Rabbi Sirkman’s Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5786/2025

Making Our Way Back Home: ISRAEL—Shining the Light
Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman, Larchmont Temple, Rosh Hashanah, 5786

WHAT do you do when you can’t quite find your way home?
Growing up right next door to Temple Emanu-El,
not the one on 5th avenue in the city, but on 10th Ave in Haverhill, Massachusetts,
the congregation of my youth was an extension of my home.
In many ways, it completed it…
Hanging out in the gym, playing basketball, doing arts & crafts with Mrs. Reines,
Becoming a B’nai Mitzvah Hebrew tutor,
My Mom, singing in the Friday night choir, compelling me, often, to be at services,
And most consequentially, enabling me to join Young Judaea,
The temple’s Zionist youth group, becoming New England regional president,
a machar, building community around a love of Israel
My home congregation made me who I am.
It literally raised me—providing a place I knew I belonged,
I knew I mattered, where being part of the People Israel, mattered.
It framed how I saw my purpose in the world.
When it comes to congregational life, what more could you hope for?…

Sadly, my home congregation closed its doors for good at the end of June.
And although I will never again go in that Tenth Ave side door,
looking up to the left to see the window of my childhood bedroom,
Growing up and into the person I am, it is eminently clear,
Because of all home can mean, wherever I go, Temple Emanu-El goes with me

Though. generally speaking. Home conjures an address, a physical place.
for our peoplehood, through all we share there, home is so much more…

I had a running conversation with longtime LT member [May his memory be for blessing]
Mort Weintraub over the course of many years.
We would get together every few months for coffee at Bradley’s
and the gentle-giant would regale me with stories of growing up Jewish in Millburn, N.J.
a small, tight-knit, classical Reform congregation that instilled in him the values he lived:
of integrity, community, family, and peoplehood. Mort’s regular retort after a few tales: We grew up knowing America is our Jewish home—not Israel.
Adding: You have to promise me that our kids understand that being Jewish is about being a proud American…Then he’d offer to fund an American Jewish History course for B’nai Mitzvah…So I’d explain:
Mort—you are right! For the past 100+ years our Jewish Family
created the most successful, engaged Diaspora Jewish community ever, but most of the leaders who built it did so knowing: there’s but one place all Jews call Home.

The power of Abraham’s call—to reach that land of promise, echoes for us all.
Since our very beginning, Israel has been the heart of our hope,
as HaTikvah says: “to be a free people in our own land.”

Two thousand years of exile, being at home wherever we lived, putting down roots,
yet we never stopped yearning to find a way back.
Today, navigating that path is more complex than ever.

Living in an October 8th world reframed our reality of what “Home” means…
It showed our family Israel the terrifying reach of terror,
A daily danger we who live here can feel, yet never fully know…

It reminded us how small we are as a people…
that, for us as Israel, one family’s hostage son or daughter is everyone’s.

It continued to demonstrate the hate Iran’s proxies maintain with a goal that must not be mistaken: the total destruction of the State of Israel.

It underscored the far-reaching impact of IDF intelligence
In defending Israel against viable threats on foreign fronts…

It rekindled sparks of anti-Israel sentiment here/around the world,
whose venom has brought violence, even death for standing with her…

It galvanized a global movement, holding up the humanity of a downtrodden, degraded Palestinian people, ultimately,
a pawn in Hamas’ game.

And with its initial counterattack to root out terror’s infrastructure instrumental,
A long-drawn-out war taking its tragic humanitarian toll,
without a fully articulated end-game in sight, and so many lives lost.
It has caused many to question…What is the destination that leads us back home?

In a post-October 7th world, securing the State of Israel by decimating Hamas and the threats of Iran’s proxies seemed a necessary if not dangerous line of defense…
But in an October 8th post-traumatic Jewish State, facing fear and further isolation,
A coalition enacting a territorial expansion, an uprooting that would be tantamount to a good riddance to Gaza, and God-forbid, Israeli resettlement, would lead us off the rails in a very dangerous direction.

