Rosh Hashanah 5773/2012

Has anyone seen Supersize me?

It is a movie that came out in 2004 that follows Director Morgan Spurlock as he challenges
himself to eat McDonalds and only McDonalds for thirty days. I watched the movie a
number of years ago and found it disgusting, while at the same time, completely
fascinating. I never thought that Spurlock would one day inspire me to do anything similar.
In fact, Morgan Spurlock would not have had much impact on my life, if not for the
random viewing of a TED talk a few months ago. For those who are unaware of TED, it is
a nonprofit whose name is an acronym and stands for Technology, Entertainment and
Design. The tag line of the organization is Ideas worth spreading. Originally, TED was a
bi-annual conference that attracted those in the technology world. In the last few years,
TED has developed into much more than a twice a year conference.
I access TED talks from my ipad, computer, and NPR is now even carrying a TED radio
hour. If you ever have a few minutes to spare and want to be inspired, go check out
TED.com. Just dont blame me if you can never again get any work done.
In the TED talk I was watching, Matt Cutts, an engineer at Google, was a little bored with
himself. A la Morgan Spurlock, the super size me guy, Matt decided to spice up his life a
little bit and began a series of thirty-day challenges. Matts talk stuck with me. Matt notes
in his talk that thirty days is enough time to accomplish some remarkable things. This
segment of the talk was great. Matt says to the audience, Have you ever wanted to write
a novel? Every November, tens of thousands of people try to write their own 50,000-word
novel from scratch in 30 days. It turns out, all you have to do is write 1,667 words a day
for a month.
So, he says, I tried it. He continued by informing us that, By the way, the secret is not to
go to sleep until youve written your words for the day. You might be sleep deprived, but
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youll finish your novel. Now, he continues, is my book the next great American novel?
No, I wrote it in a month. Its awful. But for the rest of my life, if I meet John Hodgeman
at a TED party, I dont have to say, Im a computer scientist. No, no, if I want to, I can say,
Im a novelist.
While some of the things Matt said made me giggle a little with the eagerness of feeling
like I could do that challenge, some of what he said stayed with me because there was an
undeniable truth in the statement. In Matts words, some of what he discovered over the
thirty day challenges was "instead of the months flying by, forgotten, the time was much
more memorable.
Again, in Matts own words, I learned that when I made small, sustainable changes, things
I could keep doing, they were more likely to stick. Matt ends his talk with this statement,
a statement that should leave us all wondering what if Matt says to the viewer,
So here is my question to you: What are you waiting for? I guarantee the next thirty days
are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not try something you have always
wanted to try and give it a shot for the next thirty days.
With every year that flies by, I am floored at how quickly time goes. I remember a few
years after college it occurred to me that things seemed to be going faster and faster. I am
sure we all can recall a similar moment; when summers stopped lasting a whole lifetime,
when birthdays started to come and go in the blink of an eye. Life has a way of sliding
right by us if we are not careful.
This is one of the reasons our Tradition has ritualized lifecycle moments. It is why we have
birthdays and anniversaries. We need time to let it soak in, time to take a broader look at
our days and time to evaluate how we are doing. This is even the reason we are here today.
Inspired by Matt Cutts and his thirty-day challenges, this year at TBD is going to be one
that is not easily forgotten. If youll join me on this journey, this year at TBD is going to be
different than any other year in our history. This year we are going to wake up our

Judaism, we are going to take hold of the thirty days that will come and go whether we like
it our not, and we are going to bring more meaning to each of those thirty days over the
next twelve months.
This year we are going to challenge ourselves. We are going to challenge ourselves to
embrace Jewish life in new and dynamic ways. We are going to challenge ourselves to take
our Tradition, understand its meaning, and background and at the same time, reshape it to
make meaning in our own lives.
Together, through study and action, we are going to embark on a series of twelve, thirtyday Jewish challenges. We are a Jewish community, so unlike Matt, we wont be doing
these challenges alone. We will meet at the beginning of the thirty days, study the Tradition
and decide how we will live out its essence in our thirty-day challenge. These challenges
wont be about merely performing empty ritual, they will be about embracing and
enhancing what our Tradition offers us.
The great thing about thirty days is that it is short. If you dont want to do some of the
challenges, dont; just wait for the next challenge to come around. So, you may be thinking,
What kind of challenges is this guy talking about? I have a few in mind, and they will
get us off the ground and running, but I am also interested in what you might like to
explore.
Are there areas of Jewish life that you have always been curious about but unable or
unwilling to say, OK I am going to do this?
Over the course of our first few meetings, we will decide what the coming months will
bring. One of the best thing about these challenges is that we will only meet once a month
as a group, just to introduce things, the rest of the challenge will take place on your own,
engaging in Jewish life as you find it meaningful. However, there will be a few ways we
will all be along for the ride, but Ill get to that later.

