The Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, also known as the Days of Awe, combine the ancient themes of repentance and renewal with the highest attendance most synagogues see all year.
For rabbis, this makes writing High Holiday sermons a weighty task, and this year is especially challenging.
Approaching the High Holidays in the shadow of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and escalating tensions throughout the Middle East, along with antisemitism in the U.S. and a highly contentious presidential election, several Southern Arizona rabbis shared the themes they will address with the AJP.
“This year I am trying to bring comfort,” says Congregation Anshei Israel Rabbi Sara Metz. “We are all holding so much worry and heartbreak. We have all been struggling to hold onto hope.”
Through her sermons, along with holiday prayers and readings, she hopes “to help people connect to God, Torah, and each other. Let us bring comfort and tikkun (repair) to this new year.”
Metz outlined four main topics for her sermons: “Bridging the divide between the heavenly and earthly Jerusalem, How to find joy in the darkness, Creating comfort and beauty in the imperfect, and How we remember/How we want to be remembered.”
She usually writes her High Holy Days sermons in August and has three of this year’s complete, but she is open to revisions.
“I am ever hopeful for good news to include in sermons,” Metz says, particularly regarding finding joy in difficult times and ways to support Israel.
Rabbi Malcolm Cohen of Kol Ami Synagogue has his sermon topics clearly mapped as the holidays approach, seeking to imbue contemporary issues with timeless inspiration.
“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, I will discuss the importance of being seen and acknowledged when we have been going through tough times,” he says. “On Rosh Hashanah morning, I’ll focus on dealing with the aftermath of Oct. 7 and negotiating the toxic polarization in the upcoming election by leaning on hope instead of optimism. On Kol Nidre, I will talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, how it’s both super simple and wildly complex all at the same time.”
On Yom Kippur, Rabbi Emeritus Thomas Louchheim will deliver the sermon at Kol Ami.
Louchheim’s topic comes from conversations he’s had with pastors in the community who are trying “to navigate the tumult of migration, and race issues that arise seemingly every day.”
While some congregants are invigorated, many are disheartened, he says. “On Yom Kippur morning I will use as my theme the last line from William Earnest Henley’s poem ‘Invictus’ – ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.’ In this New Year let us face hardship with strength, courage, and conviction.”
To that end, Louchheim’s sermon will include a discussion of the Jewish value of “ometz lev,” which means “heart-strength” but is better translated, he says, as “moral courage, fortitude, resolve.”
Rabbi Sam Cohon of Congregation Beit Simchah collects potential High Holiday sermon material all year and begins writing in earnest a month before.
One of his sermons this year will focus on the meaning of the word “Zionism,” he says, and how its “ideology and purpose have been used and are being utilized today to create meaning, identity, and controversy. “
Cohon’s other topics will include “How community is created, transformed, damaged and reestablished” and how two of the stories we read on the High Holidays, the Akeidah (the binding of Isaac) and Jonah reflect “the nature of ambivalence in Judaism.”
Cohon will talk about the movie “The Jazz Singer” as a jumping-off point to discuss assimilation and the resurgence of antisemitism. He explains that he recently learned the 1927 premiere of the Al Jolson film was not held until after the Yom Kippur Neilah service, which he finds a remarkable sign of respect.
He’ll also talk about intelligence, both real and artificial, and will tackle the concept that time is not a fixed property in the universe but is “emergent.”
Einstein’s special theory of relativity “can let us know that things that are past are not past,” he says, adding that “even though on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we atone for all the mistakes we made, we can’t undo the past, [but] in some interesting ways, we can.”
Congregation M’kor Hayim Rabbi Helen Cohen usually waits until the week of the holiday to write her sermons so she can respond “to the need of the moment.”
“As American Jews, we have witnessed much violence, grief, fear, and uncertainty for both the State of Israel and the United States,” she says. “I plan to address questions such as these: How do we bear up under the weight of such emotions? How can Jewish wisdom and practice be an anchor? How can being part of a congregation help us feel less isolated and more supported? How can we engage with hope in the world that is unfolding before us?”
For Rabbi Israel Becker of Chofetz Chaim Southwest Torah Institute, it is vital that we remember the essential theme of Rosh Hashanah, “which is our own self-improvement and our own growth.”
“We are so involved and immersed in the world around us, with the rise of antisemitism, with the election, Israel, and the whole state of the world,” that we tend to lose focus on our efforts, our purpose, and our sense of well-being, he says.
Amid our confusion over world affairs, he says, “We need to realize that G-d has given us, as Jews, a special blessing; that we, by performing His commandments, have the ability, by being the best that we could be, to bring blessing to the world from within.”
