Sermon for Yom Kippur Day – 2026 – Hebrew for Namaste

I’d like to start with a little story. It’s the story of Michael Smith who was getting ready for Christmas a few years ago, sending out his Christmas cards and making phone calls to family and friends with good tidings for the season. I know – why I am starting my Yom Kippur sermon talking about Christmas – weird choice. I will explain in a few minutes, I promise. In the meantime, let’s return to Michael, who despite feeling pretty good about life and about the holiday season approaching, he knew something was missing.

It started with an email his brother had sent him five years prior. It was a bad time in Michael’s life. He’d been out of work for a while and the bills were adding up. He felt stressed and under pressure all the time. And there was something about his brother’s email that just rubbed him the wrong way.

So, he started writing a reply, and the more he typed the angrier he got, until he was banging the words out on the keyboard. He finished his response and hit send. The next day he received a reply from brother, but he was so angry he deleted it immediately and blocked the email address. That was five years prior and he and his brother had had no contact since then. 

But this Christmas, something felt different. What had been anger had dissipated and now he was left with shame and guilt. He could barely remember what that email had been about and now he hadn’t spoken to his brother in five years?!? We’ll come back to Michael and his brother…

What I want to say to you all now is Namaste <with a bow>. I know, I know. You’re thinking, he started with Christmas and now it’s Yoga class? Stay with me. Namaste is a sanskrit word meaning, “I bow to you,” but in Western yoga it has evolved to mean something like, “The sacred spark in me recognizes the sacred spark in you.” It is a beautiful idea and today I want to teach you the Hebrew word for that concept. It’s “Echad,” as in Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai…Echad. Echad is our fourth and final Jewish GPS point from the Guiding Principles of Shema.

Echad means what?…Right, one. So, if it means one, what do I mean by saying that it’s the Hebrew for Namaste? A couple of weeks ago, if I asked you what the key message of the Shema is, you would likely have answered “that God is one.” Of course now, after these holidays, you’d say, “Listening is an act of love, Ahavat Ahm Yisrael, particularism and universalism, and, well, the fourth principle.” Okay, maybe you wouldn’t say that, but I hope you will walk away remembering how much depth and guidance there is in our simple, six-word credo. Anyway, we’ve gotten to the last word and we’ve finally got to the one-ness part. Echad in this case is “Jewish Namaste.” Echad is unity, connectedness, wholeness. It is our way of saying that everything is God and God is in everything. So, it is my task to uncover and recognize the divine spark in everyone and everything and to make sure I approach them with my divine spark as well.

This Jewish Namaste GPS point is so important today because the disorientation we feel and that I’ve been referring to in all my sermons is not only happening out there in the world. It has seeped into the relationships we expect to help us feel settled and grounded – our families, our friends, our colleagues, and our neighbors. Many of these most basic social structures that have always buoyed us, have also become unreliable. Fear, anger, suspicion, and bitterness are tearing our social circles apart. It is common and it is painful.

I cannot tell you how many people have approached me over the last few years, and even months, to tell me about the strains on their relationships being caused by the turmoil in the world around us. At their worst, these strains manifest as an estrangement, a purposeful turning away from a person you used to be close with, but even if it is just drifting apart or finding less joy in our interactions, the atmosphere we are living in is taking its toll on the relationships that are supposed to lift us up. It’s why I started this talk with a story about a guy celebrating Chrstmas. I didn’t want any of you to think I was telling your story with different names.

I’ve heard about the phenomenon from you all in so many ways – families who get together less than they used to or no longer spend holidays together, siblings that no longer communicate, friend groups and friendships that have shattered, disillusionment with mentors, and colleagues who have parted ways due to issues not related to their business. And at the most extreme end of the spectrum, children are estranging parents and parents are cutting off children. All kinds of relationships are being taxed. To be honest, it is heartbreaking. 

And even more heartbreaking is that I know there are even more people experiencing these kinds of rifts and strains and who have not discussed it with me, or possibly with anyone, because you feel ashamed or embarrassed by the situation. There is no judgment here. I understand that relationships can go beyond “challenging” to detrimental. I am not in anyone else’s shoes and cannot and would not know what any given relationship’s history is or how any one individual experienced it. So, let me be clear, though I have no magic spell to change these complicated situations, I am always here to listen, to support, and to encourage.