The first challenge we will be doing together will be all about blessings. Our sages teach
that a person should say 100 blessings a day. For Jews who pray three times daily, that
number is not so hard to accomplish, for those of us who do not pray with that kind of
regularity, 100 blessings is probably out of the question. But, I know each of us can say at
least one blessing every day. Each of us could say a blessing when we wake, some of us
probably already do. Each of us could say a blessing when we see something out of the
ordinary or when we escape a close call on the road.
So much of our Tradition is about mindful living, noticing the world and finding holiness in
the mundane. When we get in the habit of saying blessings during the day, we do just that,
we elevate our experience of the world and we infuse our daily activities with holiness.
Blessings are our defense against cynicism and darkness.
Maybe the best thing about looking for places to say a blessing is that by looking, we will
notice them more and more. Saying one blessing a day just may change our lives.
Beginning with the next Jewish month, Cheshvan, we will meet and learn more about
blessings. Once we understand where they come from in our Tradition, we will go out and
make them our own. Join me as we say a blessing every day for 30 days!
Though we will only have one formal meeting for each challenge, the initial get-together
will not be the only time we will communicate. You can expect regular emails from me,
helping to remind you about the challenge and asking you questions about how its going.
To make things even more interesting, during each of the thirty days, we are going to keep
a kind of public journal. For those who are interested, we will be creating an online blog,
reflecting on the experience we are having during each challenge. Dont worry, for those
new to blogging, Ill give everyone an overview of how to do it at each meeting.
Ideally, the blog will be a place for both participants and observers to come and read about
others experiences. Of course, hopefully the blog will inspire others to join in on the next
challenge. The great thing about this electronic piece is the potential for enormous
participation. We could have people across the world joining in on the challenges and

sharing their experiences. Think of how amazing it would be to engage in a conversation

with someone in Australia about the blessings she says everyday!
Last night I ended my sermon with a vision statement for our community. It is a three-part
vision statement that includes education as an important element for our growth at Temple
Beth David. We have been gifted with an amazing Tradition, it is a Tradition that has the
potential to sweeten the highlights, comfort us at our low points, and maybe most
importantly, make the ordinary extraordinary. Central to the mission of Jewish Tradition is
taking the everyday, the mundane, rote tasks of life and elevating them. We all know, no
matter how good life might be for each of us, there is always the potential to enhance and
heighten our experience of this world, there is always a chance to bring more holiness into
our lives.
Last year during the High Holy Days, I spoke about our youth and the need for them to be
engaged in education. I spoke about Jewish camping and how important it is in the
educational process for our kids today. I still stand behind that sermon from last year, and
certainly dont want to rehash it for us today. Yet, there was something drastically
important that I left out. It is not just our children that should be engaging in Jewish
education. Each of us must continue to grow Jewishly. If we are serious about sending our
children to religious school, shouldnt all of us be committed to our own Jewish growth? I
am convinced our Tradition has survived for the last 3,000 years primarily because of our
ability to renew and grow.
Of course, Judaism is malleable enough to change and grow, but it is not just Judaism, it is
the Jews that make this happen. We are the change, we are the growth. Our circumstances
and response to our environment is the way our Tradition continues to live and breath.
Each generation is confronted with this challenge of renewal and growth. Each generation
must take on the mantle of reshaping and reaffirming our covenant with God. Without
doing so, Judaism ceases to be meaningful, it calcifies, it shrivels into nothing and comes to
an end.

Before I assumed a leadership role as a rabbi, I remember rejecting the fear mongering of
the loss of Jewish continuity. I recall a rabbi from my youth standing on the bimah,
inciting fear in the congregation that Judaism would be in its last death throws if we dont
engage. I thought to myself, This guy is crazy, Jewish life flourishes like never before.
And, I was right to a certain extent. Jewish life in the United States is flourishing like it has
not in thousands of years. However, my reaction to that rabbi was one of naivet, and it
was one defined by my place in the Jewish world, I did not carry the burden and honor of
serving as rabbi.
Today, however, I stand on this bimah as a rabbi, but more importantly as a concerned and
caring Jew. I certainly dont want to be a part of the generation scholars point to in the
future and say, that is it, that is the generation that began the spiral into Jewish oblivion
and ultimate extinction and I do not think any of us want to be a part of that generation.
And yet, even though I believe all that to be true, that we are at the same time in a moment
of flourishing Jewish life and live with the potential for Jewish life to come to an end in just
a few short generations. Let not the fear of losing Judaism be what spurs us to engage.
Ancient cultures die, it has happened countless times and the world goes on. If a culture or
religion has nothing of meaning to offer its members, than it should come to an end. If it
cannot compete in the marketplace of ideas, than we humans have run our course with it,
there is no shame in that.
Of course, I would not be standing here today if I thought Judaism had run its course and I
do not think any of us would be here either. It is paramount that Judaism not become a
museum piece, that Jewish life not become a series of video clips to be curated on the
holidays. As many of us know, and as our ancestors have known for generations, Judaism
is a serious religion for serious people. It is a blueprint for meaningful living. It is a call to
action and a mirror that sometimes tells us the hard truths of life. It is a blanket that
envelops us with warmth in our joy and our woe. And it belongs to us all. The 30-day
challenges we are engaging in will be an opportunity for exploration. They will be bite size
explorations into who we are as Jews and they will confirm our ownership of the Tradition.

One of my favorite midrashim says that before each of us is born, we are all great Torah
scholars. We sit in heaven studying, learning and debating. In the moments before we are
to be born into this world, an angel comes and finds us, and touches us here, right above
our lip, right in the center and leaves that small divot.
The moment the angel touches us, we lose all memory of the heavenly yeshivah, we forget
all the Torah we learned. When Matt Cutts engages in his thirty-day challenges, he is
trying to discover something outside himself, he is trying to form a new habit or just see if
he can do something new or different. When we engage in our Jewish challenges, we are
not in the process of discovery, but rediscovery. These challenges will lead us to places in
the deep recesses of our souls that house the innate Judaism in us all.
Come join me and together we can.