“The Eternal One, the Eternal God is merciful and gracious,

“The Eternal One, the Eternal God is merciful and gracious,
endlessly patient…” Part I
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5970
Greensboro, North Carolina

During the High Holy days before we take the Torah out of the ark, there are two additional pieces of liturgy which are recited. These are not recited on Shabbat. The first is called the Avinu Malkenu. When we recite this prayer, we ask God to hear us and we acknowledge that we have sinned. We ask that we should be blessed with a good year and that the world should no longer be plagued by war and oppression. Finally, we ask that we all be blessed for inclusion in the book of life.

This year we will hear Max Janowski’s incredibly beautiful version of Avinu Malkenu four times and thanks to Janet and Brooks, we have added a violin and a cello part. The Avinu Malkenu soloists will be Emily Siar, Debbie Thacker, Jeanne Fischer and Lane Ridenhour.

The second piece of liturgy occurs immediately after the Avinu Malkenu and is sung by Lane. Turn to page 122 and you will see this prayer. The prayer reads: “The Eternal God is merciful and gracious, endlessly patient, loving and true, showing mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin and granting pardon.” Biblical commentators have viewed this phrase as the closet description of God’s attributes found in the Torah.

We hear this after the Avinu Malkenu as if to remind God that God should have mercy on us because of our sins and transgressions. By itself it is a very powerful moment. Immediately after it is sung, we proceed to take the Torah out of the ark.

However, I would like for us to consider that if we delve into the biblical background of this phrase, we might find that its awesome quality during this season is heightened and that it can have an additional meaning to us.

The phrase occurs twice in the Torah. The first time is in Exodus 34 and is said by God to Moses as God is granting to Moses the second set of tablets of the Ten Commandants. The second time occurs in Numbers in a slightly abbreviated form and is said by Moses to God towards the end of the incident of the spies.

Tonight, we will examine the story of the second tablets and tomorrow we will examine the story of the spies.

The first time the phrase “The Eternal God is merciful and gracious, endlessly patient, loving and true, showing mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin and granting pardon” is at the end of the story of the Golden Calf. You will remember the details. Moses is on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and he seems to be delayed in coming down. The people, feeling insecure and abandoned, make a golden calf to replace Moses. When Moses does come down from the mountain, he finds people dancing in ecstasy around the calf. In anger, Moses throws down the original two tablets. A plague follows. God does not destroy the entire people. God will give Moses a second set of tablets during which God proclaims to Moses the phrase: “The Eternal God is merciful and gracious, endlessly patient, loving and true, showing mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin and granting pardon.”

So imagine that we are standing before the open ark and the terrible sin of building the Golden Calf is on our consciences. This is rather difficult to do, but while we may not have built an actual golden calf, there are certain things that we have done during the past year that remind us of their sin.

The first of these is how we have been reactive to others and to situations. For the people, they reacted to the insecurity caused by the delay in Moses’ return by doing something incredibly stupid; namely, rejecting the God who had freed them from Egypt and building a golden calf. For Moses, his reactivity occurs when in anger he smashed the tablets. How could he have possibly known that these precious tablets, the most precious thing ever given by God to humans, would be given a second time? In his anger, he has potentially done a catastrophic deed in terms of the future of humanity.

Friends. There is not one of us here who has not reacted either with stupidity or in anger when we feel threatened or insecure. These are not the moments in our lives that we would like to remember, but this is the time of year when we, as Jews, do remember these times, even if their remembrance is painful. Perhaps we were short to our children or to our parents? Perhaps you can remember a time when you overreacted to something a spouse or a loved one said? Perhaps there was a time when you answered a colleague at work with a short temper or thought ill of someone without pausing to think of their motivations or to understand the facts that led to their behavior. In all of these cases, being reactive instead of responding with calm and pensive thought, leads to wrong decisions and actions on our part and so often these decisions and actions are made out of anger.

The rabbis felt that when we respond in such a way, we are giving in to our Yetzer Hara, our inclination to do evil. Eighteen hundred years ago, a great teacher named Ben Zoma was asked “Who is mighty?” The answer given was than the mighty person is the one who can subdue his or her evil inclination. For the Jew, the ideal is not to be reactive but to be in self control. To the outside world, we seem to focus too much on our commandments and behavior and not enough on our theology. But this is not entirely true. Look once again how God is described in the verse. God is described as Erech Apayim which is translated as “endlessly patient” but can also mean “slow to anger.” When we are contemplative and non-reactive in our behavior, we are imitatio dei, imitators of God.

There is an incredible verse in Proverbs which reads, “It is better to be slow to anger than to be mighty and it is better to have self-control than to conquer a city.”

So the Jewish ideal of power is to be slow to anger, contemplative instead of being immediately reactive to situations.

So in this respect during the past year, there have been few if any of us who have not been like those standing at the base of the mountain waiting for Moses’ to come down. In our fear and insecurity, we have chosen reaction over thoughtfulness, weakness over true might.

So close your eyes for a few seconds and think of one instance during this past year when you have been overly reactive to something or someone else. Now open your eyes and let us continue.
* * * * * *
The second sin that plagued the generation who built the calf, as well as us, is the idea that if we have the gold, we will be happy. As a matter of fact, going for the gold, accumulating wealth, though not necessarily bad does not necessarily lead to happiness or to a life of meaning.

