Saturday, September 19, 2009

Rosh Hashana Day 5770-Health Care

Rosh Hashana Day Sermon
Laramie Wyoming

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Wo-orld, Happy Birthday to you.
As we have read repeatedly in this morning's special Rosh Hashana Liturgy, Hayom Haraat Haolam. Today is the birthday of the world. This is the time of our High Holy Day season where everything is new and reborn. In these 10 days from Rosh Hashana to Yom we live a mini life moving from birth today to death at Neilah, the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

I don't know about you, but I like birthdays. But not all birthdays are the same. Just last week my nephew, Sam, turned six. This is a big year! He is starting kindergarten and has a lot of responsibilitied being the older brother to Lexi, almost three and Jack, just 7 months. Sam's birthday is a big deal. It is a day that is all about Sam. But this year it was a big deal and all about Jack instead. You see, my sister in law, Rebecca, tripped and fell. People trip and fall all the time but this fall was different. She had been walking about with baby Jack in the snuggly, you know that backpack turned frontwards for people to carry infants conveniently hands free while still providing the snuggly, close to the heart-beat feel. Down she went, and Jack did too.

Now I do not want to hold you in too much suspense. Jack and Rebecca are both, thank God, fine. The ambulance came and they both were cleared at the hospital. It was a scary few hours, though. My father was sharing some of the details with me a few days later-about how the doctor at some point said, well, we think everything is fine but we can do a CT scan on Jack just to make sure. And of course, my brother, Josh and Rebecca said yes.

I asked my dad if the doctor felt the CT scan was necessary or just precautionary. And he said, what difference does it make? Why would any parent say no? And I said, Dad, it is a luxury even to ask that question. For some people they may not be able to say yes. My father grew upset at this. Let me be clear Rachael, I love my kids and no amount of money be worth their health. Dad, I replied, what if doing the CT scan is a choice between being sure everything is fine and having the money to afford a roof over the heads of everyone in your household? What if doing the CT scan means sacrificing your home and not doing it might mean sacrificing your child?

I cannot help but pause here for a moment and consider Isaac and Abraham. Abraham also faced a decision between the lesser of two evils-between sacrificing his son and sacrificing his God. I am not trying to rescue Abraham here. I do not know, nor does the text tell us, what Abraham was thinking or feeling. Like in the conversation with my father, choosing between the CT scan for one child and money for rent for the whole family, Abraham was facing an impossible choice. My dad and I considered a hypothetical situation. But it is not a made-up, inconceivable scenario. It reminds me of Angela's storyhttp://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare/stories/186876# which I found in a collection of health care tales gathered by the president.

Angela writes, I am not sure what exactly to write or how to even begin explaining my story. I like a lot of other American households fall into a range where I make too much for Medicaid or Chips. I am a single mother of 3 amazing young men. We did have insurance while their father was serving in the Military but even that system is flawed as we had to travel 3 hours to another state to get a simple check up for a cold or to coordinate with the primary care provider for all referrals. My oldest son Malachai has what is diagnosed as...basically a brain aneurysm that has not bleed, or "popped" yet. I moved into a house 4 blocks from an emergency room in case that ever happens. His health care is a necessity for prevention of his death. To go to a local pediatric neurologist without insurance has typically costs about 9,000 every 3 months for "observation".It requires a cat scan, pediatric neurologist, Pediatric cardiologist,physical fees then to top it all off..the wonderful credit card charges associated with charging this care. This is why he can no longer go. $36,000.00 dollars a year for him to have adequate local care. Now their father has been let go from the Navy due to down sizing & weight restrictions. No more insurance at all. I am a single mother with 3 boys, I make 40,000 a year but I have 3 children to house, clothed, feed, support. I have a mortgage to pay and income taxes are scary. ...I simply can not afford the $932.00 a month plans for the coverage me and my children need. ...I believe, I believe in families being allowed to receive help with health care and the debts occurred obtaining it. ...what ever the people of this countries families are going through. In the end that is what we are, what we have, and typically how we live. As a family. Whether it is our mothers, brothers, our children, our friends, the people walking down the street. We all have one underlying factor. We all experience the same things, same feelings, at one point or another in time. We all need help. Rich, poor, middle class. I believe it is time to do something about it. I will not lie, I have little hope these days that the things I need to get accomplished will get accomplished in time. It seems it will truly be longer before the change trickles down to the families like me. Who make too much money for help, but not enough money to afford the care...All this I have written equals one thing in its entirety. It is time for a change.

