Sermons of Rebuke: Va'eira

by Rivka Schwartz

There have been too many donation letters sent to all the houses. We thought it would be over after the calendars we got for Rosh Hashana. Now there’s the holiday charity rush. Most Jewish organizations seem celebrate Christmas. Christmas and New Years are big times for Jewish donations, and they don't even give calendars.
The problem I'm having is that I threw out my bills. They got mixed in with the donations. I like to think of bills as my donation to Topeka Water and Electric, also known as TWE. The rabbi said it doesn't count towards Ma'aser. I still consider it charity though.
 
Bar Mitzvah kids reading is painful. Very painful. I am going to show up late to these things from now on. I can’t listen to these kids anymore. I see a lot of members have already learned this lesson, as they show up for Kiddish.
 
Everybody is scared and now people aren’t leaving their homes again. There’s apparently another variant and everybody is blaming the rabbi for it.
The rabbi wants to introduce people to the president and mayor of the city so they can stop blaming him.
 
Rabbi Mendelchem’s Sermon
Shabbat Shalom My Congregant
 
Why are there no people? Because COVID came up again... Another variant. I don’t know the science behind it, Bernie. I just know that people are depressed… a government order that people should be depressed and shouldn’t show up to shul… Is it slavery? I don’t know. Their variants of Paroh. Little variants that cause a tiredness amongst the people of our community. Little Parohs… Not showing up to the shul is not a variant. There is no ‘I won’t pay dues’ variant.… What other excuses do you have for not coming to shul?! The Kiddish has been good recently.
We have to talk about the leftovers… You don’t take rugulach before the Kiddish is over. I understand they said people can take it home. Not before the Kiddish starts. You loaded a bag. That's a variant of stealing… The rugulach was a nice tray, laid out…

H' commands Moshe to take the Jews out of Egypt. Moshe is called upon to begin the greatest revelation of all time. Recognition of H' by a nation and the world. I should take the Jews out of this shul. That would be a great revelation of not dealing with the board. No more having to listen to messed up Torah readings by Bar Mitzvah boys who don’t practice… Laziness is not the ‘lack of spirit’ the Jews had… We don’t need cheerleaders. This isn’t a sporting event. The Bar Mitzvah kids need to not be lazy…
They’re blaming COVID for not being able to read the portion. Others don’t come to shul… There are twelve people here today... I think a choir is enough to draw people. We don’t need cheerleaders…
 
Why does Moshe give in so easily?
(Shemot 6:9) Moshe tells the Jewish people that Gd will take them out of Egypt with an outstretched arm... to be a nation. 'And they did not hear (listen to) Moshe, from lack of spirit and hard work'… You haven’t worked for years, Bernie. You retired thirty years ago… Your laziness is killing me. I need somebody to take me out of this congregation... 
I can see this congregation doesn’t listen even when they do nothing. Your lack of spirit. Your laziness. Your lack of enthusiasm is what is killing this congregation… No. It’s not the new variant. It’s the laziness… I wish some people were here to hear this. You’re lazy. That’s why there is no deli in the shul. You can’t have a deli with no enthusiasm…

When totally down and abused, it's hard to see the future. Sometimes, one cannot foresee positive. Right now. After the Chazin's repetition of Musaf, I cannot see anything positive. When I look to the left side fo the shul, nothing positive... They become stuck in the bad. Even the psyche is affected and there is only a negative perspective. Here it was a whole nation, and Moshe was also affected. Now we have just sat through a 15 minute Kaddish. The Chazin in this congregation has abused us... 
It’s hard to listen when you’re overworked. I know a lot of annoying bosses… This congregation doesn’t work. There’s no excuse for the depression… The Chazin and this Bar Mitzvah. Yes. The Bar Mitzvah was oppressive… Having to listen to that brings us back to slavery…
We have to relive slavery. ‘We were slaves to Paroh in Egypt.’ We have to remember the redemption… Hearing the Chazin and the Bar Mitzvah boy is exactly what the taskmasters would do... The Bar Mitzvah not reading the Torah ever again is one of the calls of redemption.
 
