SHAVUOT 2005 SERMON

by Student Rabbi David Mitchell

Before I begin, I want to let you know how honoured I am to be here on Shavuot at the start of what I hope will be a wonderful relationship with this community…

In just over a month from now, I will be having my own ceremony involving a Jewish religious covenant. We have opted to not go for a Ketubah - a contract of legality and ownership, but rather, choosing the model from the book Engendering Judaism by the prominent feminist Rachel Adler we have chosen to enter into what she terms a Brit Ahuvim a Lover’s Covenant.

We have spent many hours carefully considering our ideals, revising each and every word used, and most importantly fine tuning the sentiments expressed. For us the B’rit – the covenant must be totally mutual; it must also be feasible, meaningful, and special. It has to give us room for change and growth while at the same time offer an accurate representation of our relationship. To further add to this growing list of considerations, it must also be easily heard and understood by all those who will be joining with us at our ceremony.

So it is hardly a surprise that at the time of year when we focus most carefully on the nature of our Sinai covenant, I have chosen to follow the teachings of many of our Jewish sages and compare our covenantal relationship with God - to a Marriage.

Without wishing to in any way diminish the profound and incredible experience of Revelation at Sinai, let us just for a minute imagine that what went on back then in the day of myth and metaphor was a modern wedding.

After three days of shuffling their feet at the bottom of Mount Sinai, The Groom – the children of Israel await the appearance of their bride God. They become increasingly worried that she just won’t show up. Eventually God is ready to arrive. God doesn’t just make an entrance, she makes an entrance worthy of the sprunciest Jewish simcha – instead of a bouqet she has a rocky mountain spring into luscious bloom, instead of a veil she uses thick opulent clouds of misty thunder, and instead of a white dress she appears in flashes of brilliant blinding lighting. The groom is so overcome that he has to ask her to withdraw for a moment so that he can reign in his emotions. Eventually she has to send her representative Moses to speak for her at the wedding.

Now as we know, Moses offers the 10 Commandments and the children of Israel accept. There is some debate about whether the Children of Israel readily accepted the Covenant or whether it was given under duress. One Midrash goes so far as to suggest that God inverted Mount Sinai, held it over the people and then asked them if they would accept the Covenant or not.

Irrespective of the circumstances, the children of Israel accept in a unified voice say Na-aseh Ve-nishmah, we will do and we will understand.

But what exactly are the terms of this contract? The eminent American Rabbi and thinker Irving Greenberg suggests that if the children of Israel had been aware that the terms of a covenant to be God’s people had also involved the Pogroms, the Inquisition and the Holocaust, then the Children of Israel would never have signed on the dotted line. In fact he argues that because these terms were not in the contract, the Sinai Covenant has in fact been violated and is therefore dead.

What he offers, and this is something that I find both powerful and provoking is that each and every one of us who chooses to remain, or become, Jewish today or in the future, is undertaking a personal voluntary covenant with God. This covenant is no less important, no less binding, than Sinai.

What are the terms of this covenant? Well they are personal, they are for us to negotiate, we can play around with the wording until we are happy, we can compromise, confer, conform and conflict. But in the end, almost certainly, they involve us undertaking many of the mitzvot, and, hardly surprisingly these include most of the 10 Commandments.

On this Shavuot, Jews all over the world may well reach for their metaphorical Covenants, some of them might dust them off, others will know every letter off by heart. Some will want to double check on the content and some might even run for the tipex. None of this really matters, what really matters, is that they want to.

Chag Sameach….

David Mitchell