I was asked to welcome everyone here today on behalf of the Downtown Synagogue’s Board. 

I have to say that one of the things that continues to impress me about the Downtown Synagogue is that it draws people from all corners of our Jewish community. Our principal mission is to serve as a beacon for the entire Jewish community. Our high holidays are open to everyone free of charge and obligation as the late Marty Herman would say, and, generally speaking, we have an inclusive ethos.

So there are a lot of different types of people with us today that we’d like to welcome. Originally I had planned to organize my list of welcomes in alphabetical order like the Avinu Malkeinu prayers... but I ran out of time. Still, I did come up with 18 categories.

One of my favorite poems at times like these is by Lea Goldberg, 

a 20th century Israeli Hebrew poet. She begins:

הַיָּרֹק הַיּוֹם יָרֹק מְאֹד.

וְהָאָפֹר הַיּוֹם אָפֹר מְאֹד

“The Day After” by Lea Goldberg

The green is very green today.

The gray is very gray today

There’s a little black, but no white in the city,

What is stormy is very stormy today

And the past, today, is very past.

And there’s a little future, but there’s no present in the air.

5784 was a year filled with joy. We celebrated b’nei mitzvah, including three in our renovated building. We welcomed new babies. We danced at weddings. We marked anniversaries and birthdays and long-awaited retirements. We sang on rooftops–or at least I did–and laughed at  jokes. We hugged old friends and smiled at new ones.

Jews have a long-standing love affair with anthologies. It started with Tanach, an amazing anthology of narrative, history, poetry, prophecy, and much more. And then it continued across the centuries.

Samantha loved books.  All kinds of books.  Old books, new books, recycled books, used books, books on Judaism and Jews, books on politics, books on social justice, books on feminism, books on politics, books on urban affairs, books on religions, books on philosophy, self-help books, books to help others, books on virtually any topic. 

I say that mostly to be provocative, you know, sort of as a conversation starter. No, but it’s true. Religion, as a discrete, cordoned off area of one’s life is actually a European-Christian concept, borne out of the Religious Wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century, in the German Holy Roman Empire, and surrounding kingdoms.