Morning Blessing Experiment

For my week of leading services at HUC, I wanted to do a little experiment...Here is the introductory iyyun and the handout from the service.:

There’s this commercial for Febreeze that I haven’t been able to shake. Here’s the scene: a teenage boy in his room, thinks everything is just fine. Mom walks in and the screen shifts to what she smells: a dirty, unlaundered locker room. Febreeze warns us against “nose blindness” those things we think are fine just because we have become accustomed to them. But, when we stop to really take a nice long whiff, we realize that something is very very wrong.

Parshat Noach: Confounded Language

Today, I have no solutions. I have no new, novel ideas to solve the crisis and stop the violence. And, frankly, even if I did, I’m not sure I would be able to articulate it in a way that people could understand. I would be speaking in my own language, just as your solution would have its own language as well. But, despite our confuddled language, I hope that there is still space for us to talk.

For some of you, this might sound familiar. You could consider this my "take 2" at an Israel sermon after speaking on the subject back on the evening of Rosh Hashanah. I thought about just saying that one again. Who knows how many of you actually stayed awake through the whole thing. But, it has been suggested to me that that would not be a great idea. On Rosh Hashanah, I spoke about the importance of presence and hope as we create space for Israel conversations. Today, I hope to follow up on that message.