The High Holidays are a time of joy, celebration, repentance and reflection. Each year, rabbis at synagogues across the Philadelphia area prepare to craft sermons for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services that they hope will touch congregants and remind them of their adherence to Jewish values in the context of greater world events.
This year, those world events are especially relevant, as the High Holidays fall around the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. Many area rabbis are incorporating messages about the tragedy into what they will be speaking about over the next several weeks. Rabbi Cynthia Kravitz of Congregation Hesed Shel Emet in Pottstown said that, in her mind, it’s about offering rays of hope to the community.
“I know rabbis are tearing their hair out over [this year’s sermons],” she said. “I lifted the pressure off myself of trying to come up with an answer. It’s ridiculous to think that [I] have the answer, so I just want to create a place of comfort where people are able to share.”
Rabbi Yochonon Goldman of B’nai Abraham Chabad in Philadelphia explained why he and his fellow rabbis take their messaging so seriously during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“Rosh Hashanah literally means ‘head of the year,’” he said. “The head has the brain, so God forbid, an injury to the head will affect the brain which is going to affect the entire body. So in terms of time, we also look at the year as having a head which impacts the rest of the time.”
Goldman said that his Rosh Hashanah sermon will remind congregants that they have the power to take action to help those struggling across the world in the Jewish homeland.
“It forces us to think about priorities in life. It forces us to think about what we in America can do to fight this battle, to wage the war of good against evil, of light against darkness,” he said. “How the prayers and the mitzvahs that we do are spiritual weapons to be able to overcome the evil that we face.”
Goldman added that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services will include thoughts that he gathered while visiting Israel in April. While there, he saw acts of heroism, resilience and strength that he said fit perfectly into the messaging that is central to the High Holidays.
“During our community solidarity trip to Israel, we had the opportunity to meet with soldiers on the front lines, bereaved families, injured soldiers in rehab and everyday people,” he said. “Sharing their inspirational stories is definitely on our agenda, and hopefully that will translate some inspiration into something tangible we can do in our own lives to bring the world to a brighter place.”
Rabbi Charles Briskin of Shir Ami in Newtown said that he has also had the chance to see things on the ground in Israel, and that the importance of crafting the right message to his congregation is especially important considering the district Shir Ami is in.
“I’ve had the opportunity to visit Israel three times, so a lot of what I will say and focus on is focused on that connection. We’re in a very perilous political situation too because Bucks County is very purple, and our congregation is politically diverse,” Briskin said. “So trying to craft messages of unity within this environment is really important to me, and this year it is particularly challenging.”
At Beth Sholom in Elkins Park, Rabbi David Glanzberg-Krainin will focus on similar themes. He said he wants Beth Sholom’s members to be reminded of the Jewish people’s amazing strength.
“We are a people that has known many different kinds of challenges throughout our history, and we are a people that essentially gave birth to the concept of hope,” he said. “We were without a homeland for over 2,000 years, but we didn’t lose our love of the land of Israel, and we are privileged to live at a time when there is Jewish sovereignty in that land. A people that can hold on to that hope for 2,000 years can find ways of creating hope even when there are lots of difficulties.”
Glanzberg-Krainin also said he wants to hone in on the situation still faced by Israeli hostages, as well as touch on the rising antisemitism that American Jews have faced in the last 12 months.
But not every rabbi is focusing on what is going on in Israel. Rabbi Howard Cove of Beiteinu in Philadelphia said that he thinks his congregation could use a break from the headlines.
“Everyone has been affected and emotionally drained, and some people have responded in positive ways. Some people are frozen in time, and they’re stunned. They can’t believe it. Some are angry. Knowing that, I don’t want to fuel it. I don’t want to raise the fire. I want to try to put it in perspective.”
Cove said that the approach of one of his mentors — legendary Philadelphia Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, who served at Temple Sinai for more than 50 years and died in 2003 — drove his intent behind this year’s sermons.
“When Rabbi Greenberg invited me to work with him and I talked to congregants, [they told me] that over the years, especially around the holidays, he never got political,” Cove said. “It was always about matters of the heart, human motivation, hope, inspiring people and overcoming. That’s what Jews are all about.”