SERMON

YOM KIPPUR MORNING

13 OCTOBER 2005 - 10 TISHRI 5766

"FASTS"

 

During this High Holy Day period if you have attended services here for both Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidrei, you have sat through three of my sermons that focused on transformation and community building. This morning I want to build on what I have said up to now by taking the somewhat theoretical things from the previous sermons and making them concrete. I appreciate your patience in listening so far, and I hope you will do so again today, even though you may think that what I say is somewhat controversial.  

It might be helpful to offer two little pieces of context. First, and possibly the more important, is the text of the haftarah we read today. It is found on pages 372-377 in our prayer book. In case you don't remember it, it is the passage where the prophet Isaiah chastises the Hebrews by telling them that their impatience at God's seeming lack of response to their ritual fasting is inappropriate. They say, "Why do we fast, and You [God] do not see it? Why, when we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?" And Isaiah responds by saying, "Because on your fast day you see to your business, and oppress all your laborers. Because you fast in strife and contention, while you strike the poor with a wicked fist; Your fasting today is not such as to make your voice heard on high. Is this the fast which I desire, a day for men to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush and lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, a day which pleases the Lord?  

No, this is the fast I desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, clothe him, and not ignore your own kin....If you banish the yoke from your midst, the menacing hand, and evil speech, and you offer your compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature....if you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your affairs on My holy day...then you can seek favors from the Lord."

 That's the first piece of context.

 The second piece of context is that for the last twenty-four years I have been involved in one way or another with the issue of the separation of church and state, first for the eleven years when I worked for the American Jewish Congress in San Francisco, then when I directed the Jewish Community Relations Council for three years at the Oakland Jewish Federation, and in volunteer capacities for the ten years since, including the time I have served as the rabbi here at Temple Israel. I have watched as the so-called Religious Right in this country has become the dominant voice in the Republican party, and I have watched as the so-called Religious Right has moved the Republican Party more and more to the extreme right throughout this time. In this context, I have seen one particular aspect of the so-called Religious Right's agenda gain in prominence during that time, and that is their attempt to break down the Constitutional wall of separation between "church and state."  

Now before you get up out of your seat because you think the Rabbi shouldn't be political on Yom Kippur, let me assure you that politics is not where I want to be taking you. Rather, I want to take you to the prophet Isaiah, whose words to the ancient Hebrews are as appropriate for us today in this room and at this time as anything you will have read or heard at any time during these High Holy Days.  

I am going to be fastidious in avoiding talking about elected officials or candidates from the pulpit, because for me to deal with those personalities would violate my own belief that it is inappropriate to discuss candidates either from this pulpit or from any other symbolic pulpit. But there is no such restriction in talking about the Jewish values that inform the discussion about the issues of our time that confront us. So from the context of today's haftarah and from my understanding of the kind of fast in which Isaiah urges us to engage, I want to talk about something that is the antithesis of the fast in which we should be engaged.

 

Isaiah urges us, first and foremost, to stop our usual and normal behavior of thinking about our regular, everyday business when we are supposed to be thinking about why we're really fasting. Isaiah is suggesting to us that simply going through the rituals of praying, fasting, and "afflicting our souls" is not nearly enough. In fact, just going through the rituals while thinking about other things is really making a mockery of the rituals themselves, a desecration of the holy processes we're supposed to be going through. And, as Isaiah suggests, God knows when we are fully engaged and when we are just going through the motions. So if we really want to know why we're not getting the responses to our prayers from God that we think we should, it's not God whom we should be asking, but ourselves.  

You should know by now if you live in California that a special election has been called for November 8^th. Every issue that appears on that ballot can be seen as being mentioned either directly or indirectly in Isaiah's words, and I want to connect the dots for you. All during these Holy Days I have talked about transforming ourselves from passive participants in our own lives and in the institutions, organizations and groups we belong to, and by so doing transforming the institutions themselves and world in which they and we exist. Today I want you understand that my references here are not about some vague someone out there, not some unnamed victim of a tsunami or a hurricane or an earthquake or a mudslide, not some other sufferer in a foreign land whose face you will never see and whose suffering you will never really know or experience. No, this is about the people who live here, right here in Alameda and in other places in California . This is about us.  