If you are feeling this tension in your relationships, know that you are not alone. In a study done last August by YouGov results showed that 38% of adults are now estranged from a family member. Sibling estrangement is the most common, currently at 24%, followed by parents estranging children at 16%, children estranging parents at 10%, and grandparents and grandchildren at 9% and 6% respectively. That means that right now, one in ten parents are unable to even talk to their children, no less grandchildren if they have them. And a quarter of adult children have been cut off by their parents. 

The whole idea of families and friends deliberately turning away from each other is so jarring and disconcerting. The idea that a parent will turn away and cut off their child, something feels wrong about it, necessary or not. That jarring feeling is reflected in the Psalm for these High Holidays, Psalm 27 addressed to our supernal parent. In verses 8-11 we read: 

לְךָ֤ ׀ אָמַ֣ר לִ֭בִּי בַּקְּשׁ֣וּ פָנָ֑י אֶת־פָּנֶ֖יךָ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֲבַקֵּֽשׁ׃

To you my heart says:

“Seek My face!”

O ETERNAL One, I seek Your face.

אַל־תַּסְתֵּ֬ר פָּנֶ֨יךָ ׀ מִמֶּנִּי֮ …

Do not hide Your face from me;

do not thrust aside Your servant in anger;

You have ever been my help.

Do not forsake me, do not abandon me,

O God, my deliverer.

You can hear the fear in the psalmist’s plea, “I seek your face, do not hide it from me!” The poet is afraid that in God’s anger and disapproval, God will abandon him. But then, towards the end of the passage he remembers that they have history together, “God has ever been his help.” It is the shared history, the shared experiences, the shared life that becomes the foundation of redemption, the foundation for the continued relationship. Because in those things is the sharing of the sacred spark. In those things is the divine in one person being drawn to and connecting with the divine in the other. The sacred spark in each of us glows brighter when combined with another, just like candles. So, ultimately the redemption in our relationships comes from the “Echad,” the fact that we are all connected because we are all connected to God. 

In the Kabbalah of Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as the Ari, not only are we all connected through our supernal connection to God, but some souls are closer than others. Family is the closest. The Ari taught that a close copy of a parent’s divine spark is passed to their children. Now, before you roll your eyes at me, tell me that this doesn’t sound a lot like genetics? The Ari, in the 16th century, didn’t know from DNA, but why shouldn’t the soul work like other physical attributes between parents and children?

He also taught that spouses could be b’shert – two sides of the same divine spark, split during their fall into this world until those souls find each other. And friends? Those people with whom you feel immediate chemistry, the people you keep running into again and again throughout life and every time it feels like you can just pick up talking where you left off like no time has passed? What we call “chemistry” Luria explained as the souls being closely related within the universe of the divine. Okay – if you want to understand that better, let me know and maybe we’ll set up a class on Lurianic Kabbalah, but in the meantime, what I’d like us to understand is that there is a mystical spark tying us into those relationships. Not only should the divine spark in me see the divine spark in another, but some of those divine sparks are tuned to the same frequency – those are “our people,” and one thing that is particularly beautiful in the Ari’s explanation, is that those souls stay bound to each other in this world and in the World to Come. So, if you were remembering someone special at Yizkor today, you will be reunited with them, at least in spirit, and even across worlds, they are never far from you.

Now, that does not mean that all relationships will always be healthy, or nurturing, or even tolerable. But it does mean they are valuable. They are also an essential part of being, an essential part of being whole as a person. Echad tells us that we are connected through the unity of everything, and especially the divine souls in each of us, so we can, and maybe should, use that to support ourselves and each other whenever, particularly at these times when so many of us are seeking stability. Especially at a time when the whole rest of the world seems to be closing in around us, why not draw fully on the spiritual power of those relationships. This isn’t a time to turn away; it is a time to turn towards. This holiday period is about teshuva, which we usually translate as repentance, but which really means return. Maybe what it means in this context is turning towards our soul people – even when it is difficult, maybe this is the time to look to healing in togetherness.