I know I am a stranger to this community, but I will assume that we can agree that people should not be making choices like this one. As Jews we learn over and over again in the Torah, care for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the stranger. Even if this is not us directly, the responsibility to provide care is still ours. Like I was saying last night, I think we can do better than this.

So what do we do? Knowing that something is wrong, wanting to help is a great start. But it can feel so overwhelming, how do we help make it better? It seems to me, just like Abraham, just like Angela, in order to get, we may have to give; we may have to give up some of what we have, for the sake of the bigger picture.

Let’s pause here for a moment to sit with this idea. I do not think most people like thinking about giving anything up. I know for me, I like my time, my freedom, and my stuff to do with as I please. The idea of giving any of those things up is hard.

But who are we if we do not give, if we do not respond? We can do better than silence. We can do better than nothing.

So what do we do? I do not have THE answer but I have some ideas. I want to know yours as well. I think the first thing we can do is we can not look away. We have the technology to read stories like Angela's on line. This tool will tug at our heart strings, make us care and, perhaps, inspire us to act. And isn't that what we need to do? It is a simple act, to bear witness to the hardship of others. By reading stories, asking questions, sending letter to those who are hurting we at least can say, you are not alone.

That to me feels better than nothing.

We can share our own stories. Who hear in this room knows someone or is someone who is personally affected by the state of National Health Care? (Oause for hands to be raised). If you think you do not know someone, you know me. I have just applied for medicaid and government subsidized health care because my school's health insurance at $400 a month is simply too costly. Last year when I was on the school's health plan, I could not afford to go to the doctor because I was paying so much in premiums that the co pay was just too much! As I looked at my finances for this year, I felt worried that I could not afford it all without taking on additional work which would interfere with my ability to complete my studies. So I am now someone on medicaid. I found it very difficult to apply. I felt embarassed, ashamed that I could not do it all. But then, I felt grateful and lucky that a program was out there that could help me out until I can do it all.

What is your story?

I think we can still do better than this. People like me, people with incredibly low incomes are pretty well covered. But what about the Angelas of the world? The working poor who hold two or three jobs to make ends meet, earning just enough to get by but too much to qualify for the assistance they so need so that they too can do better.

For them, we get involved. You can call Senator Mike Enzi who "told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/mike-enzi-gang-of-six-rep_n_269447.html and ask him to do more than just be a road block, but to also be a beacon to change. Have a lobby day and go lobby your representatives, host a health care shabbat and invite others in the community to bear witness, share their stories and to take action together, do a health care audit on this community and find out what is happening here in Laramie, find other organizations within this community already doing this work and join them.


Right now our nation has made a huge sacrifice. We have given up quality health care, we have sacrificed National Health. We can do better than this. Maybe it is time to give up something else, our time, our stories, our commitment.

All good sermons, Jewish tradition holds, end with a nechemta, a happy ending. And the happy ending here is up to you. We are all part of this broken system. We believe it is not working. We know we can do better than this.

What will the nechemta to Health Care be? It is up to each one of us to decide.
Shana Tova

Erev Rosh Hashana-because we can do better....Judaism and technology

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova. Welcome to 5770! (look around) Can I ask you a question?? Why are you here? What is it that has brought you to this room on this day? I mean, I know it is Erev Rosh Hashana, but many people who are Jewish are NOT here, so I am wondering, why you are. This is a question I have been asking myself lately. And I am looking to you, my community, to help figure some of this out.

(Take answers)

I think what really got me thinking about all of this is a recent lecture I went to with Rabbi Irwin Kula, author of a book called Yearnings and Executive co-director of CLAL, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Rabbi Kula suggested that Judaism is akin to all other modern technologies. We use it because it helps us to get a certain job done. If the technology does not work, or if we like a different technology better, then we do not use it. Think of eight-track tapes, audio casettes, and CDs. They let us listen to recorded sounds like music. That is their job. Eight tracks work great but casettes were a smaller and less costly technology so we moved on to those. Same thing with CDs and now, we are moving to mp3 and ipods for all of our listening enjoyment.

