Sermon of Rebuke: Behar-Bechukotai

by Rivka Schwartz

Community BBQ got rained out. Next time they're planning an indoor BBQ. The rabbi mentioned the idea of a cook-in. This is where you cook and eat inside, and use an oven, and you eat inside with a fork. It tastes just like the BBQ, but you don’t have to worry about rain. I believe he doesn't like having to travel all the way to the park to watch over the members. Watching them in shul itself is painful. Seeing them stuffing their faces and licking sauce off their fingers bothers him. He says it's forbidden to eat like them. He doesn't even say 'animals.' He says 'like them.' He also likes cushioned seats.
He connected it to people understanding that the earth is not theirs. Started on a midweek sermon about how the land of Israel is Gd’s (Vayikra 25:23), as Gd continues to say, ‘you are just dwellers and inhabitants with Me.’ He added that if we would understand how the world worked, we would’ve known that you return the land to its rightful owners in the 50th year, the Year of Jubilee, you don’t work the land that year, or in the seventh year, and you don’t do a community BBQ in the beginning of May.
He could’ve just told us to wait till June.
This is where he took off on how we need to do Shmitah, sabbaticals. He mentioned nothing of the law taking effect 'when you go into the land.' We're in Topeka. I hope he gets the vacation he's been hoping for. So he can go to Israel and keep Shmitah.
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Rabbi Mendelchem’s Sermon (Drasha)
Shabbat Shalom
 
Stop!!!
(Vayikra 25:1) ‘The land shall return, it’s a Shabbat for H’… H' deserves a Shabbat too... He also deserves rest... That's why we don't ask for stuff on Shabbat... You're always asking for stuff, Sadie... Give Him a break. Can you imagine people asking you for health and a good living all the time... It's a lot...
The land returns to Gd in the seventh year… Shabbat… Rest… Seven… Give me a year off…
On Shabbat the land returns to H’… Don't work... Seventh year, I get payed leave...

(Vayikra 25:6) ‘This Shabbat of the land will be yours to eat...’ Food of the seventh year... Good food comes when you don’t mess it up. You work it and there's nothing good... How somebody can mess up an apple pie is crazy. Unpeeled apples are better than what we had… Add cinnamon… Then use whipped cream... I’m not going to mention last week’s Kiddish with the spoiled cheesecake… You keep it in the freezer. Don't touch it. Then pull it out and let it rest for seven minutes… The problem is you put it in the microwave. You worked it. You did not let it rest… 
That is what Shabbat is. A return to H.’ Letting stuff rest so you don’t mess it up… Trust in H'... Yes. Bernie. On Shabbat we return to H.’ But it’s hard to do that when the congregation… Why congregants can’t return pens… The pen says ‘Congregation Beis Emes USefeliah’ on it… You return stuff… Now we have to wait seven years to get the pen back… Is the pen an inheritance??? Forty-nine years is the inheritance... Is it really yours if it says the name of the company on it??? No. It’s the companies…
You mess things up. You mess them up for six years. Give it a seventh year to not mess it up… Give one day a week where you don’t mess things up… All I am asking is one day a week where you don’t come to me with your questions… I am not a healer...

(Vayikra 25:8) ‘Count seven cycles, seven times… 49 years.’  You can barely count the Omer. 49 days you can’t get through… Tzvi counted 5… Our synagogue abandoned the Omer count at eight. We’re abandoning Shavuot this year… 5781. That’s this year… You don’t even know the year. How can we count 49 of them?
(Vayikra 25:13) In this year of rest, ‘people will return to their inheritance.’ How can you rest when you know you have something that is… It’s the shul’s pen… It's not an inheritance... Now Bernie’s sleeping. No care for morality… 
Rest is about returning to H'… It's the office's... It's a jubilee, you return the pens...
 
Who does it all belong to?
(Vaykira 25:23) ‘And the land, you shall not sell forever, because the land is mine and you are just living with me’… How much selling... You can't sell forever... The land is H’s.  Eretz Yisrael belongs to H,’ not the Vatican… Just a lot of it belongs to the Vatican... It doesn’t belong to the Israeli government… That's taxes... OK. Gd and the Vatican... Then tell them about Yovel (50th year). They don't mention it in the New Testament... That's why...
The money is not yours. Mr. Madson, that really isn’t your money. That is your wife’s, and it's time for you to pay alimony… 
Too much selling... 
We are not doing the appeal for the new building fund today… It's not yours... Nothing is yours... The building is not yours… It's H's... Mr. Schwartz, you have a lot of money. I hope you are enjoying your new Cadillac. You spent a good amount on that. It is time you shared some of that money with the rest of the community… Have you heard of Ma’aser? Tithing… A tenth of… Taxes it the governments. This is Gd's... He should've raised it...
The way we treat the land, and money... Because you rip people off. (Vayikra 25:17) 'You shall not wrong your fellow Jew' by ripping him off... You opened that garage and started with charging for labor... No. twelve minute is not an hour... You charge for the number of years...
 