Anecdotally, we have heard that people who win the lottery are more prone to suicide and other self-destructive behaviors than they were before they won. If you want to see a miserable, but wealthy bunch of people, pick up one of the celebrity magazines the next time you are standing in a checkout line at a grocery store. This one is sleeping with that one. This one is an alcoholic. That one is overweight. You get the idea.

In a recent interview, Bernie Madoff’s secretary mentions that he was a quite irascible and demeaning man to work for.

But this desire for gelt as in the Madoff case has also done incredible damage to our country. It has led us to believe that it is all about “me” and not about the community. Madoff’s egregious crime, in addition to robbing retirees of the retirement funds, has caused incredible damage to Jewish educational institutions, federations and Jewish philanthropic funds. Being a psychopath, he did not hesitate to steal money from anyone, his best friends or even Eli Weisel.

While Madoff may be the extreme, I would maintain that a large part of the problems facing our country come from the desire of people to obtain more and more money without thinking of the consequences of their actions on the country or the world. Prime lenders and banks lent to get large commissions up front on their loans, without thinking what the harm could be if millions started defaulting on their loans. American car manufacturers continued to build large gas guzzlers because the profit margins were larger without thinking about the fact that these cars would increase our dependence on foreign oil and would adversely affect our trade deficit. The oil companies themselves lobbied against electric cars and alternative fuels, again, in order to maintain profits. Last year, our hardly benevolent pharmaceutical companies spent four times the amount on advertising drugs like Viagra and Levitra, than they did on research.
Going for the gold, going for the gelt, at the expense of others has really damaged this country by increasing unemployment and causing the value of investments to decline.

However, I would maintain that this too is a function of our Yetzer Hara, our inclination to do evil. The problem is not merely Madoff and the big corporations, it is us. What did Pogo, the legendary opossum of the famous Walt Kelly comic strip of yesteryear say, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US?” There are times when we have placed money before family. There are times when we have placed luxury ahead of being charitable. There are times when we have placed gelt ahead of learning, materials ahead of values. There are times when we too have built golden calves and caused the commandments to be smashed.

So now for a second time, close your eyes for a few seconds and think of one instance during this past year when you have placed the chase for material well being ahead of family, community, country or God. Now open your eyes and let us continue.

* * * * * *

The third sin that befell the generation that built the golden calf may be seen in Aaron. Listen to the actual text and focus your attention on the role of Aaron, the high priest and brother of Moses. Aaron is to be spiritual leader of the people and remember that in Moses’ absence, Aaron is also the head of the community. The text reads:

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.” 2Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!” 6Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance.[1][1]

What was Aaron thinking of? Why did he jettison his values so easily? Why was he such a failure as a leader?

The answer given by the rabbis is certainly an interesting one. The rabbis viewed Aaron as a peacemaker. He apparently would do anything to make peace, even if it involved a rejection of the covenant between God and the Jewish people.

So as we stand before the open ark tomorrow, let us contemplate how many times we too have taken the easy road. Maybe we just wanted to avoid conflict? May we just want to be well liked? When were those times when we did not stand up for what we know to be just and right?

For all of us, expediency sometimes comes at the cost of sacrificing our values. We know that Judaism is important and that it has a lot to teach us, yet there are so many other things that demand our time. A rabbi was once asked by a parent, “Rabbi, how can I be sure that my child will study Torah?” The answer that the rabbi gave was, “Your child will study Torah when he sees you studying Torah.”

Our children will emulate our values. If they see that Judaism is not all that important to us, then it will not be all that important to them. If they see Sunday after Sunday that we drop them off for religious school, instead of coming in to temple to be a part of the community and learn as adults, then we ought not to be surprised when they grow up to be like us. Indeed, the carpool tunnel syndrome is one of our greatest problems!

So now for a final time, close your eyes for a few seconds and think of one instance during this past year when you have sacrificed your values and chosen the easy or expedient way just because you wished to avoid conflict. Now open your eyes and let us continue.

* * * * * *

So tomorrow morning as we are about to take out the Torah and as we hear Lane sing the words, “The Eternal God is merciful and gracious, endlessly patient, loving and true, showing mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin and granting pardon,” let us remember the people who built the golden calf. Let us also remember the three sins we have silently recalled tonight and ask God for forgiveness. Like the people who built the calf, we have been needlessly reactive to stress, uncertainty and fear. Like them, we have all too often felt that riches could solve all of our problems and all too often have ignored how our own greed could be detrimental to the community. Finally, let us recall the times when we have sacrificed our values on the altar of expediency and popularity.

But then, let us listen to the words of the prayer. God is merciful to us. God is saying to us that we can be forgiven for these sins. If Moses can receive a second set of tablets, we can receive a second or third chance to repair our lives. God is acknowledging that we can change and become the individuals, the people, the nation and the world that God means for us to be. It is as though God is saying to us, “Go for it. Yes, you can and yes, you will. Come back to me. Learn Torah. Straighten out the crookedness of your life and be assured of My love for you!”
Thus assured of God’s love, may we all be blessed with a year of sweetness, goodness, love and peace.

AMEN