When Rabbi Kula said this, I sat back in my seat and said, Huh. If our religion serves a certain function in our lives and my JUdaism is the technology I use to get a certain job done...but lately I have been feeling like the technology needs some updating...I first have to ask, what is the function Judaism serves? What job is Judaism trying to get done? But what is that function? What function does being here serve?. (Comment on some of the answers)


I think Judaism and all aspects of it help us get a certain job done. Over time, the role of religion in our lives has evolved and we have used or different aspects of it differently. But the need we have may not be changing over time. Coming from New York City, I frequently ride the Subway. One morning, I looked up and saw two advertisements right next to one another. The first said, Tired of unwanted blemishes? Come see Dr. Zizmor Plaastic surgeon. This rainbow colored ad is decorated with the smiling face of a middle aged man wearing a white lab coat, with tight, shiny skin. You too can look like this, the ad suggests. You too can feel this good. The second ad was a plain white background with a lot of text. The top of the page in large letters read, "This Ad will make you Happier than any other on the Subway." Given that New York City Subways are rittled with ads, this is quite a statement. The ad was for some Institute of Philosophy and its claim was if you know philosophy, you will no longer need people like Dr. Zizmor to be happy. You just will be happy using philosophy as a technology instead of technologies like plastic surgery or other cosmetic aids.

It struck me, as I checked out all the ads and all the people riding the subway, and all the fashion, communication devices, conversations, postures and poses; all these different technological advances of different kinds contained within this one car. The job they were getting done was "make me happy." But is Judaism just another one of these technologies? Maybe that is what it is all about, maybe that is why we are here tonight, to find some kind of happiness. Maybe this ritual of these 10 days will help us find greater happiness.

When I think about though, my Jewish life has more of a purpose than finding happiness. What about you, do you find that as well? Is being here only about feeling good? Or are you seeking something more? (Take answers??)

Over the last 5770 years, Jews have produced some powerful ideas. One of our greatest, and most controversial, sages and philosophers was Rambam, Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon. He lived in the 14th century in Egypt and then in Spain. He tried to bring Judaism, Philosophy, math and science all together. Because people found that philosophy, math ans science worked better for them to get the job done. For Rambam, also known as Maimonides, he saw that Judaism could offer more than the secular studies. In chapter 27 of one of his books, the Guide to the Perplexed, he explained that the purpose or function of the whole Torah can be boiled down to 2 things known as Tikun haguf, or repairing the body and tikun hanefesh, repairing the soul.

Tikun hanefesh, repairing the soul means providing people with a basic sense of the truth of what life is about, what reality is and what our place is in it. Basically, Whatever the job is to get done, Torah has a truth to teach about how to do it. Tikun ha guf, repairing the body, does not mean the physical human body. The body being the whole of humanity. The body politic if you will. Repairing the body takes two forms, the first, simply to get people not to damage one another. We do not simply follow your immediate impulse because sometimes they hurt other people and that is not ok. Torah tells us not to shame one another, not lie about each other, to honor our parents, do the right thing, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

The second way Torah repairs the body is by teaching positive and descent virtues that make for a good community. Care for the widow, the starnger and the orphan. Give to the poor and the destitute, do not murder, do not covet, do not steal, do not lie.

For me, I am here because I believe I can do better. I think we all can do better. I want more from tonight, from this adventure to Laramie Wyoming than just an experience, than just to walk away feeling good. I want these 10 days to change my life, your life and the whole world. I beieve that being here reminds me to work harder, inspires me to strive for me and gives me some tools to get there. Judaism tells me that the way to do this is to start with the relationships in my life, the relationship I have with God and the relationship I have with myself. I want tonight, these days to give me the tools to look at where I have been less than my best self and seek out forgiveness from those I have harmed so that I can do better in the future. For me, there is a job to get done of repairing much of the broken-ness and sadness in this world beginning with the broken-ness and sadness within myself. I am here to remember and learn with and from you how to do this. For me, I am here tonight to repair my body. I have hurt others, I have hurt my community. I am here to repair my soul, to reconnect with the values and truths of the world which my living Judaism teach me, teach us all. These days will give the technology which will help get from where I am now, to something better than I am. I think I can do better, I think we all can do better. And, we have the technology.

Why are you here? As we begin the journey of 5770 together, what brings you here to this place at this time? What will Judaism give you? How will your fellow service go-ers, your time in this room, your conversations with me and each other serve you to help you get your job done?

Shana Tova.