Friday, November 11, 2005
Sermonize at Your Own Risk
9 Cheshvan. I just came across the following story from Monday in the L.A. Times. An Episcopal church in Pasadena has been threatened by the IRS with the removal of its non-profit status because the church's former rector, in a guest sermon just before the 2004 elections, had criticized the war against Iraq and imagined a debate between Bush, Kerry and Jesus, in which the latter lambasted Bush for his mililtant logic. You must read the story itself to fully appreciate the depth of hypocrisy at work here, given the number of churches whose clergy explicitly supported Republican positions and Republican candidates in the same election.
How can one claim to be truly religious if one tramples constantly on the divine? The Kotsker Rebbe, Menachem Mendl, taught as follows about Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 1:2, "Vanity of vanities. said Kohelet; vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The midrash says that the seven repetitions of the word hevel (vanity) in the book refer to the seven days of creation. The Kotsker asked how is it possible that one could call the seventh day, the sabbath, hevel and answered: "To a person for whom the whole week is worthless and full of vanities, the sabbath as well is nothing."
May our sabbaths and divine worship elevate the rest of our time and actions. May mundane motivations -- political power, control over others' behavior, vanity -- never bring down our divine worship and sabbaths!
Shabbat shalom u-mevorach!
How can one claim to be truly religious if one tramples constantly on the divine? The Kotsker Rebbe, Menachem Mendl, taught as follows about Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 1:2, "Vanity of vanities. said Kohelet; vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The midrash says that the seven repetitions of the word hevel (vanity) in the book refer to the seven days of creation. The Kotsker asked how is it possible that one could call the seventh day, the sabbath, hevel and answered: "To a person for whom the whole week is worthless and full of vanities, the sabbath as well is nothing."
May our sabbaths and divine worship elevate the rest of our time and actions. May mundane motivations -- political power, control over others' behavior, vanity -- never bring down our divine worship and sabbaths!
Shabbat shalom u-mevorach!