Ultra nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pictures his home’s tomorrow:
“We are finally going to occupy the strip…and once we do, there will be no retreat from the territories we’re conquering, not even in exchange for hostages.” [May, 2025]

That is a land over lives policy, not alone turning Torah upside down,
forsaking the hostages, but likewise abandoning Zionism’s moral roots. [Josh Weinberg]

It is at this point I should note:
I am not a military strategist nor a political prognosticator. [I don’t even play one on TV.]
I am just a rabbi…A Jew who sees Israel as the cornerstone of our Covenant.
Which makes me a proud [and purposeful] Zionist…
But wait. What about all your questions & critique of the ruling coalition’s direction?
What about your heartbreak that so many have been displaced, killed in the fight against terror.
Especially now, with the Jewish State facing decisions that will frame its future,
My love of Israel demands of me nothing less…
As a 16-year-old from Temple Emanuel in Haverhill studying the great Zionist thinkers
whose arguments about the foundations upon which Zion rests forged the Jewish State,
and framed my understanding of myself as a Jew,
I learned: It is the ‘building code’ which determines the HOME Israel becomes.

Addressing the 12th Zionist Congress 104 years ago, Martin Buber,
German Jewish philosopher who’d parted ways w/Herzl over Zionism’s formative vision
delivered a prophetic warning to the Jewish leaders of his day
working in 1921 to create a Jewish State. And it is meant for this very day.
“I am addressing you at a very troubled moment…
Truth and lies, right and wrong are mingled…in an almost unprecedented fashion… Modern nationalism is in danger of slipping into power hysteria.
Nationalism’s development can have two outcomes: a healthy reaction will set in
so that it overcomes the danger, or nationalism will establish itself
as the permanent principle as it passes beyond proper bounds.
Every reflective member of this people is duty bound to distinguish between them,
above all, its leaders. Whether they probe their conscience
will determine the fate of the nation…a question of life or death.”

Remember for Buber, the I-Thou existentialist who saw God’s Presence reflected in the respectful relationships between people, Zionism’s aim is not about national autonomy alone, but equally, the path through which we achieve it…

He continues: “The nation has an obligation which is more than merely national.
He who regards the nation as the supreme principle, ultimate reality,
the final judge…responsible to no one but itself…who does not recognize…
that there is an authority to which communities render an accounting of themselves…could not possibly know how to draw this distinction.”

Then Buber points to the critical crack in Israel’s foundations:

“The spirit of nationalism is fruitful so long as it does not make the nation an end in itself, so long as it remembers its part in building a greater structure…

For thousands of years in exile Jewry yearned for the Land of Israel,
not as a nation like others, but as a Light unto the Nations…
Too frequently we have been guilty of offending against the words on those tablets of law set above all nations. All sovereignty becomes false when, in the struggle for power, it fails to remain subject to the Sovereign of the world.”

Isaiah framed Israel’s mission:

“I have called you in righteousness and taken you by the hand…
Making you a Covenant people, a light to nations.”

ISRAEL is the place where, through living out its higher purpose, becomes HOME.
“The challenge for progressive Zionists today is both moral and existential. writes Rabbi Josh Weinberg, President of ARZA, “We are caught in a painful tension: between our deep love for and interconnectedness with the State of Israel and our commitment to human justice and dignity…” [A Reckoning for Liberal Zionism, R’ Josh Weinberg, ARZA, 8.7,25]

To be a Zionist today, for me, is to live in that tension…
Aghast at the emaciated images of hostages Ram Braslavsky and Eviatar David being fed by healthy Hamas captors…
And horrified at the sight of the starvation of Gazan children…
For much as we may rightly point a finger at Hamas,
nevertheless, with the devastation this war has wrought, which Israel has fought,
we must extend a compassionate, feeding hand…
To live in that tension,
standing with the IDF in its rightful defense against terror on multiple fronts…
And to stand against West Bank vigilante settlers in their violation of human rights,
Attempted Arab land seizures, expulsions and even killing in the name of self-defense.
To live in that tension,
Between a traumatized Israel—the persistent pain of our people,
And a devastated, despairing Gazan population…

That tension…which marries defense to dignity, passion to compassion,
criticism to caring, place to purpose, heart to home.

In conversation with Abby Pogrebin, Tal Becker, former legal advisor of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs [and VP of the Hartman Inst.]
Underscored the tension at the heart of Israel today.
“On the one hand you have the historic experience of Jewish abandonment…
This sort of Zionism doesn’t intuitively see being part of the community of nations as an inherent value. It says, we are on our own and have to do what we must to survive.
On the other hand, there’s the Zionist argument that views the goal as not just
having a homeland…The central objective of the State is for Jews to be part of a universal, human mission…by being a light unto the nations…by doing statehood morally well…we’ll improve not just the state of the Jews but the state of humanity.”