It is a truth modeled for us by our most ancient ancestors. Towards the end of the Book of Genesis, the Torah reports that Jacob gathered all his sons around him to give them a blessing. A midrash teaches that before he blesses his children, Jacob asks them a question:

“My sons, how can I be sure that you will all follow in the footsteps of my grandfather Abraham and keep his faith alive in this world?” His concern is understandable. This crew hasn’t exactly gotten along perfectly during Jacob’s lifetime. You want to talk about family estrangement? How about selling your little brother into slavery. (Now that I think of it, I do believe my big sister may have threatened that a few times when we were kids, but don’t worry, we are close now.) How about lying to your father? Throwing your brother in jail? Or not seeing each other for a couple of decades before being reunited? And that is only the tip of the iceberg of the relationship-damaging behavior the brothers got into; there are so many terrible incidents between them.

So Jacob is saying, I am afraid that it is only my presence that has kept this family together. How do I know that as soon as I am gone you won’t splinter and drift apart? How do I know this family will remain a family without me, that you will grow together into Ahm Yisrael instead of apart?

The sons, seeking to reassure their father, reply, “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad! Listen Israel (that is Jacob their father) the Lord our God, the Lord is one!” How does that response help? Because of the meaning of Echad – They are telling their father not to worry. We look at each other and we see the divine image in each other. We see the divine spark we share and that we share with all things. 

Yes, we also see that some of us have been a bit rough around the edges, but we will follow the example of our brother Joseph, who upon reuniting with us looked past the misdeeds and saw the good, the holiness in us. The Echad in Shema is the key to maintaining relationships. It is always seeking the divine spark in the other and as best we can, looking past or forgiving the shadowy parts to get to that goodness.

Jacob, reassured that by seeing the divine spark in each other the brothers will continue on as as not only B’nai Yisrael, the Children of Jacob, but also Ahm Yisrael, the People of Israel, is comforted and responds with his final breath: Baruch Shem Kavod Malchuto L’Olam Va’ed, Blessed be the name of God’s glorious sovereignty forever and ever.” The brothers’ ability to see the divine spark in each other is the guarantor of the immortality of the Jewish people. This is said to be one of the reasons we are given for why we say the “Baruch Shem” line between the Shema and the V’Ahavta (since it isn’t in the Torah) and why we say it quietly on all days except today. We do it just like Jacob did, with his final breath. 

We are the inheritors of B’nai Yisrael, the immortal Jewish people, and we are the ones who will pass it forward just like our ancient ancestors in this story. And what points them in the right direction is the same thing we have to guide us now. The Shema. In this case, the deeper meaning of Echad – that not only is there a divine spark in each of us, but in seeking out that spark, in prioritizing the light in each other, we have the opportunity to create more light in our lives and in theirs.

And that brings us back to Michael. That Christmas, he went out to his yard and called his brother. He left a message, “Bob, it’s Mike…I guess I’ll start by saying I’m sorry. I said some things I regret. I want to start by wishing you and Delores a Merry Christmas. And hope all is well with you. I realize you may not want to talk to me, but I thought I would try. I want to make it right again. If you want to talk…” Then the really scary part started. The waiting to find out if Bob would reply. If Mike’s overture would be answered. They aren’t always. But this one was. 

About a week later, Mike’s brother wrote him an email and said he’d listened to the message again and again and he could tell it was sincere. In the week’s that followed, they emailed and the healing began. But it took five years!

On this Day of Forgiveness, this day of teshuva, of turning and returning, maybe it’s time to take another look at a relationship that has faltered, and remind ourselves of the divine spark in that person, of the powerful connection that exists because we are all connected through God, we are Echad. Maybe it’s time to turn towards instead of away. That is where “Echad” is guiding us to go. I know this may be easier said than done, many of these relationships became strained for a reason. But that’s why we have Jewish GPS. With the aid of two of our Guiding Principles of Shema, the unity and wholeness of Echad and the resilient listening of Shema, perhaps it is possible to renew our connections to each other. To turn those spiritual connections back into a source of strength in this time when we really need it. If you want to give it a try and need some extra support, I am here for that too. Just make an appointment to come in and we can talk about options.

We’ll end this exploration of the Shema where we started. These are disorienting times in so many ways. My blessing is that in the year to come our Jewish GPS: Shema – listening with love and resilience, Yisrael – Grounding in our peoplehood and connection to our history, culture, and homeland, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai – a good balance between our Jewish selves and our secular selves, and yes Echad – Jewish Namaste – will help guide us through 5787 and may it guide us to a more meaningful, more joyful, and more fulfilling year ahead.