It's certainly one thing to complain that the prayer book or the Bible is old-fashioned, esoteric, and that it doesn't relate to our everyday lives. Well, I'm about to show you once again that it is so close to you that if it were any closer, it would have bitten you, if it hasn't already.  

There are eight propositions on the ballot this November. Even without discussing the issues themselves, this special election will cost the taxpayers more than $80 million, money that could have been better spent on improving the services that we receive from the state.  

Prop. 73: Proposition 73 would amend the state constitution to require health care providers to notify the parents of young women under the age of 18 before providing abortion services. Once a parent has been notified, a mandatory waiting period of 48 hours is required before the doctor can provide an abortion. Only those teens faced with a medical emergency or those who obtain a "judicial bypass" are exempt from the parental notification requirement.

 What's at Stake for California 's Teens?  

Proposition 73 would serve as a blatant intrusion by the government into private, personal family matters. It places our most vulnerable teens--those in abusive homes or are pregnant as a result of rape or incest‑‑ in jeopardy of severe health consequences such as delaying medical attention or finding their own solutions on the internet or elsewhere.  

This proposition relates to Isaiah's words because, instead of "unlocking the fetters of wickedness," it would further oppress an extremely vulnerable group. Reform Judaism has always supported access to abortion services for those who truly need it. Reform is not a proponent of abortion on its own merits, but we have always understood that there are times when it is the least worst solution. Prop. 73 is brought to us by the right-to-life anti-choice religious ultra-conservatives. It should be soundly defeated.  

Prop 74: This measure would do nothing to improve public education or deal with the real problems facing our schools. It unfairly attempts to blame teachers for the problems in our public schools, ignoring the realities of underfunding, overcrowding, and the lack of materials and resources needed for effective teaching and learning. If this measure passes, new teachers would serve a 5‑year probationary period rather than the current two years, and would lose the right even to have a fair hearing on their dismissal for a full 5 years. Current law already allows for firing teachers who are not performing in the classroom, no matter how long they've been on the job.  

When Isaiah talks about "offer[ing] compassion to the hungry and satisfy[ing] the famished creature," he is speaking metaphorically. What he means is that we should not be responsible for causing or continuing human suffering. Our children are famished for good education in the public school system, partly because of the games that have been played with the state's funding for public education. This measure was proposed by the Governor in retaliation for the fight that California =s teachers have been waging to have him fulfill his promise to repay the money he borrowed from state education funds in the past. This is not about improving education. It should be soundly defeated.

Prop 75: Proposition 75 is a deceptive measure put on the ballot by the big corporations and out-of-state billionaires who support Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's destructive agenda for California . It unfairly targets teachers, nurses, firefighters, police and other public employees with restrictions that don't apply to other groups or corporations, which regularly spend shareholder money on politics without permission. Prop. 75 is designed to reduce our ability to respond when politicians would harm education, health care and public safety, effectively clearing the opposition to the Governor's education and health care cuts.

Prop 75 has a hidden agenda. Its real agenda is to cut funding for public schools, cut health care and roll back retirement security.  

When Isaiah reminds us that the proper way to demonstrate to God (and each other) that we deserve God's favor "is to share [y]our bread with the hungry, and take the wretched poor into [y]our home, when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own kin," we should understand this as a mandate for us to guarantee that the social safety net in this country is not weakened or destroyed. This proposition would go a long way towards doing just that. It should be soundly defeated.  

