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Click here. Rabbi Karp's Sermons ... YOM KIPPUR MORNING 2002 This morning, I would like to take a poll. How many of you live in what would be considered an adequate home? How many of you are suffering from malnutrition? How many of you are in a generally good health? How many of you can read? How many of you have a college education? How many of those who do, had their college education paid for by someone else? How many of you own a computer? How many own more than one computer? I ask you all these questions because I wish to share with you an interesting email I received last February. If the Earth’s population was shrunk into a village of just 100 people – with all human ratios existing in the world still remaining – what would this tiny, diverse village look like? That is exactly what Philip M. Harter, a medical doctor at the Stanford University School of Medicine attempted to figure out. This is what he found: 57 would be Asian 21 would be European 14 would be from the Western Hemisphere 8 would be African 52 would be female 48 would be male 70 would be nonwhite 30 would be white 89 would be heterosexual 11 would be homosexual 6 people would possess 59% of the entire village’s wealth, and all would be from the United States. 80 would live in substandard housing 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be near death 1 would be pregnant 70 would be unable to read 1 would have a college education 1 would own a computer We all know that our lives have been blessed. But I wonder how many of us realize just how blessed we are. If we seriously look at the world around us, then we cannot help but discover that we are members of an extremely elite minority. We have lovely homes while 80% of humanity live in substandard housing or worse. Far from suffering from malnutrition, as does half the population of this planet, most of us are constantly engaged in the battle of the bulge as we struggle not to eat so much. Many of us have received more education than 99% of the people on this planet. And while the overwhelming majority of people do not own even one computer, in many of our homes there are computers for adults and computers for our children. While many of us enjoy favorable health, more than a million people will not survive this week. While most of us take our freedom of religion for granted, placing most other activities in our lives on a higher priority than participation in synagogue life, there are an astounding 3 billion people who are forbidden from participating in the life of a religious community. If we are carrying some spare cash in our pocket, nevertheless money in the bank or investments, then we belong to the top 8% of this world’s wealthy. It is almost inconceivable how blessed we are! Yet how many of us are satisfied with what we have? We always want more, and when we don’t want more, we want better. We own a home, but it isn’t big enough, or it isn’t in an exclusive enough neighborhood. We own a car. In fact many own one car per household driver. It reliably gets us where we want to go, but it is not new enough, or it’s a Chevy or a Ford and we want a Cadillac or a Lexus. We hold a good job and receive a decent wage, but our sights are ever focused on that promotion and that raise. We own a television, but it is not big screen. We own a video player but we want a dvd. We own a coat, we own a dress, we own a suit, but they are last year’s styles. Our lives are a litany of “I wants.” How pitiful we appear when we measure our lives by what we don’t possess rather than by what we do. Surrounded by a world brimming with true deprivation, our wants and desires border on the obscene. No. They’ve crossed that line. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why there are so many in this world who literally hate Americans. They day by day struggle for their basic human survival, and when they look at us, they not only see us possessing so much more than they, but they see us constantly dissatisfied with what we have, always greedily wanting to supersize it. The second century sage, Simeon ben Zoma, had much to teach us when he said, “Eizehu ashir? Ha-misameiach be-chelko. - Who is rich? The one who is happy with his portion.”1 This is the ultimate irony. We yearn for all those things we do not possess because we have convinced ourselves that they will bring us happiness. “If only I could get this or that or the other thing...!” But it is precisely that hunger which generates so much of our unhappiness. For our lives remain unfulfilled as long as we are locked into the pursuit of greater and greater acquisition. Ben Zoma was absolutely right. Material happiness is not to be found in that quest. It is to be found in the level of contentment we are able to achieve with what we have. It is to be found when we can reach the point of being "misameiach be-chelko,” people contented with their portion. My Dad was such a person, but as a child I did not understand that. In fact, quite the contrary. I used to pester him all the time about buying a new car. His car, my mother’s car, were rather old. And when he did need to replace them, he always bought used. All the other dads in the neighborhood, when they bought a car, they bought a new one. When they drove it home for the first time, everyone would turn out to admire it. It was sort of a celebration. It irked me. Why couldn’t my Dad do that? Why couldn’t we have new cars, like my friends’ families? Whenever I pressed him on the matter, he would simply respond. “We don’t need one. All a car is, is transportation, and ours gets us where we want to go just fine.” I was convinced that he was cheap, but in actuality he was just someone who was content with what he had. And he was that way throughout his life. In fact, it wasn’t until much later - after he retired - that we finally got him to enter the era of color TV. Now this was a man who loved to watch television, but he was perfectly content to watch it in black-&-white. The only reason that he got a color TV was because it was a gift. He was truly “misameiach be-chelko,” happy with whatever he had. We have so much. When will we stop wanting more? When will we find satisfaction in the manifold blessings we enjoy? When will we examine our lives and come to the