All I ever dreamed of was becoming a rabbi. And a month ago, at the age of 73, I my dream came true. This is the sermon that I gave tonight – my first sermon as a rabbi.
There are days when you look back on your life, and you say to Shehecheyanu. You realize that it was all meant to be.
For me, tonight is one of those nights. It’s Shavuot, the celebration of the day when God gave us the Torah. And it’s graduation Shabbat – a time to remember that God reveals new Torah to every generation. And finally, it’s my first chance to give a sermon as an ordained rabbi.
And looking back on it all, at the pain of my childhood, at my decades of healing, and I remember the words of my childhood rabbi. Every Shabbat, he would take the Torah scroll out of the ark, and he would say the same words. “In this scroll,” he would say, “is every secret of our people from Sinai until know.”
Thank God that I listened to him. Thank God that I began studying Torah when I was eight years old. Thank God that at the age of 73, I became a rabbi. And thank God that for letting me stand here tonight, with our kids and our teenagers.
Maybe the entire purpose of my life was to stand here tonight, to tell these kids that my rabbi was right. The Torah really does contain every secret of life.
When we stood at Mt. Sinai, says our tradition, God gave us the Torah. And God said something special to each of us. God said the one thing that each of us needed to hear. God said, “I love you” to some people, and “I trust you” to others. And to the teenagers, I suspect, God said, “You’re wonderful. You’re unique. Go into the world, and your dreams will come true.”
The soul of every child was there at Mt. Sinai, says our tradition. Every child has something to teach us.
And perhaps, that’s the ultimate gift of Torah – that we can learn from our children and they can learn from us. We study it together – with all our heart and with all our soul – and we hear God’s voice again, telling us that he loves us, that he trusts us. The end of Torah study, to paraphrase Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, is to know that God loves us more than we love ourselves.”
It’s a hard time to be a teenager – perhaps the hardest time that I can remember. But your connection to Torah – your connection to Jewish community – can save you.
In each generation, says our tradition, new Torah is revealed. And your job is to carry it forward – to find new meaning, to find new meaning, and to create a better world than the one we’ve given you.
And perhaps, the greatest gift I can give our graduates is to tell you that I trust you. I trust you to create a better world. I trust you to find wisdom that I never found. I trust you to continue the journey of our people, and to create a world that’s a little closer to the world we always dreamed of – a world filled with love, a world filled with kindness, a world filled with peace.
When we stood at Mt. Sinai, our tradition says, God asked us a question. “If I give you the Torah,” asked God, who will be your guarantors? Why will guarantee that you that you will keep my Torah?”
“Our prophets will guarantee that we keep the Torah,” the Israelites said.
“But who will guarantee that the prophets will keep my Torah?” God asked.
“The sages will guarantee that the prophets will keep the Torah,” the Israelites said.
“But who will guarantee that the sages will keep the Torah?” God asked.
“Our children will guarantee it,” said the Israelites.
And God said, “For sake of the children, I will give you my Torah.”
Shabbat Shalom