When you work real hard and there is no energy from the people. What I deal with here... Exactly. Back left of the shul... You give nothing. No spirit...
It is the lack of spirit. Our lack of spirit affected Moshe. He gave up. Your lack of spirit is killing me…
Yes our synagogue can have spirit, as we saw in the last inter-shul choolante cookoff, when our synagogue was the loudest singers of 'We've got spirit, yes we do. We've got spirit, how about you?'... We were strong there. We had hope. The other congregations didn't even sing back. They have not spirit and they're not losers.... But that is what spirit is about. And we had it. How do we get that back?...
Their choolante tasted excellent, but it had no spirit. They won, but with no spirit. What happened to our spirit?
 
When people are tired and worked, they cannot see a synagogues the future. They worked too hard on the choolante. Their choolante tasted good, but they were too tired to enjoy it. That is why they had no spirit. We had the worst choolante out there, and we loved it... 
Now we do need better cooks in our community, as Michael's family also put no effort into the Kiddish for his Bar Mitzvah... Kiddish can be better. We should get the sisterhood from Anshei Sinah to come over to make our Kiddish...
 
Moshe goes with the negativity a bissel, as there is effort involved, and the people give him no energy, like this congregation who takes away your energy with depression and laziness. You don’t try… Kind of like Michael, last week, when all he did was the Barchu for Maftir. Mazel Tov on your Bar Mitzvah and finding a way to put no effort into it. I am sure you'll be back here layning (reading the Torah) every week, for pay, once you dropout of high school… Let’s turn to this week’s Bar Mitzvah who read the whole thing not well…
Moshe is met with opposition, kind of like the time I met with Carol and she wanted to put flowers on the ark… Carol. It wasn’t after Sukkot, and you didn’t mention putting Lulavs up there… This isn’t a Christian gravesite. The Torah is alive… You killed it. Yes. The time you didn’t join my idea for the new kosher delicatessen in the shul’s social hall… And if the shul smelled like deli, everybody would come. Everybody loves a hot corned beef sandwich on club… Exactly. We would get a Minyin on a weekday if there was a deli here. But the board was too lazy to put in the effort… You volunteer for Bingo. You can volunteer for a deli.
It's opposition that kills a community. The negativity brings a community to the point where there is no deli...

(Shemot 6:12) ‘Moshe spoke before H’, saying, "Behold, the children of Israel did not hearken to me. How then will Pharaoh hearken to me, seeing that I am of closed lips?”’ Moshe is still complaining. H’ already told him he had Aharon. It’s like he forgets all the good advice. The same way nobody took my advice for the valet parking... It's an anomaly that I haven’t converted, with congregants like you... Nothing positive. Just negative. You empower a man to think he can't do anything. You think you're going to get me to stop giving the sermons by falling asleep? It shall not happen...
 
(6:13) ‘And H’ spoke to Moses and to Aharon, and He commanded them concerning the children of Israel and concerning Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.’ H’ didn’t even respond to Moshe this time. He just told him what to do. He gave him the command. Moshe’s excuse of them not listening gets annoying… I know nobody on the board listens to you. But that is not an excuse for not talking. At a certain point you stop listening to complaints... I know you blame me for COVID. I don't care.
The difference between Moshe and the board is that Moshe listens...
Do we have an Aaron in this congregation, to lean on? Do we? Do we? Do we?! H' would've told me to leave this congregation and let these people stay... The Gabai is not an Aaron. If speaking out against the leader is what you mean by Aaron, the Gabai might be...
You rabbi has been affected by this negativity... Yes, there was a raise, but with the down payment, your rabbi cannot afford the mortgage....
We are now going to do an appeal for positive perspective. That includes a raise for your rabbi. A new deli. A decent choolante from other shuls. No Chazin... It's hard to have that positive perspective, but we must.
The donation letters have bombarded our homes…
 
Their depression hit Moshe. Being a rabbi here… So what about another variant? You can’t let the past bring you down. H’ didn’t listen to Moshe when he complained again. I will not let this variant enslave this congregation… It's the fourth variant this year. It does nothing. You worried you’re going to catch the sniffles? It’s the winter time. Sniffles come…
The cough is really annoying. Next time a Bar Mitzvah boy has a cough, we're cancelling his turning thirteen...
 
