A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

W FOR WONDER

Have you watched David Attenborough’s TV Series ‘Planet Earth’ ? Wonderful isn’t it! It’s a wonder how creatures survive and flourish in the most inhospitable of environments – like deserts in the last Planet Earth broadcast.

This is a theme at the very heart of the Pesach festival. I wonder at our persistence through all the trials of history from Egypt onwards.

I wonder at the way we keep our traditions going; how we keep such a powerful observance such as the Seder going. It’s all the more amazing given the distractions of modern day life.

I wonder at the very existence of Jews and Judaism, and at the marvels of Israel despite all the problems.

Wonder is a most basic emotion, which every child has and which spurs a child on to awakening understanding about his environment. The great scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel said that the key to spiritual understanding is wonder, or as he also called it ‘radical amazement’.

The news this week of the successful implantation of a laboratory grown human bladder fills us with radical amazement. It’s one of the wonders of Judaism, to my mind, that it endorses such advancements of science which improve the human condition. Far from taking the position as some religions do, that we are not to interfere with the work of the Creator, we affirm that human beings are co-workers with the Creator. As the Talmud puts it we are in such situations acting as the hands of the Creator in this world.

Whilst of course Judaism, Jewish Law (Halachah) is ever vigilant over ethical issues, such as where the intentions behind are exploitative, the adaptability of Judaism to human progress is a great wonder. There is a school of thought that it is not this wonder which drives us on. 20% of all Nobel Prize Winners have been Jews (we are .5% of the world’s population) yet the proportion who openly and proudly identify themselves as Jews is negligible.

“Would that a time would come when great Jews will be Jewishly great” Rav Kook once exclaimed. And some say that for most of us who do openly identify, the driving force is not wonder and admiration for Judaism.

It is persecution. You may have heard Rabbi Daniel Cohn-Sherbock this week on the Radio Programme ‘Start the Week’ with David Baddiel, introducing his new book about the paradox of persecution. He was arguing that what has held the Jewish people together more than anything else is Antisemitism. It’s not a new idea. The first prominent Jew who claimed that was the philosopher Spinoza. And there may be some truth about it. But it would be a sad truth if that’s all there is to it.

The truth is - wonder might initially drive us, but we soon lose it – a child as he/she grows up loses this sense of wonder.

You know that curious little passage in the Haggadah about the 4 sons (or the 4 children). I am struck by the 3rd of them, usually called the simple one. Tam in Hebrew – which can mean simple, or straightforward, or innocent or perfect! If you just take this character as simple – then there’s not a great deal of difference between him and the 4th one, the one who doesn’t know how to ask, - is there? That one doesn’t say anything of course, this one, the Tam says simply: Mah Zot (what is this? ) Not much of an advance on the 4th one, not much of a question.

You’ve got such a contrast between the first 2, the Wise and the Wicked, you’d expect more of a contrast between the last two. I think the Tam comes alive if you read what he says not as a question, but as an exclamation: Mah Zot – What is this!! In this way he expresses wonder – the wow factor. He can’t find any more words than that. He’s not got the erudition of the hacham (the wise) – or the critical faculty of the rasha (the contrary one) – is he lacking a question? It’s not a question of questions- it’s just wow, it’s just amazement!

If you read it this way, you are interpreting it as an appreciation of the powerful influence of Pesach. Some Haggadot follow this line with the 4 questions, taking them instead as 4 exclamations. Mah Nishtanah can be read (not as why is this night different?) but ‘How different is this night!” like Mah Tovu at the start of the service means “How good is this place!”

Modern Judaism requires the Wow Factor to thrive.

A Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a wonderful occasion – it is a wonder, a real achievement. So it is when anyone discovers that they can do something they didn’t realise they had it in them to do. And in a Jewish context it’s wonderful because it helps us all grow.

Pesach is for looking back at how far we have come together, and looking forward. And I want to say how particularly pleasing it is to be sharing this service with Sidney Morley and his family and celebrating your very special birthday with you Sidney and your family is a joy for us all.

This Shabbat, the Shabbat before Pesach is called Shabbat Haggadol – usually translated the Great Shabbat, but that’s ungrammatical – it’s really the Shabbat of the Great. The great what – the great day? – in your case Sidney it is a great day you have reached. Or if we translate it the great one? For us, Sidney, you amongst all our gedolim, are the one who has guided and sustained us in the most concrete and practical of ways over many many years and most of all we cherish fond memories of Ysabel by your side.But I know you would want the credit to go ultimately to the Great One above all - Ha’el Hagadol – the source of all life and strength. And indeed we would all join with you in saying sheheyanu for your great day.

Life itself is a wonder.

Jewish life is full of wonders. Sometimes eclipsed. Our sense of wonder at the advancements in Israel is eclipsed by the problems. Our wonder at the rise to prominence of Anglo-Jewry in the 350 years following the Resettlement in England is eclipsed by several things – the dramatic decline in our numbers over the past half century, from half-a million to 300,000 and dropping, the rise in Antisemitism, the rise in racism as a whole.

Our wonder at the progress made by the Manchester Jewish community if we look back to our forbears in Red Bank and Cheetham Hill and how far we’ve come since then, is tempered by similar misgivings.

Our wonder at the rise of Reform Judaism over the past – now fast approaching 150 years in Manchester, is limited by a regret that it has not expanded further.

We’ve got a lot to offer as Reform Jews. Many of us come to it afresh from different background finding new ideas, creativity, excitement, comprehensibility, an inclusivity, a friendliness, a facilitativeness, an openness, a you-name-it-ness which you don’t find elsewhere.

There are great strengths in our Judaism- if we can only hold on to them. We have enormous powers to adapt to adverse situations. They are the strengths of practicalities mixed with faith.

That’s a message of Pesach. That’s the wonder of it, the wow of it, the how different it is, Mah Nishtanah, Mah Tov helkenu, Mah naim goralenu, mah yafah yerushatenu…

How special, how good is our lot, how pleasant is our heritage!