, your hopes.. joining together, forming connections
is my goal is building a strong foundation for our work together.
We have a strong core of volunteers who have done a beautiful job in leading the
synagogue both ritually and organizationally. We have excellent leadership, a
fantastic synagogue staff. We have very strong committees: the Mitzvah
committee, the caring committee, religious school committee, ritual, membership,
fundraising. Each has passionate and wonderful people working hard for our
Temple Israel community and my goal is to expand on these strengths, add to
our volunteers, strengthen what we already do so well.
Community is the key, it is why we are all here, why we join a synagogue, how
we attract others to join. Everyone wants to feels a sense of belonging to a warm
caring community.
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