In Bechukati (Vayikra 26:3-5), it’s clear, ‘If you follow in my decrees and keep my commandments and do them. I will give you rain in it’s proper time’ the earth will work, you’ll have trees… ‘you’ll dwell securely in the land’… Just keep the Mitzvot… Rain will come when we’re not trying to have a shul picnic…
You don’t do well in the stock market by investing. You do well by showing up to shul on time. By keeping Shabbat. By not constantly working the garden...
Why does nothing in this shul go right? You follow none of my rules… People are still shining their foreheads… The baldness is glaring all over the shul…
There’s no security here… Exactly. Where is the security guard?... So, he’s on Sabbatical?…
If you just rested more. Shabbat. If you just got more sleep, you would be doing better… You mess it up… You’ll mess up the shul if you build more… The drapes are there because members made them... Your work messes it all up… Stop trying… That's the key to success…
Fifty years to get a pen back...
For Gd. What’s right… Not stealing. And count, Sam… If we don’t count. Yes, counting the Omer is a Mitzvah. If we don’t do the Mitzvot, the action, how can we rest… I know that our new executive director is fine with it. But… 

Relax. It’s not even yours… Take off this year… Spend the time returning the pens you stole… Relax. Your business bears no fruit. Been working for 14 years in this congregation and nothing… It’s time for a Sabbatical… I can’t jubilate here…
In the 50th year, you return the seat to its rightful owner… You stole his Makom Kavuah, his permanent seat… He didn’t want to cause a fight… The last theft of a seat led to the Sukkot Brawl of 5780… The fight went out to the Sukkah… That’s also why we stopped serving schnapps at Bar Mitzvahs… You keep the laws of the land… Cover the foreheads and we will all pray securely…

It also says earlier, in Vayikra 25:18, ‘If you do my decrees... you will dwell securely in the land’… You’ll also have good fruit from letting the land rest… Things will be good… No need to make a messed up apple pie with no cinnamon... If you would listen to me…
​If the board were to have listened to my idea for the new Kiddish room…

Who has the right to rest? You have to deserve it… I get a Sabbatical. Yes… Because I do the stuff. I have been working this shul… What have you… Rabbi, garage, what’s the difference? You have to work... More than twelve minutes...(Vayikra 25:3) ‘Six years you sow the field and six years you prune the vineyard and gather produce’… Yes. You have to work… You trust that it will last because you worked… 
Let's get the rest part right... Everybody, return your pens to their rightful owners.
 
Rivka's Notes on Rabbi Mendelchem's Drasha
Due to our congregation's lack of ability to count the Omer, the rabbi decreed a jubilee year. He didn't trust that Jewish people could truthfully count fifty years correctly. So, he decided to do the Yovel year now, and not take a chance at messing it up. Being that we're not in Israel, he wasn't worried about having to run the idea by other rabbis.
He commanded everybody to take a break from work. But they still had to pay their dues. The shul must be worked, even during Shmitah.
The rabbi ended up taking a sabbatical. He felt his speech made him worthy of one. 
I was at the board meeting. If you take a Sabbatical in Israel and don't work the land, you're blessed. In the shul, they’ll try to fire you and get a new rabbi.
The rabbi's idea of a Sabbatical year for the congregation backfired. People were resting too much. They stopped coming to Minyin. They claimed that Gd would do it for them. They quoted the Parsha and talked of letting the land rest on the seventh year and the 50th year, so it will last. 'H' will make the shul blessed if we don't come.'

The congregants really took to the rabbi's teaching of 'stop.' I think that is all they heard. It was very dramatic. Rabbi Mendelchem held that 'stop' for a while. It was very meaningful, how he held it. Just stood there and stopped himself. It was around a one minute pause. It felt like a moment of silence, but we weren't showing our respects for anybody. After that, most of the congregants dozed off. Most of the congregants stopped everything. They didn't even finish davening. They relaxed and rested. Many brought out lawn chairs to the front yards. They stopped working the land.
Neighbors complained about Jewish lawns. After three weeks, the town council said they had to mow them. The rabbi agreed when it was decided that Topeka is not in Israel. The rabbi’s argument about the rained out BBQ did not pass with Mayor Dudley. He decided to offer the shul a tent for the grill.

The rabbi started a new campaign where people had to return all pens to companies. His decree was based on the idea that companies ordered 5,000 pens with their names on them because customers were stealing them. The company names are on them so that people would know whose they are and who to return them to.
He also made the kids in grade school bring their own pens. He told the children that they are pencil thieves. Not borrowers. As he claimed- nobody who has ever borrowed a pen in class, returned it. He explained that this is the reason all standardized tests are administered with a number 2 pencil. To quote, ‘The first one was stolen.’
The rabbi ended up pulling out a Kohl's return receipt with six staples and explained how you can't return everything. If you wore the clothes, you can't return them. If it wasn't stealing a pen or working the land, or giving land back to the families in the jubilee year, returning was not pertinent.
The rabbi explained that not all were jubilant in the jubilee year. Those who paid full price on the homes were not very happy.

The no overbaking cakes campaign worked. The sisterhood started serving fruit salads at Kiddish.

He turned all into a jubilee. All seats were returned to their rightful families.  All names on the seats were of people who passed away. Only the Schwartz family still lived in town. All other people just lost their seats. The congregants all had to stand for Davening the next couple weeks.
The fight went on and people said they deserved seats, as they paid for them. The rabbi had all the seats removed and shipped to family members wherever they lived, as an inheritance for the shul’s new jubilee. The shul ended up using the building fund money to purchase new chairs for the congregants who paid dues and returned pens.
The rabbi was right. They all stole pens. Max had a pen he took from Kara in grade school. It was 85 years ago and the ink had dried out. It was a beautiful moment at the cemetery when Max was able to put that pen on her tombstone. He then put a rock on her grave to hold it down.
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The shul now has a designated Omer counter. He goes around blowing the Shofar every night, making sure people counted while he scares the children. The Yovel jubilee theme of not working the land and blowing the Shofar has gotten the rabbi in trouble with the town council. Now the Omer counter has to be invited into houses to blow the Shofar. He didn't make it past the Goldman's house that Tuesday. Shlomo Goldman got him caught up in a conversation about politics and cousin they found out they shared. Now Shlomo has to show up to shul, as he's the only one still counting.

​Nobody went back to that garage. We lost that member.
The rabbi could've just said 'Stop!!!' That was the message of the sermon. It said everything.