Sermons are an extremely important part of High Holiday services at synagogues. For many Jewish people, the High Holidays are the only time all year when they attend services, so temples have much larger audiences than usual. It’s up to rabbis to really make the moment count and use their sermons to send a message, whether that’s about the holiday itself, the state of the world or their own personal experiences.
But as Rosh Hashanah is set to begin mere days before the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, the events of that day and the impact it’s had on the Jewish community in the coming year are on many people’s minds. As a result, many local rabbis are planning to discuss it in their sermons.
Rabbi Joshua Gruenberg of Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Pikesville notes that the process for writing sermons is typically not all that different during the High Holidays than it is for normal services, with one notable exception.
“The only year the process was really altered was in 2001, when 9/11 happened like a week and a half before Rosh Hashanah,” he recalled.
While Oct. 7 was an event of similar gravity, the fact that it occurred towards the end of the High Holiday period has given rabbis ample time to determine how they want to address the tragedy in their sermons if they wish to do so.
Gruenberg added that there are two key messages that he aims to send with his High Holiday sermon.
“The first is that even with all of these challenges and difficulties, a big part of our Jewish character has been the ability to still find a way to live Jewishly, to hold meaning and to live our lives amidst the insanity of the world,” he explained. “And that leads into the second, which is that the best way to support one another is to come together to fight antisemitism and to figure out how to educate the world about what the Jewish community looks like. I think we all play a role in that.”
Another local rabbi who plans to speak about Oct. 7 is Rabbi Ari Goldstein of Temple Beth Shalom in Annapolis, who said that his sermon is centered on unpacking a story about fear and courage.
“I’ll [also] be speaking about our relationship with Israel, the rise of antisemitism and the value and need for [our] synagogue and Jewish community,” Goldstein said.
In a similar vein, Rabbi Craig Axler, of Temple Isaiah in Fulton, said that he normally starts his sermons with a joke in order to catch people’s attention and segue into the topic he’s discussing. But even with that in mind, the subject of his sermon this year is a more somber one reflective of current events.
“My sermon … which is still being written as the events of the world continue to unfold, is looking at the current moment we find ourselves in as a Jewish community, how this past year has been for those who love and care for the state and people of Israel, where the divisions that have been revealed over the last year have caused strain and in what ways we can positively move forward into the new year, perhaps with a renewed sense of Jewish pride and identity, even despite the challenges, losses and sadness of this past year,” he explained.
Some sermons may not touch on Oct. 7 directly, but will instead focus on Jewish values that have become especially important in the past few years — both in relation to Oct. 7 and to other recent events.
Rabbi Stephanie Weishaar of Kol Nefesh in Columbia said that while she is still working on her sermon at the time of writing, the central theme of her speech will be the importance of connection.
“Whether we are talking about the environment, the pandemic, the political climate or just about anything else, it is clear that we are interdependent,” Weishaar explained. “The more we recognize and nurture our connections to others, the more healing we can bring to our community and beyond.”
