Last night we began a topic. It can be a hard one. Where is G-d? 

We started with Sh’ma Koleinu, Hear our prayer.  

But as Chuck might ask, does G-d need our prayers? Does G-d need our sacrifices? Does G-d need the “pleasing odors” of those offerings? Today’s haftarah is clear, maybe G-d doesn’t even need our fast:

the people ask:
“Why, when we fasted, did You not see?
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?” 

And G-d answers:
Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers!
Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
Your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high. 

Instead we are told:
No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke 
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe them,
And not to ignore your own kin. (Isaiah 58) 

And then, as I said last night G-d also says, “Hineini, Here am I.” 

Where is G-d? 

Rabbi Sid Schwarz  in his book “Finding a Spiritual Home,” says this: The Jewish community has lost some of the most sensitive spiritual souls of this generation. They are Jews who were looking for God and found spiritual homes outside of Judaism. Their journeys traversed the Jewish community, but nothing there beckoned them. The creation of synagogue-communities in which the voices of seekers can be heard and their questions can be asked will challenge many loyalist Jews. It will upset and enrage them. But it would also enrich them.”  

He’s right. These are hard questions. It may make you uncomfortable. That’s what Isaiah was trying to do. Challenge you and make you uncomfortable.  

He profiles four American synagogues that are doing well. One from each of the major movements. One of the things I found most fascinating was that the ones that are “successful” have strong programs to feed the hungry or house the unhoused, across all four movements. Sometimes, it was exactly what would bring a new person into the synagogue and then they would become a member. 

There is a tradition of racing out to do a mitzvah after Yom Kippur. You could still write a check to CKI for our annual Isaiah food drive, this year earmarked for the Community Crisis Center which we heard about last night. Or maybe you could attend (maybe) tomorrow’s Partners in Peace breakfast for the Community Crisis Center. You could volunteer at the soup kettle next week.  

Those are part of living out the Holiness Code. We find G-d when we live out the Holiness Code which is today’s afternoon Torah portion. These past 10 days we have been studying “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.” The verse is included in that portion. It’s a good topic and we’ve learned a lot. What we haven’t done is look at in the context of the section of the Torah. It is part of a section called Kedoshim. Holiness. Set in the middle of Leviticus, much of which is addressed to the priests who serve in the temple, this is addressed to all of us. 

“Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, your God יהוה, am holy.” 

So first we have to ask, what does holy mean. It is not that sort of holier than thou sort of way. Kadosh is more like to be set apart, separated.  

“You shall each revere your mother and your father, and keep My sabbaths: I יהוה am your God. 

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I יהוה am your God.” That’s what we do with our community garden so beautifully tended by Jerry and others. 

“You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. 

You shall not defraud your fellow [Israelite]. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning.” 

“You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am יהוה.” That’s why this floor is accessible as possible. Why we have a transfer wheelchair. Why there are comfort height toilets. Why we continually improve the sound system. We try to be accessible to all. That’s part of our vision statement, “Embracing Diversity.” 

“You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your kin fairly.” Any one can be a member here. Earlier this year someone felt that she hadn’t gotten an honor because she hadn’t contributed enough. Some synagogues used to function that way. They would actually auction off high holy day and Shabbat honors. We do not. We do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich. We welcome all of you to worship and participate. 

Do not deal basely with members of your people. Do not profit by the blood of your fellow [Israelite]: I am יהוה. Other translations are “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.” That’s why we host community blood drives. It is also why we have first aid kits, an AED and Stop the bleed kits. Our staff has all been trained in CPR.  

You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kin but incur no guilt on their account. 

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people. Love your fellow [Israelite] as yourself: I am יהוה.  That’s our verse. Love your fellow, your kin, your neighbor as yourself.  

This is what we call the holiness code. G-d is holy so we should be holy. I have said that this is a recipe for love. It tells us what to do to set up a civil society. It tells us how to be holy. It tells us how to be like G-d. How to actually love our neighbors, all of our neighbors as ourselves.  

Some of it is easy. As we have said, and even more importantly done, we have had blood drives. We have tried to assure that this floor is accessible to all, the blind and the deaf, people with mobility issues. We have planted the corners of our field for those who do not have enough. Talk to our top gardeners and they will tell you that when they are tending the garden they feel closer to G-d.  

  Don’t worry though. There is still plenty to do! 

Some of it is much harder. Rebuking our friends when they make a mistake. That takes really skill to do it in such a way that we are not offensive. Many of the prayers we confess today, about 65% have to do with speech. Our mothers were right: “Think before you speak.” Not holding a grudge. Are you still carrying hurts, real or perceived from long ago. My father was a grudge holder. His list is long. But the issue with grudge holding is it can embitter us.  

We are still sitting here. We are still praying. We are still trying to find G-d.  

