Sermon for Kol Nidre – 2026 – The Power to be Two Things at Once

I want to share an episode with you, and you should know upfront, it involves a politician. I want you to know though, that I share the story not for political reasons, but because she was teaching Torah, which is what I do too. I felt the need to share this particular teaching because it was so off-base that I felt like I was being gaslit. 

Earlier this summer Dana Nessel, the Attorney General of the State of Michigan, did not attend her state’s Democratic Convention citing fear for her own safety as a Jew. In her own words, “I don’t feel safe going… I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed.” And then, contrary to her own actions regarding the State Convention, just a few weeks ago at a gathering of the state’s Jewish Democratic Party leaders, she was quoted as saying that the Jewish community should follow the example of Queen Esther. They should embrace the “moral imperative” to prioritize the “needs of the world” over “even our own survival.” She said, “Jewish Democrats have to ‘sacrifice the comfort, safety, and security and even the very future of our own people in exchange for the opportunity to save the rest of humanity.’ 

Now, I don’t know if she went to Hebrew School, but that’s not how I learned the story of Queen Esther. I remember learning that she saved the Jews of Persia from a genocidal decree? Not only does AG Nessel get the story of Purim incredibly backward, but she also falsely sets up a scenario where it is an either/or choice of loyalty to the Jewish people or loyalty to humanity. It is profoundly misguided to say that the Jewish people have to choose between our survival and the good of the rest of the world, as if the interests of the Jewish people and the interests of the world are inherently not aligned! As if the Jews are by nature a negative force in the world, when of course history has shown exactly the opposite to be true.

In my sermon on Rosh Hashanah I spoke about how so many people are feeling lost and disoriented when the ideals and institutions they once thought they knew are now questionable, and ooh, boy – does Attorney General Nessel seem lost! Perhaps she could use some guidance from Jewish GPS, Guiding Principles of Shema – particularly guidepost #3 “Adonai, Eloheinu, Adonai,” which, as I’ll explain in greater detail in a few minutes, has to do with approaching the world from a particularist Jewish point of view and a universalist, human point of view. Adonai Eloheinu Adonai says we don’t have to choose between what’s good for Jews and good for humanity, that in fact part of the Jewish purpose is to be good for all humanity. And setting up a false choice between Jewish interests and dedication to a better world for all is exactly what Nessel got wrong. In fact, demanding that choice, though I am sure it was unintentional by the attorney general, is an insidious form of Antisemitism.

Coincidentally, just as the story from Michigan was breaking, I was reading a passage in Dara Horn’s new book,“The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Song for the Living,” involving the biblical story of Queen Esther. Dara Horn uses the exact same story to make a point much more true to our heroic queen and very poignant for this moment. She writes:

Like many American Jews today, the Jews of the ancient Persian Empire were blessed with prosperity, status, and even power. In the story, one of them, like American Jews of old, changes her name to something less Jewish-sounding and becomes the empire’s queen. But when the Persian Empire announces a decree calling for the genocide of Jews, the story tells us that the Jews in the empire’s high-end capital city are “confounded.”…Sure, it sounds bad to call for the genocide of Jews, but as the now-former president of Harvard once said in Congress, Maybe it depends on the context!

Queen Esther has a cousin named Mordechai who doesn’t wait for the context, and who doesn’t bow to tyrants. He tells Esther she must go to the king to defend her people…Queen Esther gathers her courage, goes to the king, and to her surprise, the king is on her side. She only needed to rise to the occasion.

Jews around the world have reached their Queen Esther moment, presented with the same choice their ancestors always faced. They can choose not to say anything, choose to disappear….

Or they can choose life, and rise to the occasion.

This either/or Antisemitism, this Faustian bargain that’s peddled that says if we just make ourselves look and act like everyone else, if we are just like other Americans who happen to go to a different kind of church, if we just put the safety and needs of “the society” before our own, then all that hate and violence against us will go away. This form of Antisemitism may be quieter and less violent than some of the terrible attacks we are seeing in the world today, but the two are clearly linked. They both are trying to make Jews disappear.

 Einat Wilf, former Israeli Minister of the Knesset and essayist called either/or Antisemitism “the pound of flesh,” using an ironic reference to the Antisemitic portrayal of the Jewish merchant in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” The truth, says Wilf, is that secular society always wants the pound of flesh from the Jew – giving up a pound of your identity, or loyalty to your people, or connection to your homeland in order to be accepted. The pound of flesh’ is another name for the quiet erasure of Jews from civic life, quiet Antisemitism. 

What’s the problem with buying into the idea and living our lives that way? The problem is there is no room for love or pride in Judaism, for Ahavat Ahm Yisrael, because supposedly “polite” society starts with the assumption that there is something inherently negative about Jews. That the Jewish part has to be hidden or subdued for Jews to be acceptable members of society; for Jews to be accepted in society they just have to be less, you know…Jewish.