And here’s the hard part: most of the time it’s neither one nor the other, but both, in tension

Channeling our query, Abby then asks…
Where does compassion fit into the community of nations particularly when Israel
is a chief concern for many Jews around the world?

Becker explains: “I’m not suggesting that our impulse to compassion dilutes our obligation to confront those who seek our destruction…For many, showing compassion at this moment is really hard, given the reprehensible enemy we are fighting…the suffering that we’ve endured…
But you can believe you are doing the necessary thing and also that there is a real cost to doing that thing. You can feel a moral obligation to reckon with that cost… But believing that this is a necessary war need not be in tension with seeing the destruction and human suffering and thinking: it requires our genuine empathy and a commitment to take every feasible measure to minimize the misery…It is possible to hold both at the same time.”

On this, I must differ. Diminishing the tension, Becker—to my mind,
misses the moral imperative to say: ENOUGH

A Jewish State is not Jewish solely because of the Land upon which it stands,
Not because of its perceived power or military might,
But because of the morality by which it aspires to become, and to shine that light.

Talking on Zoom a month ago with Rabbi Ezzie Ende,
A dear Reform colleague in Jerusalem whose congregation,
Kehilat HaDror, after his visit to our temple trustees this past June,
has become a sister congregation to LT, I asked, not so innocently, “NU?…How are you?”
“You know, Jeff, it’s a hard time…This Sunday is a very important day.”
Rabbi Ezzie was referencing the call by groups representing hostage families and slain soldiers for a National Day of Strike, to halt Israel’s economy in protest to the Cabinet’s vote to takeover Gaza City, further endangering troops, deepening the humanitarian crisis, threatening the hostages, a move that’s in opposition to the advice of the IDF’s Chief of Staff.

He explained: “Many Israeli Jews still feel daily the existential threat, but that doesn’t stop us from standing up…” Rabbi Ezzie noted that what most impressed him on his visit to the States this past May/June was the wide embrace most American Jews had for Israel, feeling comfortable being critical and yet still feeling a connection.
“It’s what we do every day,” Ezzie said, drawing a parallel.
“But even as I’m critical I’m still obligated. What happens to our people is part of who we are, who I am. It’s all about mutual responsibility…”

“So,” I suggested, “You still see Israel as an OR LaGOYIM, a Light to the nations?”
“Not exactly Jeff. Living here, we see reality in a different way.
Of course, as Jews—as a Reform rabbi, I think we are here to pursue goodness
in the world…to be messengers of God,
which is not always easy when your home is in crisis…
But when its dark outside, our job is to just illumine the light.”

What Rabbi Ezzie was in effect saying to me—to us,
is that even in confronting the darkness, the light-source is always there.

…2,000 years ago, when the Temple was being destroyed and Jerusalem was in flames, legend has it that the High Priest took the key to the Holy of Holies and flung it skyward. Whereupon a heavenly hand caught it, holding the key in safekeeping till Jerusalem is rebuilt….Rabbi David Wolpe knowingly shares his father’s insight:
“Notice what the High Priest did not throw into the sky: The TORAH!”
“Despite the recurrent flames, we continue to hold fast to the ideals of Torah.”
Wolpe notes, “Turning the flames into a source of illumination, forging meaning from loss, kindling sparks of holiness amid destruction. Survival alone is not success…The words on those tablets have lost none of their power.
The flames that surround Israel must be returned as light unto the nations.”

No leader was a bigger proponent of Israel as Or LaGoyim than David Ben Gurion!
In 1971, addressing a special session of the Knesset in honor of his 85th b-day,
Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first, formative Prime Minister,
offered his last look at how Israel’s tomorrow should unfold.

Our position in the world will be determined not only by our material wealth, or our military valor, but by the moral luster of our mission…Only by being an exceptional people, in which every Jew will take pride, will we preserve the love of our people, our fidelity to Israel, and the friendship of other peoples…We must not underestimate the moral difficulties confronting us…
But Israel’s future will in no small measure depend upon the attitude, course of action, and participation of the diaspora…Israel has only one loyal ally in the world: The Jewish people… Deepening the connection between Jews in the diaspora and those in the State of Israel will make possible the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that Israel will be a covenantal people, a light unto the nations…

It is our covenant connection to Israel, Ben Gurion believed,
As do I, which will help that light to shine…

Ezra Klein would have us believe that as Jews in America, we are living irreconcilable differences,
as he writes: “For American Judaism, built on the liberalism of the diaspora—interwoven with Zionism, what happens when the ideals of one become incompatible with the reality of the other?”

