Rosh Hashanah 5787
September 13, 2026
The synagogue you are sitting in, or observing on Zoom, is 37 years old this week. We dedicated the building in September, 1989, after a three-year fundraising and construction effort. The sanctuary is 18 years old, after an expansion that added not only this sacred space but new classrooms and a rebuilt administrative wing.
But as relatively new as the structure is, the community stretches back nearly twice that long. Over 60 years it grew from the Concord Lincoln Jewish Study Group, to the Concord Area Jewish Group, and to Kerem Shalom (Vineyard of Peace). The contributions of imagination, effort, and financial resources from many individuals and families have brought us to a point where we can think about securing our future, as Jonathan Aibel, our president, outlined in yesterday’s service.
What holds a community together and enables it to leverage these various elements is a set of shared values. Sometimes these values are unstated. Not here. Several years ago, we got a grant from the Legacy Heritage Fund, a philanthropy dedicated to enhancing Jewish life. The grant was mostly oriented toward leadership development, starting with identifying and communicating our mission, our vision, and our values. A small committee that thought long and hard about our values, and I am proud of the statement that we produced.
We named three core values: Kehillah, Simcha, and K’vod Ha-briyut. In English: Community, Joy, and Respect for All. Let’s put the first of these into action right now. If you are in the sanctuary, turn to someone you don’t know, introduce yourself, and wish them a Shana Tova. If you are participating on Zoom, send a Shana Tova chat message to someone you don’t know.
As for respect for all, I like to think that we aspire to live up to the words of the poet Danny Siegel, who wrote:
If you always assume
the person sitting next to you
is the Messiah
waiting for some simple human kindness —
You will soon come to weigh your words
and watch your hands.
And if the person chooses
Not to be revealed
In your time —
It will not matter.
And that brings me to Simcha, Joy. What led me to focus on this value was an accidental find at the library. I spotted a stack of books set aside for a local Waltham book club. The book was Heart of a Stranger, an autobiography of Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue in New York, a Reform temple. Rabbi Buchdahl is the first Korean-American female rabbi. Her book describes her journey from birth in Seoul to a Buddhist mother and Jewish father, through immigration to the US, to Hebrew School in a small Jewish community in Tacoma, Washington, college at Yale, rabbinical school, and ultimately to ascending the pulpit as senior rabbi of the largest Jewish congregation in the United States. It’s a remarkable story and a worthwhile read.
After each brief chapter of her history, she relates that history to a Jewish concept. Here’s how she starts talking about joy: First-timers at my synagogue, she writes, frequently remark with a little too much shock: “I didn’t know Judaism could be so…joyful.” Music is a big piece of this; the Central Synagogue actually has a band. She points out that we are commanded in our scriptures and the Talmud to serve God with joy even as we recite the parts of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy that have us at least metaphorically trembling with awe and fear. Twelve and a half years ago I had the honor of being the MC at Rabbi Darby’s installation event. When it came time to kick off the formal ceremony, I quoted Psalm 100, Verse 2: Ivdu et Adonai b’simcha: serve God with joy. I don’t know that I fully believe in the God that King David referred to when he wrote the psalm, but I do know that the joy of being part of a Jewish community nourishes my soul. This is consistent with the teaching of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as explained by Rabbi Buchdahl: the word “simcha” in the Torah is never applied to individuals. Rather, simcha happens in a relationship—brought about by human interactions, communal gatherings, festive meals, or holiday rituals. He might also have mentioned music. It’s why Kerem Shalom named our Shabbat prayerbook Shir Ha-Lev, Song of the Heart.
Kehillah, Simcha, K’vod Ha-briyut. Three Jewish values, but also three universal human values. Maybe just plain words to live by. Embrace your community with joy and respect, and likewise be embraced. On this holy day, as we embark on the symbolic 5787th revolution around the sun, let us resolve to pray with joy, speak and sing with joy, love and cherish with joy, and bring joy into all our spaces. And let us say, Amen.