conclusion that we are truly happy; that this day is our best day; that life need not get any better than this? When will it be said of us that we are “misameiach be-chelko,” individuals who are truly happy with what we have? We are a people of privilege. Our lives overflow with blessings. God willing, the day will arrive when we fully understand just how privileged we are. And when that day arrives, hopefully we will understand something else as well. With privilege comes responsibility. Since we are greatly privileged, therefore we bear great responsibility. Only a fool could convince him or herself that we exist separate and apart from the rest of the world. One of my favorite stories from the Midrash is about two men in a rowboat. One of them pulls out an awl and starts drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. The other, in utter shock and disbelief, starts shouting, “What do you think you’re doing?” The man sharply replies, “Mind your own business! After all, I am only drilling under my own seat!”2 The point is, we are all in the same boat, sink or swim. To paraphrase Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, “mankind is our business!” Though it may not be always apparent to us, our welfare is directly dependent on the welfare of all humanity. The suffering of some ultimately factors out into the suffering of all. Therefore, if there are those, such as us, who are privileged, then it become incumbent upon us to make the best use of our privilege - to dip into our sack of blessings and share them with others; spread the wealth and better the world. It will never be enough for us to merely count our blessings. We must go beyond that. We must ponder them and consider well how we can best use them; how we can live up to them. Blessings tend to be like the flame of a candle. As one candle can kindle another without losing any of its essential substance, and in the process succeed in generating more and more light, so it is with blessings. The more we share them the more there are. The more we share them, the more we come to understand that by our sharing, far from our own blessings being diminished, they are enlarged. I know I told this story before, but it is worth telling again. Not long after I arrived in this community, one day Dr. Jerry Koufer - many of you remember him, he and his wife Joyce were members of our congregation. In fact, he served on our board - well, one day he stopped by the Temple wearing a blood donor sticker. I said to him, “Jerry, you gave blood today? It’s not even our annual Sisterhood Blood Bank day?” He responded, “I give blood all the time. It’s a really cheap way to feel like a hero. It takes less than an hour of your time. You give them something that you are going to get back. And you feel like a hero for you’ve done something really important to help people.” And he was right. I started giving blood regularly, and it was easy, and I did feel like a hero. The blood, my health, is one of the many ways in which my life has been blessed. While sharing that blessing doesn’t diminish it for me, it can literally make the difference between life and death for somebody else. So it can be with all our blessings. This is what blessings are meant for. They are meant to be shared, not hoarded or squandered. We who are blessed with more than sufficient food are also the ones responsible for feeding the hungry. If not us, then who? Anyone who says that the hungry can feed themselves obviously has never been truly hungry. I am not talking about missing a meal. I am talking about missing most meals. In our Library, at this very moment, we are collecting non-perishable food items for the hungry. Each and every one of us can bring in food and bring in a lot. We can fill that library and not miss one meal ourselves. Be honest. How much food would you have to bring in before it actually reached the point where it would cut into your own diet? The same is true about the CROP Walk. Who here truthfully cannot afford to give up a Sunday afternoon on behalf of the hungry? How much money would you have to pledge before your pledge would even begin to cut into your lifestyle? No one is expected to give at those levels. All that is asked is that we count our blessings, be happy with what we have, and use those blessings for the betterment of others. The Hunger Project and the CROP Walk are just two such charitable efforts. Our community is home to a vast number of organizations that call upon us to share our blessings. For example, Jane Katz and I serve on the Coats for Kids committee. Our children are blessed with warm clothing with which to face our cold winters. They are also blessed with good diet and good health and, as a result, grow constantly. In most cases, they outgrow their coats before their coats outgrow their usefulness. What would be our sacrifice if we took those coats that no longer fit our children and donated them so that other children - children who otherwise would literally shiver this winter - can also have coats to keep them warm? There is Shoes That Fit, Toys For Tots, the list goes on. Each being another opportunity for us to live up to the responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with our privileges. Nor is this type of sharing restricted to our material blessings. As we are the most literate and educated people on the planet, so can we commit ourselves to work for universal literacy and education. As we are the healthiest people on the planet, so can we commit ourselves to work for the eradication of disease and the betterment of living conditions everywhere, for everyone. As we enjoy the blessings of freedom - political freedom, religious freedom - so can we commit ourselves to make the most of these freedoms in our own lives and to work to bring these freedoms to the lives of others. God has smiled upon each of us and has filled our lives with abundant blessings. We are certainly a people of privilege. May we find within ourselves the wisdom to appreciate our blessings and the strength of character to live up to the responsibilities born of our privileges. For when we find that wisdom and that strength, then and only then, can it be said that we are misameiach be-chelko, truly happy with our lot. AMEN
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