Kol Nidrei, 2015
In the 1920s in Paris, a Jewish writer by the name of Edmond Fleg (originally Flegenheimer) wrote a book entitled Pourquoi Je Suis Juif – Why I am a Jew.
While I am not familiar with the book, I am familiar with the one page of it which became famous, and some of you may be familiar with it also. On that one page, Fleg wrote a list of brief statements, each one beginning “Je suis juif parce que…” / “I am a Jew because….”
A translation of most of Fleg’s list is reprinted in the Reform movement’s Shabbat prayerbook as a liturgical poem. The translation begins with these lines:
“I am a Jew because the faith of Israel demands no abdication of my mind.
I am a Jew because the faith of Israel asks every possible sacrifice of my soul.
I am a Jew because in all places where there are tears and suffering the Jew weeps.
I am a Jew because in every age when the cry of despair is heard the Jew hopes….”
This holiday season I have been holding up the question, Who are we Jews? I have been asking the question in the communal and historical sense, and I will be returning to that communal and historical perspective tomorrow; but this evening I would like to make the focus more individual and personal. What happens when we turn the light of inquiry on ourselves, and ask ourselves: Who am I as a Jew? Or, to echo Edmond Fleg, Why am I a Jew?
click here for complete sermon
In the 1920s in Paris, a Jewish writer by the name of Edmond Fleg (originally Flegenheimer) wrote a book entitled Pourquoi Je Suis Juif – Why I am a Jew.
While I am not familiar with the book, I am familiar with the one page of it which became famous, and some of you may be familiar with it also. On that one page, Fleg wrote a list of brief statements, each one beginning “Je suis juif parce que…” / “I am a Jew because….”
A translation of most of Fleg’s list is reprinted in the Reform movement’s Shabbat prayerbook as a liturgical poem. The translation begins with these lines:
“I am a Jew because the faith of Israel demands no abdication of my mind.
I am a Jew because the faith of Israel asks every possible sacrifice of my soul.
I am a Jew because in all places where there are tears and suffering the Jew weeps.
I am a Jew because in every age when the cry of despair is heard the Jew hopes….”
This holiday season I have been holding up the question, Who are we Jews? I have been asking the question in the communal and historical sense, and I will be returning to that communal and historical perspective tomorrow; but this evening I would like to make the focus more individual and personal. What happens when we turn the light of inquiry on ourselves, and ask ourselves: Who am I as a Jew? Or, to echo Edmond Fleg, Why am I a Jew?
click here for complete sermon