Dara Horn’s term for the assumption that Judaism is somehow inherently corrupt is “The Big Lie.” The Big Lie is that Jews are somehow responsible for our own persecution, because Judaism is a negative force in the world. Accordingly, all Jews and Judaism should be viewed with suspicion. 

The truth, of course, is the opposite. Judaism is something we should all be proud of. It is founded on defying tyrants like Pharaoh and Antiochus. It is founded on seeing the value in every human being and having them treated equally – seeing the divine image in all people and saying everyone deserves a day off – Shabbat – we invented the weekend. We believe every single person has the right to the growth and empowerment of an education. 

And you know who hates these values? People who have absolute power or who want absolute power. The tyrants and the absolutists. We are in the way of their goals. And so they tell the Big Lie, that Jews are a threat to whatever society values. It doesn’t really matter what that threat is, which is why Jews are accused of all kinds of crazy things, often opposite things, at the same time. Sometimes getting rid of us has looked like murder or expulsion, and sometimes, like today, it looks like social and cultural erasure from civic society. Either way it is Antisemitism and it must not be tolerated. So what’s to be done?

In his recent book, “Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries,” journalist Nicholas Lemann traces his family’s multi-generational journey from Germany to New Orleans to his own home in New York City. The book traces his ancestors’ decisions through each subsequent generation to cover up their Jewishness more and more in order to make their way in the “polite” society of their given time and place.

By the time we get to the fifth generation, that of the author, he is raised with almost no positive ideas about Judaism whatsoever. For Lemann’s father, Thomas, being Jewish is a burden that must be born and buried as deeply as possible in order to fit into New Orleans Top Level Society. As you’d expect, Thomas didn’t spend much time in synagogue and so, neither did his son Nicholas until, to his surprise, Nicholas found himself drawn to and attending synagogue as an adult. 

In the book, Nicholas shares his surprising reactions when he happened to be in a synagogue when a bar mitzvah child held the Torah and sang out the Shema – he started crying. And I mean tears streaming down his face crying. So much so that he was embarrassed, tried to hide it,and hoped no one would notice. In that moment he realizes that his Jewish identity and life, in his words, “had been shut off to me, as firmly as a metal door being welded shut…Now the door was open. I was weeping over the poignancy of my parents’ doomed hope that other doors would open if they closed this one.”

So, what triggered Nick Lemann’s reaction? What was it that directed him inevitably back to his Jewish roots and his connection to Ahavat Ahm Yisrael? Of course it’s the Shema, in this case calling to him from the mouth of a 13 year old boy in shul. It’s The Jewish GPS – the Guiding Principles of Shema that I spoke about on Rosh HaShanah. On Rosh HaShanah we explored the first two guideposts: Shema, Listening is an Act of Love and Yisrael, Ahavat Ahm Israel. This evening, I would like to explore the third GPS point, the one that I think would have helped Thomas Lemann and Attorney General Nessel: Adonai Eloheinu Adonai. 

Literally translated, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai would simply mean, “God, God, God,” so we need a little explanation. Adonai means My Master. The rabbis teach that it is a very personal and particular name for God, Adonai is the imminent God of the people Israel. Eloheinu, on the other hand, is a universal name for God – it is the part of God that is transcendent, is for everyone and everything. Adonai, Elohenu, Adonai, really means that there is no contradiction between serving the Jewish people and serving the human race. It is right there as one of the pillars of the Shema. The prayer is telling us that we are supposed to be involved with the Jews (Adonai) and be involved with everyone else (Eloheinu). 

We have a proud, particularist relationship with God – that’s the Adonai on either side of Adonai Eloheinu Adonai, but lots of faiths can claim that – that’s what being a religion is. What made Judaism special from the start, is that we also recognize that at the core of our belief in God, right in the middle between the two Adonais, is Eloheinu, the fact that God is God for everything and everyone. So, not despite our special relationship with God, but because of our special relationship with God, we are dedicated to all of God’s creation, all people. We are particularist universalists. Yes, we are an oxymoron. But hey, we’ve been called worse.

Adonai Eloheinu Adonai is the GPS pointing us towards fully embracing who we are as Ahm Yisrael and who we are as Americans. It is the GPS point telling us that not only should we be dedicated to both, but how to balance them. In fact, we were created to serve both – it’s right there in our most foundational text. Because the values that make our Ahm so special, are also good for everyone else – there’s no contradiction. Anti-tyranny, pro-education for all, embracing the value of each individual as a child of God – these have been our gift to the world and we should be proud of them. The claim that a full and robust Jewish identity is incompatible with being a good American citizen is just Jewish hate by another name and is the opposite of the actual positive impact the Jewish people have had on the world throughout history. 

So what does embracing Adonai Eloheinu Adonai look like? 