(Shemot 6:2-5) H’ appears to Moshe as ‘H”,’ His name of truth (Rashi). With Moshe, H’ fulfils the covenant with the Jewish people. Truth is the fulfillment of a promise. Promising is not the truth. Saying you will do renovations is not the truth… You broke down a wall and left it… I get that there’s the destruction of our Great Temples. I commemorate that when I see this congregation… Nobody is here… I commemorate the destruction when I see the shul's renovations...
H’ hears the pain of the Jewish people… No. You complain. It’s not pain. It’s complaints… It’s painful for me. I hear my pain…
It's our duty to fulfil the truth of H’s promise to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. We can’t do that if we’re tired. We can’t do that if you’re falling asleep in the middle of my sermon…
 
As a Bar Mitzvah, don’t mess it up for your ancestors. You are here to fulfil being a decent Jew on behalf of your ancestors, unlike your parents. Don’t let them down and read Torah like you did today… Don’t be like the board. Be a good member of our nation… You’re not going to be a Moshe. We know that. Bring nachis...
 
Rivka’s Notes on Rabbi Mendelchem’s Drasha
 
The choolante cookoff was a glimmer of hope for the congregation. We're not talented, but it showed our pride. We've got beat in every contest. We got killed in the inter-shul knitting contest, and still hung up the quilt.
 
There was a Minyin in shul, as the rabbi blackmailed the men into coming. Other than that, I was the only one in the women’s section. I think this is the fourth variant of members not coming this year. We’ve had variants of people not showing up for the past eight years. 
Variants are coming and going. Members are not coming. There are many variants of excuses people have for not coming to shul. Family, shopping, golf, sleep, kids, dinner, the Chazin.
 
The rabbi’s message that the shul members are not tired, but lazy, was brilliant. The problem was that half of the ten guys that showed up fell asleep during the sermon. They didn’t get the message.
The board hasn’t done anything other than complain over the past two years. I don’t think breaking down a wall is doing anything, if you don’t fix it.

The rabbi shouldn’t have mentioned the cheerleader idea. The next Shabbat Chatan, Ufruf, religious bachelor Shabbat at shul, other names for it, had girls cheering ‘Shlomo,’ when he got up for the Aliyah. The Gabai called him up and before anybody could say ‘Amen,’ the girls where cheering ‘Go!!! Shlomo! If you can’t do it, no one can. Shlomo’s got spirit.’ That caused a big ruckus, as the Gabai turned to the cheerleaders and said, ‘Gd can.’
 
The rabbi started a protest against letters for donations. The rabbi made a fire and threw the letters in. Simmy thought we were burning Chametz too early this year. He thought it was a Jewish leap year.
Now, the congregants are not allowed to donate to organizations that send them letters. So, people stopped donating. Without the letters, they have no idea who to donate to. Dues were paid though.

The Bar Mitzvah was painful. We had to listen to his messed up reading. His family didn’t even show up to shul, due to the variant. It got out that they just didn’t want to have to listen to him. They heard him practicing at home and knew how bad it would go.
 
The double Kiddish was great. We celebrated the Bar Mitzvah and the Civelsteins' sixtieth. They were kind and told people they could take home food from the Kiddish. Leftovers were gone before the rabbi made the Kiddish blessing. Simon took all the rugulach. He filled up his bag right away. He poured the tray into the bag. He brought a garbage bag to pour into. Otherwise, the rugulach would've spilled all over the floor. He needed the bag to cover the tray. When Simon was asked why he took all the rugulach, he said, 'They said you can take.'
It was later explained that it's not leftovers if it's before people eat at the event. The leftovers policies are now in the shul's bylaws, thanks to Mark and his unhappiness with not getting rugulach at Kiddish.
 
Since the deli closed eight years ago, people have questioned if any real Jews live in Topeka.
The deli at the shul was a great idea. The problem is that all of the congregants would want to take the sandwiches for free. They would walk in for dinner and ask ‘who’s sponsoring my sandwich tonight?’ No matter the situation, they would find a way to eat for free. If it wasn't sponsored, they would take it and call it leftovers, and not pay.