Prop 76: This measure would devastate our public schools and other vital services, cutting school funding by over $4 billion every year - $600 per student, leading to more overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, and fewer textbooks and classroom materials. Our schools lost two billion dollars when the Governor broke his promise to repay the money he took from education, and if this initiative passes, the Governor will never have to repay that money to our schools. It also overturns the voter‑approved Proposition 98, eliminating the minimum funding guarantee for education. It also cuts funding for local government BB cutting police and firefighters, as well as local health care services that protect children and the elderly. This initiative hurts our most vulnerable populations including the sick, the elderly and the young.  

This is exactly the same in its intent as Proposition 75. Perhaps you get the idea here. This set of initiatives is a package designed to implement one person's agenda when the state legislature wouldn't go along with it. There is a reason that the Legislature refused to go along: these ballot measures are blatantly destructive of whatever is left of the guarantees we have that our children will continue to receive anything even remotely close to a good education, at the same time that it jeopardizes the jobs of the very people who we depend on for our safety. This proposition, too, should be soundly defeated.  

Prop 77: Prop 77 was put on the ballot by politicians who want to change the Constitution's redistricting rules and give themselves more power. They want to hand over redistricting to three unelected and unaccountable retired judges. But redistricting California , a diverse state of 37 million people, is too big and too important a job for just three unaccountable retired judges. Giving one set of politicians more power over another is no reason to change the Constitution.

In all the talk about compassionate conservatism, there has been much conservatism, and virtually no compassion. I don't think that Isaiah was either a conservative or a liberal. But I think he knew compassion when he saw it. And he would have recognized a power grab, too. This proposition is the most blatant example of a small group of people wanting to be given the power to decide who gets to run for office in the state and who doesn't. As far as I remember, we are still a democracy here, not an elitocracy. This is politics at its worst. When someone can't get what they want through the legislative process, to try to circumvent it this way is beyond immoral. I, for one, am not prepared to give up the checks and balances guaranteed in our constitution by giving more power to one branch of government than another, and that is what this proposition would do. This proposition should be soundly defeated.  

Prop. 78: The big drug companies are going to spend millions trying to fool voters and keep them from passing the real prescription drug relief contained in Proposition 79. This phony measure says only that drug companies can enter a "voluntary" program to reduce prices...but why will they? They have no real incentive to lower the sky‑high cost of prescription drugs. A "No" vote on this measure is necessary to provide consumers with real relief from soaring drug prices, because whichever measure gets the highest number of votes becomes law.  

Once again, Isaiah's warning is that we must look after the most vulnerable in our society. When the former speaker of the House of Representatives, the late Tip O'Neil, said that all politics was local, he couldn't have been more right. These ballot measures are not about somebody else's problems. And the issues they raise are so similar to the issues raised by the Biblical prophets that it's a little embarrassing to realize that we apparently haven't learned that much in all these years. The outcome of this ill-conceived election will have a direct and profound effect on us and on those who come after us.  

Believe me, I would much rather talk about sin, forgiveness, and so on on Yom Kippur. But for once in my life, I think the sin will be that we don't cast our ballots in November so that we can stop this attack on our own well-being. I would go so far as to say that it is not only a civic obligation to vote on November 8^th, but from a Jewish point of view, participation in the affairs of civil society, when we are allowed to do so, is as critically important as our participation in the religious life of the community.  

Finally, the last two proposition of the ballot are ones that we should eagerly and enthusiastically support.  

Prop. 79: Sponsored by consumer, senior, and health organizations, Proposition 79 would provide deeper, enforceable discounts to twice as many Californians than the drug industry‑backed Prop. 78. Proposition 79 would use the purchasing power of the state of California to negotiate the best price for up to ten million Californians, who now pay more than anybody else in the world for prescription drugs. Prop. 79 would save taxpayers money by reducing prescription drug costs by 50% or more, and ensuring that more people can afford needed medications now, rather than get more expensive care later. Proposition 79 is supported by Consumers Union, Health Access California, Breast Cancer Action, Congress of California Seniors, the League of Women Voters of California, and many other organizations.