Shabbat SermonNasso

In honor of new members

I love new experiences. I crave newness. It is part of the reason I love change. It is in the
newness of an experience, and our being self-aware enough in change, that we learn
important aspects about who we really are. Think about the last time you were new in some
place. Where were you? What did you do? How did you act? Were you comfortable? Were
you interested? The moment of transition from what we know, to being open to what we do
not yet know, is ripe with deep understandings about what we want, who we want to be,
and what brings us joy or pain. Yes, being new is an opportunity and we must try our
hardest to not squander the moment, because being new lasts only briefly.
When moving into a new experience, especially one in which the possibilities of dwelling
in that experience for a long time are fundamental to the initial experience, we often ask
ourselves, is this right for me? Can I be here or with this person for many years? It was
certainly a question I asked myself when I began thinking about proposing to my then
girlfriend, Sarah. As I began to approach the moment of asking her to marry me, I knew
that wherever Sarah was, that is where I wanted to be. I imagine many of us thought about
this or confirmed this kind idea with ourselves when we proposed or were proposed to. A
commitment like marriage is sacred, it is holy.
Just last week at our Shavuot study session known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot, I spoke about
how our rabbis thought of the moment at Sinai when God spoke words of Torah to the
Israelites, as a wedding. In this image, our people are married to God, Mt Sinai is the
Chupah and Torah is the ketubah or the wedding contract. What a powerful image! What
is more, it adds power to the image of human marriage, two people standing together
making a covenantal commitment to each other. It is a commitment that a couple shares,
each partner has a responsibility to the other. And it is only when both sides of the
covenanted partnership live up to their commitments that the partnership truly flourishes.

This is what marriage is about, but as our tradition teaches us with the image of God and
Israel marrying, it is what covenantal community is really about.
There is an irony in change and newness in that we are ultimately seeking to find a place of
being that feels like home. We can embrace the experience of the new and simultaneously
be longing for the moment or thing or experience to feel old, like a comfy sweatshirt. We
want it to feel like something we can just slip into and not think so hard about. We want it
just to work. Of course, that kind of comfort takes time and it takes care. The familiar
comforts us, while for many, and certainly for me, the newness energizes us. In newness
there is mostly possibility, in familiarity there is mostly expectation. The sweet spot in life
is finding the right balance of the new and the familiar. When we can do that, we have
really got something.
Tonight we celebrate our newest members of Temple Beth David. Whether these new
members came from another synagogue or this is the first synagogue of adult life, Temple
Beth David represents newness and change. With it comes all the anxiety of any new
relationship. Will we like it? Will it feel right? Is it really where we want to be?
However, Temple Beth David is not really a place, it is not really a synagogue our newest
members have joined, it is a community. Temple Beth David is people. And Temple Beth
David is not just any community. It is a community modeled after the moment at Sinai
when God wedded Israel and when a loving couple meet under the chupah, Temple David
is a covenantal community. To join our community is to have entered into a covenant. It
means that we will always be here for you. It means that in your happiest moments and in
your deepest grief, we will support you, we will celebrate with you and mourn with you.
Joining Temple Beth David means you have joined a family.
As a gift of welcome after your first year here at Temple Beth David, we have purchased
mezuzot for you. We hope that you will put them on your doors, so that every time you
enter your front door or whatever door you choose to place the mezuzah, you will
remember Temple Beth David. We are a community that is nothing without the covenant
that we make with our members. We cannot function without the people who make up our

community and we hope that this year has been one in which you have felt embraced by
our community. We hope that that embrace and your own sense of covenant with us will
only grow and deepen your involvement, for this is really the only way to be in a loving
relationship.
Of course, I cannot stand on our bimah and not talk some Torah. But, I do not want to just
talk Torah, I want to enact Torah. So, if all of our new members could join me on the
bimah, I would like to offer you the priestly benediction, which comes from our Torah
portion this Shabbat. (New families join me on the bimah)
(At this point I did not read from a document, but rather, I spoke directly to the people
standing in front of me)
Scholars tell us this blessing is the oldest in our tradition, and in some synagogues it is still
offered by those who trace their lineage to the Cohanim, the priestly class from ancient
times. We could spend hours talking about the significance of this blessing, but there is just
one thing I want to share with our newest members and all of us here tonight. This blessing
is constructed in a very thoughtful manner. It begins with three words, Yivarecha YHVH
vyishmerecha. Then five words, Yaer YHVH panav elecha vyichuneka. Finally, it ends
with seven words, Yisa YHVH panav elecha vyasem lecha shalom. As many of us know,
seven is a very special number in Judaism, it is number that comes up over and over again.
Seven is the number of creation and it represents wholeness for our people, and it even can
be found in the wedding service.
You all are at the very beginning of your time with Temple Beth David, you have just
begun your journey with us. Finding your wholeness here with your new community will
take a little bit of time. Yes, we will be here to help guide you. Yes, we will be here to
journey with you, but finding your own path as you move from newness to wholeness here
will take some time. We hope that you will find your new community to be a blessing in
your life and in the life of your family. We also hope that you, in turn, will reflect your

blessings back on us. Mazel tov on your new relationship with us. And now, the priestly
blessing.
Yivarecha YHVH vyishmerecha, May God bless you and keep you
Yaer YHVH panav elecha vyichuneka, May the light Gods kindness shine on you
Yisa YHVH panav elecha vyasem lecha shalom, May Gods face be lifted up to you and
when it is, may you have peace.
Ken Yihi Ratzon, May this be Gods will.
Shabbat Shalom.