Sermon Nitzavim
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon here or read it below
Government can’t be that different a place to work than any other offices. So, when big issues arise it’s so hard not to imagine the conversations going on behind the big imposing doors of Westminster being rather similar to a school staff room, a shul office or any major company.
“Well who knew concrete had a best before date…How the hell did no one warn me…They’ll tell us the schools are never open, pandemic lock downs and teachers strikes, we just need to get the kids in to their classrooms….yes I do recognise we will look worse if a class of 5 year olds get crushed under falling debris but what really are the chances of that happening…what’s the equivalent of the milk sniff test on concrete’s best before date… someone find out who decided to use the cheap stuff in the first place….I realise they were saving money at the time but what did they think we’d do with schools filled with students that suddenly were going to become unsafe…well I know they didn’t think it was going to be sudden but why would we have more money for public buildings now than we did then…? Aaaah they’ve set us up to look bad but they built these awful buildings!”
Of all the bonkers, next crazy firefighting crises that we are facing at the moment this one is completely born out of one aspect of human nature. We fault it when we see it in our children, we are horrified in our leadership and yet surely, we are all guilty of it to some extent. What happens when we make our lives a little easier in the moment and kick the problem down the line? It’s life’s credit card in a world where payday never comes but the credit card bills don’t stop coming.
I would love to start afresh, personally and societally, in a place where I am not dealing with the shortcuts of previous chapters. Whether it’s in my self, the physical: childhood assurances to my parents that I brushed my teeth, the teenage me who didn’t think I needed suntan lotion or to think that my skin might age, or the young adult who chose convenience over healthy eating. What about relational shortcuts: the people with whom my connections have suffered because I did not give them the time before the bad habits were set or before the opportunities to ask were gone forever? The shortcuts are always there, whether we took them academically, financially, emotionally or relationally, we took them in the moment because at the time it was the easiest way, but only now can we look back and say, “if only”. Perhaps that’s the essence of parenting too, why we nag them to brush their teeth, work hard, be kind, can we really protect others from human’s own instinct for shortcuts? Do we lead by example – is that enough? Take away choice, which surely is only delaying choice? Or do we try and explain where shortcuts lead? Whether it is crumbling schools or aging bodies?
Perhaps it’s the essence of the parenting brought to us by God in this week’s torah portion.
ט. אַתֶּם נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם כֻּלְּכֶם, לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: רָאשֵׁיכֶם שִׁבְטֵיכֶם, זִקְנֵיכֶם וְשֹׁטְרֵיכֶם, כֹּל, אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל
You are standing here this day all of you before the Adonai your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the people of Israel,
You are here to renew the covenant, reassert your side of the deal, how you are going to live your life in the best possible way, and we are reminded…
וְלֹא אִתְּכֶם, לְבַדְּכֶם--אָנֹכִי, כֹּרֵת אֶת-הַבְּרִית הַזֹּאת, וְאֶת-הָאָלָה, הַזֹּאת
יד. כִּי אֶת-אֲשֶׁר יֶשְׁנוֹ פֹּה, עִמָּנוּ עֹמֵד הַיּוֹם, לִפְנֵי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ; וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ פֹּה, עִמָּנוּ הַיּוֹם
It is not only with you do I make this covenant this oath today, but with all those that stand here with us this day before Adonai our God, and also with all those that are not here with us this day--
Not here with us, or not yet here with us. This future that is being conceived for us is not just for those standing here today, it’s for those who are not yet here. Future generations, our future selves. As the Torah starts to close and the Israelites are being given the skills to be independent, self-governed and autonomous people they are being reminded that behaving in the best way means not living in the moment but thinking about how our here and now impacts our future selves and future generations.
The frightening thing about living in a democracy is the ability for governments to make short term decisions which appear good, like the building of schools, prisons and courts which crumble a few decades later when you can be sure you won’t be around to physically or metaphorically pick up the pieces. Yet how can we expect our leaders to make different decisions for us if we can’t even make them for ourselves? How many of us in our busy lives have got so used to making the easiest, or what seems like the only decision in the moment and delaying the long-term implications of what is ahead?
I wonder if this year we can hear in the three different notes of the Shofar blasts a way of trying to making a commitment to ourselves that in our busy lives when we make a choice to behave in a way that makes life easiest in the short term, we put in place what we need to in order not to face the crumbling schools equivalent of short term gains.
We know that there are plenty of reasons why we need to make those short-term decisions and hearing the tekiah, the one single note, affirms the necessity of that choice as we acknowledge it to ourselves. We do so because we are busy, we are tired, our children need us in that moment, it’s the only financial choice we can make or because someone else needs us to behave in this way. Yet we need to hear the three wavering notes of the shevarim, we make a short-term choice by hearing those three notes as the beginning, middle and end. The nine staccato notes of the teruah set the journey to pick up the pieces of the choice we made before it is brushed under the carpet and the ramifications become inevitable.
We’ve given in to our kids’ demands, not stood up for ourselves or challenged someone’s behaviour, taken the route that will have the greatest environmental impact or not taken the time we need for ourselves. How long are we going to let this go on? Can we see the beginning, middle and end? When will we redress this decision? Nine shrill notes, what’s the journey to make the change so we don’t suffer the long term consequences longer than we need to.
Let us be part of the change. Let’s try not to use the equivalent of the cheap concrete with the best before date in our own lives, in our relationships, our work or how we look after ourselves. And when we inevitably have to, now and again, let’s hear the sound of the shofar in our ears and plan our journey to redress the balance.
Let’s make 5784 the year we act in the here and now with one eye on the future for ourselves and future generations.
Ken yehi ratzon.