An interviewer once asked Leonard Cohen if he ever thought about changing his name. It was 1966, when ethnic wasn’t exactly in.

He responds, “Yeah, I was going to change my name to September,” giving the interviewer a wry smile. After a beat, the interviewer hesitatingly asks, “Leonard September?”

He replied: “No, September Cohen.”’

Leonard Cohen, one of the great poets and artists of the last 75 years, a man who spoke to the souls of so many, said I will not bury my Jewish self to be better accepted by the music industry. My Judaism informs who I am and is involved in my art. I make art for the world, great art, in fact, because I am Jewish, not despite it.

Anyone who saw Phish perform at Madison Square Garden on July 27th might have had the same thoughts when they played Avinu Malkeinu to thousands of Phishheads. Yeah, you think it sounds good when Cantor Goldberg does it here in the sanctuary, they did it for thousands of people, Jews and non-Jews for sure, and created a moment of art, and celebration, and even holiness for all who were there. In that moment of Jewish pride and returning to the sacred music of their youth, they communicated that Judaism is part of what makes them great artists.

That is what following Adonai Eloheinu Adonai looks like. I know we can’t all be renowned musicians or poets, but we can put our best selves out in the world as Jews. We can refuse to offer the pound of flesh with its insidious push to have us bury our Jewish heritage and wisdom and identity for a chance to be part of society. Instead, we make sure the world knows that all the good things we do, the volunteering inside and outside of the Jewish community, the contributions we make of time and money, the engagement in civic life to make our public institutions as fair, equitable, and successful as possible, that we do all of that because we are Jews, not despite it. Think about it right now – what is one way I can bring my Jewish self –  to work, or school, or wherever – to make that place better.

We could follow the guidance of Adonai Eloheinu Adonai by wearing an identifiable piece of clothing, a Jewish star necklace or a kippah when we show up to places where we do good. Decide right now on one way you will let your Judaism be known and not hide it from the world, even when the world seems scary or unaccepting – because that is just what the haters are hoping we’ll do. Like Queen Esther, we might find allies in unexpected places, but we’ll never know it if we hide who we are. So, might it be time to invest in a new piece of Jewish swag, or ride your Peloton bike with the hashtag #stopJewishhate. (My hashtag is #RidewiththeRabbi, in case you were wondering)

Embracing Adonai Eloheinu Adonai could mean using the synagogue as a launching-off point for the goodness that we put into the world, bringing your favorite volunteer organization to our attention and getting involved in our Social Action/Social Justice Committee so that we can have a greater impact together and we can show up to our giving-spaces as Jews. [Participate tonight in Bring Your Breakfast – cereal and shelf stable milk through the end of Sukkot]  

This is just what some of our teens have done, bringing amazing and important charitable organizations from the greater Larchmont/Mamaroneck area into the synagogue. For example, a lot of our teens and families have been involved with Grassroots Grocery, a food rescue and distribution organization. After participating in their packing days a number of times, Gabrielle Wittick had the idea to bring them to  WJC for Mitzvah Day so that even more families could be part of this mitzvah.

Or Spencer Baron who organized the collection of backpacks and school equipment for the Sharing Shelf. By himself he was able to collect supplies for 20 backpacks. With the synagogue as a platform he was able to triple his impact and collect for 60. This year he is doing it again and his goal is 100. Our Education Director Aleza Kulp and Spencer solicited help from the WJC Teen Department to help the 4th and 5th graders physically fill the backpacks. So it became a mitzvah project for the religious school kids and teens all rolled into one – what could be better than that? What organization out there do you support that we could have a bigger impact on together? That’s not a rhetorical question – think of one right now. Let us know and we’ll try to multiply the impact together, because that is what Adonai Eloheinu Adonai means – it means we proudly dedicate our Jewish values and our Jewish selves not only to jewish causes, though those too, but also to the good of the world.

Adonai Eloheinu Adonai is also why we worked hard for WJC to be one of a select group of schools piloting Dara Horn’s new curriculum for 7th graders and teens about the history of Antisemitism and its current form. So, they never feel the need to hide their Jewishness, and can represent these values in the world too.

Adonai Eloheinu Adonai definitely means involvement at WJC. This is the place we learn and grow as Jewish people and in Jewish values, so that we can make a better world for all human beings including us. As a synagogue of the Conservative movement in particular we are dedicated to the principle of Adonai Eloheinu Adonai – of proudly rooting ourselves in our Judaism in order to celebrate and grow and learn our values, as well as engaging fully in the community around us as a Jewish organization and as Jewish people. It is part of what makes WJC so important to us and to this whole Larchmont/Mamaroneck community. 

We need synagogues like this and so does the world, because the world needs the Jewish people and our values right now. We need to follow the GPS point Adonai Eloheinu Adonai to be what the world needs us to be today, so we can live together in better civic spaces and communities tomorrow.

Gmar Hatimah Tovah.