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Jewish Commitment

Bold sermon
denouncing
“tikkun olam” gets
people talking —
and thinking.

Rabbi Aaron Starr
Special to the Jewish News

I

am extremely humbled and
honored there has been so much
conversation surrounding my
Rosh Hashanah sermon, “Time To
Say Kaddish for Tikkun Olam.” I
delivered it to my spiritual home,
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield, on Monday, the first day
of Rosh Hashanah. I then posted
it to my Times of Israel blog on
Wednesday and shared that post on
Facebook as well.
Since then, the article has gone
viral. In addition to the lengthy
discussions on Facebook, the Times
of Israel blog was read and com-
mented on so frequently that it
quickly became one of the website’s
“Top Ops.” I have received emails
from Conservative, Reform and

Rabbi Aaron Starr

Orthodox Jews from all over the
world. I even had one local rab-
binic colleague jokingly lament that
this past Shabbat they were talking
more about my Rosh Hashanah ser-
mon than his!
While certainly my first goal
with a High Holiday sermon is to
encourage teshuvah, repentance,
another overarching goal for which
I strive is to create community
conversation. In this way, not only
can we each as individuals better
ourselves, but, as a synagogue fam-
ily and as a Metro Detroit Jewish
community, we can strengthen our
commitment to Judaism and to our
fellow Jews.

20 October 13 • 2016

There was no single genesis point
of the sermon. The Pew Study is
regularly on my mind, indicating a
national decline in synagogue affili-
ation and in Jewish practice.
This past spring, a member of
my shul asked me why so many
people use the phrase “tikkun olam”
instead of “fulfilling mitzvot.” In
addition, my family is a grateful
recipient of the PJ Library book
program, but I regularly change
the words of some of the children’s
books we receive when they trans-
late “mitzvah” as “good deed.” The
final element came together when
I read the Forward’s article, “Don’t
Like Black Lives Matter? Get Ready
To Lose Young Jews Like Us.”
Putting all these pieces together,
I decided the time had come to
denounce tikkun olam, which for 40
years has been considered Judaism’s
most important teaching for today,
and to replace it with another
Jewish concept that is deeper spiri-
tually and stronger communally:
ma-alin b’kodesh, to seek to elevate
one’s self in matters of holiness.
I am incredibly blessed to be part
of a congregation that allows me to
speak boldly and honestly, and that
wants to be challenged intellectually
and spiritually.
In my first Yom Kippur as
spiritual leader of Shaarey Zedek, I
invited the congregation to journey
together on a path of gratitude,
obligation and joy. Last year at Rosh
Hashanah, I encouraged us as a
community to seek inspiration and
transformation.
This year’s sermon is the next
step in that journey: for us together
to seek a deeper sense of holiness by
pursuing ethical and ritual mitzvot
— by recognizing that God’s sacred
obligations require us to do more to
care for our own people first but not
exclusively, to stand up for the State
of Israel, and to lead Jewish lives of
tradition and purpose.
I don’t believe the Jewish people
ought to stop performing acts of
tikkun olam. I do believe, however,
that such acts are only one part of
Jewish living and that only a holistic
approach to Jewish life can perpetu-
ate Judaism into the future.

*

‘Time To Say Kaddish
For Tikkun Olam’

(Excerpted from Rabbi Starr’s
Rosh Hashanah sermon)

“… [W]e must work even harder to provide spiritual,
soulful, Jewish opportunities for young and old
alike, that we might all feel a deeper connection
to God, and thus a great inspiration to serve our
Creator through mitzvot: not good deeds that we
can dismiss if we are tired or otherwise occupied,
but commandments — sacred obligations from the
Lord. We must do what God expects of us.
“Only in our drive to be ma-alin b’kodesh, to be
those who elevate in matters of sanctity, might we
combine the key elements of spirituality, of Jewish
peoplehood and of tikkun olam to improve the lot
of all those who suffer, while still, at the same time,
making sure to sustain Judaism and the Jewish
people.
“When we commit to helping those battling men-
tal illness and also to supporting our synagogue,
we are ma-alin b’kodesh. When we commit to vol-
unteering more at a soup kitchen and to increasing
our Torah study, we are ma-alin b’kodesh. When we
commit to kindness in our everyday lives and we
commit to praying more frequently, we become ma-
alin b’kodesh. When we take additional steps, both
ritual and ethical, in our Jewish journey we become
ma-alin b’kodesh.
“And when we recognize that we do indeed have
a special obligation to care for our family, our fellow
Jews, first and foremost — including and especially
protecting the State of Israel and our Israeli brothers
and sisters — then we become ma-alin b’kodesh.
Then we become those who ascend in matters of
holiness.
“Friends, and I speak especially to the younger
ones among us today, the time has come to say that
tikkun olam is dead … so that Judaism can live.
“As we harken to the sounds of the shofar this
Rosh Hashanah, let us strive to care deeply for our
fellow Jews and to strengthen the State of Israel.
Let us continue to seek to make this a better world
for all who are in need — not though because of
some vague notion of tikkun olam “good deeds,” but
because God commands us to help.
“Let us pursue spiritual lives of holiness, of follow-
ing ritual and ethical commandments, that we might
lead the American Jewish community into the 21st
century and beyond. Friends, and this is my mantra,
let us seek each day or even each New Year to take
one more step in our Jewish journeys together.”
For the full sermon, go to at www.shaareyzedek.
org/time-to-say-kaddish-for-tikkun-olam.

For a related commentary, see page 43.

