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Click here. Rabbi Karp's Sermons ... SHABBAT SERVICE 2006
Tonight’s service has been unlike any we have held here at Temple Emanuel in many a year. For some of you this evening was nostalgic; a reminder of how worship used to be at Temple. For some, myself and the Cantor included, it was a return to the Sabbath observances of our childhood. For others - those who have come to Reform Judaism in the last 30 years or so - I imagine that the service felt rather strange and perhaps alien. All those “Thee”s and the “Thous”s, so much English, so little Hebrew, an unfamiliar book in your hands. To those individuals I say, “Yes. This is the way Reform Judaism used to be. This is the Reform Judaism in which I and many others grew up. We grew up with this prayer book.” Even as I say that, I cannot help but be struck by how many Reform Jews grew up with this prayer book. GATES OF PRAYER was published in 1972. Twenty-two years later, in 1994, our movement came out with the Gender Sensitive Prayer Book, and hopefully by this Fall, 12 years later, we will be introducing our latest prayer book, MISHKHAN TEFILAH. So, in a matter of 34 years our movement has introduced three prayer books. Therefore one generation, perhaps two, will feel that they grew up with one of these prayer books. On the other hand, there is the old Union Prayer Book, the prayer book we used this evening. This book was first published in 1894. And while it did go through some revisions, none of them major - like changing “Minister” to “Reader” - for all intents and purposes, from 1894 until 1972 - for 78 years - Reform Jews worshiped using this prayer book. For 78 years Reform Jews grew up, lived, and died, praying from this little blue book. This little blue book was the heart and soul of American Reform Judaism. It is good that we have taken this book out tonight, dusted it off, and reminded ourselves of what Reform Jewish worship was like for so many, so many years. It is good, not just for recapturing a sense of nostalgia, but also, and more importantly, because this book reminds us what Reform Judaism used to be all about. The Jewish prayer book has always reflected the soul of the Jewish people. As such, it has always been changing, evolving, and sometimes devolving, so as to reflect the desires, the needs, and the values of our people at any particular place and time. This is true of the traditional prayer book. It is true of GATES OF PRAYER and the Gender Sensitive Prayer Book. It will most certainly be true of MISHKHAN TEFILAH. And it was true of the Union Prayer Book as well. While today, Reform Judaism struggles with issues of spirituality, inclusiveness - particularly when it comes to gender and sexual orientation - the increasing role of Jewish tradition, asserting our Jewish identity, commitment to Israel, and our on-going commitment to social justice - all of which, some way or another, will find some reflection in our new prayer book - it is important for us to remember what were the earlier, the foundation, issues which formed the American Reform Jewish psyche. Only when we begin to understand where we have come from can we begin to better understand both where we are now and where we are going. In that quest, the old Union Prayer Book serves as a window back into time. To read the old Union Prayer Book is to be reminded that while Reform Jews of today are searching for ways to make their lives more distinctively Jewish, it was not that long ago that we Reform Jews were looking for ways to make our lives more compatible with the rest of American society. While we wanted to continue to live as Jews, we also wanted to live full lives as Americans. We didn’t want to be different. We wanted to be like everybody else. So in our prayer book, our prayers were primarily in English, rather than Hebrew. Of course, there were key prayers in Hebrew, for Hebrew has always been the language of our faith, but these early Reformers felt that as Americans, we speak English. Therefore, we should pray in English. Even our music reflected this desire to be at one with the culture which surrounds us. Not only were most of the songs sung in those days in Reform synagogues hymns in English, but even the music itself reflected the influences of western culture. While traditional Jewish music is in a minor key, the music that accompanied the Union Prayer Book was in a major key, just like most of European and American music. And then, of course, like our neighboring churches, we accompanied our music with the sounds of an organ. Today, many in our movement have just written off these characteristics of classical Reform Judaism as merely being assimilationist; the product of Jews who were hungry to be accepted by their non-Jewish neighbors. But to write them off so cavalierly is a big mistake. It is far too easy for Jews of my generation and later, who have grown up in a society that, for the most part, accepts us both as Jews and as equal partners, to poo-poo the desires of earlier generations to fit in to American society; to no longer be viewed as strangers or barely tolerated guests. It is easy for us because we did not have to face the same challenges as they did. In fact, quite the contrary, we reaped the benefits of their efforts in facing those challenges. It was through the efforts of the Jews of the old Union Prayer Book that our place, as Jews and as Americans, was secured in our society. For all their assimilationist tendencies, it was they who proved to the non-Jews of America that Jews were kind, decent, friendly human beings - just like them. When GATES OF PRAYER first came out, it was available in two directions - English opening and Hebrew opening. Faced with the choice of which version to order, many Reform congregations found themselves locked in a tremendous debate; a debate over how to open their prayer books. But these debates were not really about how to open a prayer book. They were about the nature of Jewish identity in this country. They were the personification of the nuanced question, “Are we Jewish Americans or American Jews?” Which is the noun and which is the adjective? Are we Jews first, who happen to be Americans, or are we Americans first, who happen to be Jewish? What was lost in this debate was that it was precisely because of all that had been accomplished by those who wanted the English opening - those who viewed themselves as Americans who happened to be Jewish - that the situation of Jews in America had changed so much that a generation of Jews could arise who could feel comfortable opening their prayer book on the Hebrew side; who could feel so comfortable in this society with their Jewishness that they had neither qualms nor fears of asserting it and were able to confidently assign it a centrality in their own sense of personal and social identity. Today, most of us take our secure place in American society for granted. We have freedoms that our ancestors of but a generation or two before us could only dream about. For the most part, we have enjoyed an immunity from persecution and discrimination. We live lives that are prosperous, contented, and fulfilled. Yet so much of what we have - the blessings that we enjoy - we take for granted. As we read from this prayer book - this prayer book that spoke to and for the generation of American Jews who were determined to secure our people’s place in this society - may we be reminded that so many of the advantages that we Jews enjoy today in American society is the direct result of the efforts of our Reform Jewish forebears, the Jews of the old Union Prayer Book. AMEN |
