You might remember the television show called The Paper Chase. Each week, before the theme song was played, John Houseman who played Professor Kingsfield, would say something about the challenges of law school and would end by saying in his inimitable style: "you come in with a skull full of mush and- if you succeed- you leave thinking like a lawyer".

I don't know if my skull was full of mush when I entered Rabbinical School but in one critical way, I left thinking like a pulpit Rabbi. I couldn't watch a TV show, or a movie, listen to a song or read a newspaper without thinking of a potential sermon. All Rabbis think like this but, as I look back on my sermons of the past, I realize I probably act on those thoughts more than most of my colleagues.

I must have begun thinking like a Rabbi right away as the first movie I saw after ordination was E.T. and I began to write my first High Holy Day sermon on the way home from the movie theatre. I heard E.T. say good bye to his friend Elliot by saying: "I'll be right here" and the moment I heard those words, my mind began racing about the implications of those words on my beliefs about God, mitzvot, Torah study, you name it. If it was connected with Judaism, I found it in those words. They represented to me God's invitation to us to remain connected with the Divine through our actions and our faith.

But, in a way, I think I started thinking like a Rabbi one line later than I should have because E.T. said something even more important just before he said: "I'll be right here" and it wasn't until I sat down to watch the movie a few weeks ago for the first time in many years that I realized it. In 1982, I probably would have thought it was too simple a statement to base a sermon on but if 23 years in the Rabbinate have taught me anything, it is to have more faith in simple statements, and so I will base tonight's remarks on those other, more simple words of E.T. Just before he said goodbye to Elliot, E.T. looked 6 year old Gertie in the eyes and said two words that he had learned from watching Sesame Street: "Be Good".

That's all: Be Good.

You can all go home now. There is no more basic and no more important statement than these words we tell our kids each and every day.

When I think about the B'nai and B'not mitzvah standing on this bima, I wish I could grab each of them, look them in the eye and say: "Be Good" because even if they decide not to obligate themselves to observing the commandments, even if they don't care about God in their life, even if they never open a book of Torah, if they follow the advice: "Be Good" and connect it with a Jewish experience, somehow I feel that in one important way, we and they will have done enough. Of course, it's not enough. Judaism and all it represents are too important to be replaced by simply being a good person. But, being good is the sine qua non; it is the absolute and only thing that ultimately matters.

One can find plenty of Jewish philosophers and thinkers who believe differently, believing that Judaism is not, in the end, to be seen as a tool for either personal or universal good. Many believe that it is simply a faith based on doing the commandments for their own sake and insuring our future as a people, good or bad. I reject that idea. It makes no sense to me. None of this makes any sense to me unless it helps us to "be good".

Now, if I were looking to say; "Be Good" to our b'nai and b'not mitzvah in Hebrew, I'd have a hard time. I have checked this with others more proficient in Hebrew than I and I found I was right in thinking that there really is no equivalent to that simple phrase; "Be Good" in Hebrew. In fact, that leads me to question the worth of the phrase in general despite the fact that I say it to my kids maybe a dozen times each day. What does "Be Good" really mean? It means to do good things. It means, if you'll forgive my somewhat incorrect grammar, to "act good". Just like "being Jewish" isn't as important as "acting Jewish", "being good" is nothing if it doesn't mean "act good". And, there is a way to say that in Hebrew, at least according to the rabbinic tradition. You could always say: "Lech bidarchay Eloheem", "Walk in God's ways.

The third of the four wishes that we extend to our b'nai and b'not mitzvah from the bima is that they walk in God's ways. Direct their heart, we pray, lalechet bidrachav, to walk in God's ways.

The Midrash knew exactly what this meant. In the Sifre, the Midrash on Deuteronomy, we read: These are the ways of the Holy One: God is gracious and compassionate, patient, abounding in kindness and faithfulness? Just as God is gracious and compassionate, you too must be gracious and compassionate. As God is faithful, you too must be faithful. As God is loving, you too must be loving.

And in a related text in the Talmudic tractate of Sotah, we read that Rabbi Hama said in the name of Rabbi Hanina: What does it mean to follow Adonai your God? The verse means to teach us that we should follow the attributes of the Holy One, in clothing the naked, visiting the sick, comforting the bereaved.