When we pray, what are we doing? When we demand that G-d hears our voice, what are we doing? Where is G-d? How do we know if G-d responds?  Sometimes we express our gratitude and thanksgiving. Or we might offer prayers of intercession, when we pray for others, like a mi sheberach. We might praise G-d with psalms of adoration, all those Hallelujahs! We might offer confessional prayers, that’s what those viduis are for Yom Kippur. And we might petition G-d for our needs. Please G-d, let me pass the math test even though I didn’t study. Please G-d let those sirens not be going to my house. Those might be considered a “wasted prayer” or in Hebrew a bracha l’vatala, a prayer in vain since it has already happened. Once I remember sitting at a camp , a JCC one not a Girl Scout one when my mom was sick, and I couldn’t get home. My prayer was a bargain. “If You heal her pneumonia, I’ll be kosher.” It was always pneumonia. When people tell me that they don’t think G-d hears their prayers it is often these prayers of petition that they are worried about. 

Where is G-d?  

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav taught that we should go outside for an hour every day and pour our hearts out. It doesn’t have to be hard.  

“Talk to God as you would talk to your very best friend. Tell the Holy One everything. Even if all you can say to God is “help!” it is still very good. Repeat this over and over again until God opens your lips and the words begin to flow from your heart. And even when no words come, do not despair. Come back day after day to your secluded spot and wait. Just wanting to speak to God is in itself a very great thing.”
     Rebbe Nachman of Breslov 

When we pray are often looking for G-d. Sometimes like Rebbe Nachman, we find G-d outside in nature. Sometimes we find G-d on a mountain peak (Moses did) or at an ocean or inland sea. Sometimes at sunset or sunrise.  

Sometimes we find G-d in the synagogue itself. Listening to the music or staring out the beautiful stained glass or in a comment of a friend. Sometimes we find G-d is the still small voice like Elijah heard and sometimes the booming voice of the Psalmist.  

We had a member, Peretz Mehr of blessed memory. Bonnie Bonner’s father, he sat right over there. (Point). He used to say that our sole reason for being was to praise G-d. And he would cite some of our early preliminary prayers as his reason. Everything praises G-d. Every breath we take. Every hallelujah. Just your being here. 

As we read earlier this morning, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel explained, “Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will”. He continued, “those who rise from prayer better persons their prayer is answered. He is also the one who famously said that his feet were praying when he marched with King. 

Prayer is not a magical solution to our problems, but the spiritual discipline helps transform the inner self giving us strength and hope, in the face of life’s challenges. We also know from scientific research that praying for someone who is sick, even if they don’t know you are praying, can help them improve. It doesn’t necessarily cure them but it can help heal them. There is a difference. Once when I was singing the last verse of Adon Olam, the Debbie Friedman version, the ICU nurse and I watched in amazement that the blood pressure stabilized. Neither of us could explain that. They know that they are not alone. 

Sometimes people find G-d when they are sitting quietly meditating. Sometimes people think that the object of all of this is to become one with the divine. The Day of Atonement can mean the Day of At One Ment. If G-d is One, then we need to be at one with G-d. That is somehow the object of Kabbalah. The object of Tikkun Olam.  

In the 1500s Rabbi Isaac Luria , the Arizal, taught about the “shattering of the vessels.” It seems that when G-d began to create the world, G-d was everywhere. G-d needed to take a breathe, to contract, in order to make room for the world. We call that tzimtzum. Go ahead, take a breathe from deep in your diaphragm. Feel that tzimtzum, that contraction. When G-d created that first light, it was so bright that it was contained in vessels. Those vessels shattered and the shard and the light scattered to the ends of the universe.  

Each of us is created b’tzelem elohim, in the divine image, each of us is a spark of the divine. The task, then, is to find those sparks and restore the divine light, to do tikkun, repairing.  Those sparks are not lost. They are within us. They are us. Gathering those sparks together. That is the original meaning of tikkun olam, repairing the world is where we find G-d. It is through our actions, our repair of ourselves and the world where we find G-d. 

Where is G-d?  In those sparks. Those divine sparks in each of us. When we can see that we are all created b’tzelm elohim, in the image of G-d.  

G-d is present when we gather those sparks together. When we compassionately hold the hand of someone who is dying. G-d is present when we take care of the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, the most marginalized among us. G-d is present when we do what what the haftarah says to do feed the hungry, clothe the naked and house the unhoused. G-d is present when we do justly, love mercy, ahavat chesed as we learned last week and walk humbly or modestly with our G-d. G-d is present when we love our neighbors as ourselves. 

So this Yom Kippur, I echo the words of the Psalmist who specifically for these Days of Repentance, who demanded of G-d: “Don’t hide Your face from me.  

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
have mercy on me, answer me.
Do not hide Your face from me;
do not thrust aside Your servant in anger;
You have ever been my help.
Do not forsake me, do not abandon me,
O God, my deliverer. 

Sh’ma Koleinu, Hear our voice! Do not hide from me. From us. Be with us, here, now, today.