Though Klein puts the poles very far apart, dividing us into diametrical camps
[M.Koplow, Israel Policy Forum, 7/24/25] I believe living in that tension means
most of the time, we exist in the murky, maddening middle:
conflicted, questioning, at moments disheartened, at others, moved or even inspired…

Yes, living that push & pull, that struggle between what is and what could be,
Living in the tension somehow points/leads the way back home.

Tal Becker, like Buber, understands our challenge:
“What do you do in the face of profound uncertainty?…You can become obsessed with mere survival. You can shrivel and become paralyzed by fear…
But you can also choose to define your aspirations and set a course towards…growth and positive change. Because everything right now is uncertain, everything is possible…If we don’t discount the possibility that a hopeful vision of the Middle East is more likely, we can begin to make it a reality…” Becker’s example:
“WAZE won’t help you get anywhere if you don’t put in a destination.
The war is overwhelming. It risks making us lose our capacity to have aspirations.
…But we have to put a destination in WAZE, we have to be able to say what we aspire to…And it is precisely because things are so uncertain that we must work towards something truly better.”
It goes without saying. Some days, HOME feels very far away.
BUT our people Israel knows the way.
Even through the darkness, the light source still shines:
“For Torah is a lamp and Mitzvah, a light.” [Proverbs 6:23]

When my dear friend since first grade emailed me this past spring,
In her role as head of the Archives Comm at our home congregation in Haverhill,
asking if we—LT—wanted one of the 5 remaining Torahs from Temple Emanu-El,
I was touched at the very thought…
Looking at the attachment Carol sent, I realized which Torah we needed to have…
“We’ll take that one, with the light blue velvet cover!”
My excitement may have given me away,
“It’s the one I read from when I became Bar Mitzvah!”
Of course, Carol Goldberg [who may live in Haverhill but is a member of LT!]
delivered it herself—a sacred passenger buckled in her back seat.
Opening it along with the Cantor and Carlos, I teared up, for it was set,
Bashiert if you ask me, to my Bar mitzvah portion—Lech L’cha,

YES—The Call of Abraham & Sarah to the promised place that would someday be home.
The scroll is not quite kosher, some of the letters have been worn by time.
But the story still speaks. It is timeless:
God’s promise reminding us of our path:
“Go forth to a land that I will show you…For I will make of you a great nation
And through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

On their journey to the Land of Promise,
Abraham & Sarah surmounted obstacle after obstacle,
trying their patience, testing their faith, calling their direction into question…
So, when in frustration you wonder if the age-old hope is just a pipe-dream, remember: It is the building Code that determines the HOME Israel yet becomes.

SO…
When we feel frustrated by her ruling coalition’s indifference to human suffering.
When we revel at the rebuilding of displaced Gaza envelope kibbutz members,
Sowing anew seeds of life…
When we are angry with settler attacks on West Bank Palestinians going on with impunity
When we are inspired by the resilience of hostage families, moved by the undying spirit
of our brothers & sisters in Israel, opening their hearts to take care of each other…
When we are let down by the persistent threats to civil justice/democracy…
When we realize that those young soldiers guarding her borders are our kids…
When we are distressed that so many have died in pursuit of enemies that persist…
When we are encouraged by tens of thousands protesting for peace…
When we are uplifted by the undying spirit of her people who,
Come what may, keep on going…
Choosing to stand for what is just, true, and right, it is we who must shine the light…

Israel’s destination is Torah’s aspiration:
to live holy-humane lives even in the face of hate,
to refuse to despair though others seek our destruction.
Nationalism for the nation’s sake alone misses the core of Covenant’s call,
A call which compels our response…

So be part of the Dialogue starting next month
between LT and our sister congregation in Jersualem,
Rabbi Ezzie and his members in Kehilat HaDror,
an open-exchange to share concerns and questions,
to offer support, hear with heart, and muster hope…

AND, likewise, an Israel-Talk group here at LT led by the rabbis.
With so many impediments along our path, differing as to the precise directions,
we need each other to navigate the way…

SO…wherever tomorrow takes us,
Uncertain, painstaking as her path may be…
seeking security and peace, forging hope from heartbreak,
Choosing life over death—love over hate,
with our help, still pursuing a path towards promise,
Because of all Israel must mean…
Let our connection, our critique, our questions, our commitment ensure
We’ll be heading towards home.
So may it yet be.

AMEN