This is what it means to tell our children to walk in God's ways, In temperament and in actions, may you be good.

And, if you were to ask: how do we know that these are God's attributes, the answer is simple: "That is what the Torah says". And, if you say, but I don't see evidence of this in our world, the answer is simple: "It is because we are B'nai and B'not mitzvah". Since Sinai, with a brief transitional period perhaps, it has been up to us to do God's work on earth, to give life to the Divine attributes. Just like the parent who faces the reality of his child's growth by saying the traditional words said by parents at a bar or bat mitzvah: "Baruch Shepitarni", Blessed be God who has released me from the responsibility for this new adult's actions, so has God, reluctantly perhaps but with determination, turned over to us the responsibility of acting good in the world. Just as parents of adult children never stop teaching but reach a point when they really can not determine the course of their children's action, so has God reached that point with us. God has said; Baruch Shepitarni and turned the world over to us, hoping and hoping for the best.

That this is of central importance in Judaism can be seen from the haftarah chosen for tomorrow morning which is well known for Isaiah's impassioned plea that we not only fast but share our bread with the hungry as I will speak about in a bit more detail tomorrow in connection with MAZON, to let the oppressed go free, to clothe the naked and to defeat wickedness. At the high point of the Jewish year, the message of the prophet is simply: "Be Good".

But, it is not easy. And it never has been.

The haftarah begins with the following words; The Lord says: Build up, build up a highway! Clear a road! Remove all obstacles from the road of my people.

There are obstacles to walking on the path of goodness and you know many of them as well as I do.

It's hard to be good. It is easier to be selfish and insensitive than to truly care for others.

It takes time and energy to reach beyond our own immediate needs.

It is frustrating as the road to hell is paved with good intentions and no good deed goes unpunished and we don't always get what we deserve it is hard to convince our young people and ourselves sometimes that goodness is, in fact, is often its own reward.

But, there are other obstacles to being good. And it I would like to focus on two of those obstacles this evening.

The first is taught to us in one of the most beautiful and eternal verses in the entire Tanach. The prophet Micah's teaching that what God wants from us is: to do justice, love mercy v'hatznea lechet eem elohecha, and walk humbly with God.

The key word is walking "humbly" with God. If you want to walk in God's ways, says Micah, you must be humble and one of the major obstacles to being good is the arrogance that comes from believing that each of us has all of the answers.

There is a temptation to believe that the good path in any given situation is so clear and self-evident that there is no room for debate. And, in fact, some times that is true. But, many times it is not true and we have page after page after page of Talmud to prove it. To decide what is God-like, to decide what is good, is not easy much of the time and one of the greatest obstacles to being good is to surround yourself with like thinking people, discredit those on "the other side" and determine that you and those around you have the ultimate answer.

It can't be that way. While there are always those whose ideas are obviously not intended to pursue goodness, finding the truly good course of action takes careful consideration of many different ideas. In Judaism, knowing the good comes from deep thought and consideration, trial and error, listening to various opinions when they are expressed respectfully and with consideration for that which you hold most dear, evaluating different ideas and never quite believing that you have found the ultimate path for with complacency comes arrogance and with arrogance, good is impossible to achieve.

So, as we tell our children to walk in God's ways, it is important to remember that even though we believe in one God, that one God has so many different attributes including, as is reflected in Avinu Malkeynu, our parent, our ruler, the most basic and foundational dichotomy of justice and mercy and that just as God's just and merciful sides struggle with each other, so do we have to engage in that struggle with dichotomies in our own lives.

Our children can not and must not be told that one side or the other: whether it is blue states or red states, liberal or conservative, old or young, wealthy or not wealthy, holds the monopoly on truth. The struggle of ideas, of opinions, of priorities must continue in their lives. Eventually, they will, as all of us do, find their place along whatever spectrum it is that we're talking about at the time and that is good for too much discussion and evaluation can be paralyzing, but if they ever close themselves off to other opinions believing that their answers are the only answers, they are no longer walking humbly along the path. So, keep your mind open, read all of the emails not just the ones that come from sources you endorse and dare to doubt. Pick your place on the spectrum that you feel comfortable but never, ever, ever stop listening to voices on either side and never lock yourself in.

Now the last obstacle to being good.

The Torah teaches: Lo tov haadam heyot livado. It is not good for a human being to be alone. Let me turn the sentence around: "A human being can not be good alone".

From the Jewish perspective, isolation is the most significant obstacle to being good. It is impossible to be good, it is impossible to be holy, it is impossible to achieve what we know is important acting alone.

So, we form relationships, with loved ones to create a home, with those who share our values to form community and then we reach beyond to truly work with others to make this a good world.

It is only in community that we can "be good" and the major purpose of a community in Jewish life is to do good things together.

This can be learned from a well known story and a not so well known commentary.

In the desert, Moses sends 12 spies to scout out the land of Canaan and return with information for the people. They all come back and say that the land is beautiful but 10 of the 12 banded together and said: "We can't conquer it, the people there are too strong". Their message becomes more and more negative in the face of staunch loyalty from the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua until finally the ten encourage the people to return to Egypt.

And the people cried that night in their tents.

The Midrash says that God says: "They are crying for no reason. I'll give them a reason to cry" and that night, says the Midrash was Tisha b'av, the day that would become a day of mourning for all of the exiles and destructions that have befallen our people.

This is a very serious Midrash because it comes close to claiming that we, as Jews, have an original sin. The action of the spies, not necessarily the rejection of the land of Israel but the rejection of God's path, resulted not only in their generation being forbidden from entering the land but provided us a future of exile and destruction symbolized by tisha b'av.

And, what is our response to God? Our response for 2,000 years has been to gather as a community minimally of 10, a minyan, one each to balance out the disloyal and destructive acts of each of those 10 spies and to say to God: "We can do better as a community. We can, in fact, produce good instead of bad. We can fulfill our responsibilities. We can stay on the path you have ordained for us, not try to turn back or go in a different direction. We can reach the promised land."

It does take a village to do good.

So, we, all of us as Jews need to seek out community. We need to reach out to other Jews, even those we disagree with as long as they are truly interested in making this world a better place and as long as they express their ideas showing human decency and a desire for mutual respect.

Being good alone is meaningless. Acting good with the support and the strength of community means everything. And that goes across religious lines as well.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, among others, has pointed out the amazing confluence of religious holidays at this time of this year. It is not only Yom Kippur but Moslems are currently observing Ramadan. Earlier this month, Catholics observed the Saint's day for St. Francis of Assisi, Protestants observed Worldwide Communion Sunday and other religious faiths also find special moments during this month of October. Rabbi Waskow and others have called on all of us to intensify our efforts at interfaith cooperation during this time and we have plans to do that through the year.

This is not always easy and, quite frankly, my own personal involvement in interfaith cooperation has taken some hits lately due to my disappointment with actions and positions taken by some Interfaith groups in the community. But, I believe our strong stands are understood and are, in the long run, going to reap dividends in stronger relationships. But while we go through these bumps in the road, my commitment in principle to interfaith work continues and I pledge myself and this Congregation to continuing to search for ways that we can work with other religious groups in this community, with other congregations, occasionally ignoring potentially controversial statements or actions but always being willing to draw a firm line when necessary.

As Jews, we never lack for reasons to walk away from interfaith relationships. Whether threatened by misguided and arrogant one-sided viewpoints of the complex political and moral issues between Israelis and Palestinians or by those who spew exclusivist religious doctrines which condemn us to hell because we believe as we do, Jews have had plenty of reasons to walk away from the table and seek comfort only within our walls.

But, we can't let that happen. We can not do good alone. We need to continue to seek out those who truly wish for good in the world who can teach us and whom we can teach, who can inspire us and whom we can inspire, who can influence us and whom we can influence to joining hands together to help make this a better world.

So, let us pledge to remove the obstacles that prevent us from walking in God's path. Let us pledge to listen more carefully, jump to conclusions less often, be a little less dogmatic and always, always understand that in community, narrowly and widely defined, we can better reach our goals.

I would be remiss if I did not spend at least a few moments referring to some issues which confront our nation and our world on this High Holy Day season and I will do so here in the context I have presented. First, of course, the terrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. I offer, as you would expect, no theological or philosophical justification, excuses or rationalizations. I only will deal with the effects of this natural disaster which so quickly became a human tragedy.

If Hurricane Katrina produces any good results after the horrendous tragedy, it will be that it forces us to confront the sins of arrogance and division which have plagued our nation for years and which have so seriously tainted our vision of being a force for good in the world for all.

That help was late in coming to those in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf is a serious, shameful issue that has been and needs to continue to be evaluated. But what we saw from the coverage in the media was the deep divisions that existed in the Gulf before the Hurricane and surely exist throughout our nation in areas CNN never reaches.

If we want to be a good nation, if we want to walk in God's ways, then we have to do more than respond, as we have done generously, to the immediate needs of those who have been so tragically affected. We must join together as a national community and stop our terrible history of isolating those who are poor, those who are minorities, those who are living in places we wouldn't be caught dead in.

This isn't a time to jump at the quick fix. This isn't simply a matter of higher taxes or more welfare. We must leave the arrogance of certainty behind and recruit the greatest minds and biggest hearts of our nation to sit down and figure out a strategy that will bring us together as a people and spread the blessings of this country more equally.

Our leaders and we ourselves need to strip ourselves of the arrogance which says: "we have all the answers" and engage in a national conversation on what really ails our nation, what really are the obstacles to being good.

The levees placed in the path of the rising flood waters did not hold and when they fell, they hurt so many, displaced so many and killed so many and led so many to acts of desperation and opened the door to so many acts of evil, unjustified violent behavior. But, as the obstacles fell, they also enabled all of us to see what we have become as a nation and while nothing will ever make the tragedy worthwhile, at least we can't claim anymore: "We didn't see". We have seen and we must act on what we have seen.

And similarly, we must act on what we have seen in other places in the world as well. So many of us have seen so much during so many visits to inspire our justified pride in the accomplishments of and enormous respect in the sacrifices of the people of the State of Israel. And, our eyes have been opened to see the suffering of unjustifiable and inhuman terrorist attacks and also the effects of horrendous rhetoric against Israel. But, we also have seen, if we have allowed ourselves to see, the terrible impact some of Israel's policies have had on innocent Palestinian people in the territories as strongly as we reject the policies of terrorism and hatred, so should we raise our voices against policies which go far beyond the needs of security. So many lovers of the State of Israel, true Zionists who are committed to the security and the flourishing of the State have done so and so should we, in our love and support for the State, recognize the importance of "doing good" in our tradition.

I am so proud of the steps Israel took in the disengagement from Gaza. This was such an important step forward for the State of Israel in correcting the policies which must be changed to produce a climate of peace and the way in which this potentially explosive situation was handled by Israel with a very delicate combination of determination and human decency speaks volumes about the true nature of Israeli society and of the people of Israel. This was potentially a watershed moment and it now falls to the Palestinian people to begin to act swiftly and responsibly on their dream of a viable state so that Israel can prepare itself for further territorial concessions in return for a secure peace. But peace can not come until both peoples clearly and unequivocally face the moral questions that past policies and past rhetoric have raised.

Our nation, too, needs to reevaluate its policy regarding Iraq. While the pledge to defeat terror is a critical commitment for our country to continue to act on, there are so many questions, so many doubts, so many fears about what we have done and are doing. Now that we are there, there are no simple answers but we must take steps to a different future and again, arrogance, and the unwillingness to consider deviating from a chosen course is the biggest obstacle to solving this deepening crisis. And, while I won't go into detail on this now, I will call your attention to a project of many human rights organizations, including Rabbis For Human Rights which I am proud to participate in, which has resulted in a Senate resolution supported by over 90 US Senators calling for our country to reject all forms of torture of prisoners. I urge you to loudly express support for this resolution. Such torture is unjustifiable for any nation, and certainly for a nation which wants to be a force for good in this world. It must stop.

And so we begin the path of a new year, seeking to walk in God's ways. Just as we need to look at our religious faith with new perspectives, just as we look to evaluate that which we do to express our commitment to God and to our people, so do we as a community, as a nation, as a world, need to walk humbly enough to admit we have more to learn and that we can change and we must seek to join with others, across the aisle, across town, across our nation, across the world, in a community dedicated to doing and being good.

For we must all seek to walk in God's ways. For in the end, that is all that matters.

Robert Dobrusin, Rabbi
Copyright © 2005, Robert Dobrusin.
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This message was originally posted on October 27, 2005.

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