Jeff Greenwald

July 9, 2010

Numbers

Thank you for the privilege to be able to pray with you tonight. Shabbat Shalom.

Numbers! I like Numbers. Statistically, if you buy a lottery ticket at your local 7-11 store...... You have a 1 in 40 million chance of striking it rich.

But consider this:

Given that there are 30,000 7-11 stores worldwide...

... and last year, there were 119 shootings and robberies at those 30,000 7-11 stores, you essentially have a 1 in 92,000 chance that when you buy your lottery ticket, there will be a shooting or a robbery on the day you buy your ticket..

So You have a much greater risk of getting robbed or killed buying your lottery ticket, than actually walking out alive with a winning lottery ticket. I don't like those odds. But I do like Numbers.

I have always played with numbers in my head....and tonight I want to talk about a different kind of Numbers; The 4th book of the Torah, Numbers. I read Numbers 33: Parshat Massey. Massey means "JOURNEYS."

The Jews are wandering around in the desert on their way to the Promised Land after having left Egypt. We follow the Jews in this story and we learn that The Israelites left Rameses and then camped in Sukkoth. Then they left Sukkoth, and camped in Etham. Then they left Etham, and returned to Freedom Valley.

Then they left Freedom Valley and crossed the Red Sea toward the desert. They then traveled from the Etham Desert camped in Marah, went to Elim, and then camped near the Red Sea. I stopped reading at this point, because the rest of the story sort of goes on and on, to a bunch of different places, most of which I had never heard of...and quite frankly, neither has Mapquest or Google maps, and with my head still spinning.... I concluded.... .... ...that for the Jews, one thing remains constant... and that is CHANGE. Constant Change. Not change like ...-I Pods, I Pads, x Boxes, B-school, and J-Dates, but the emotional change that happens inside of us while the other change happens on the outside. Starting over ... beginning a new beginning. It could be any one of the following...

1. Starting a new job ....as I just did recently, or
2. Losing a job...which unfortunately many of congregants in the last 2 years have experienced., or...
3. Moving to a new home ....maybe moving into the JCC in Palo Alto, like Lottie and Henry Burger and Norm and Nancy Rossen, or many other congregant couples did . . .or
4. Retiring,
5. Or getting married
6. Or even getting married again.
7. Or saying sorry to a friend, and then re-starting your relationship.
8. or Moving into a convalescent home.....
9. Undergoing a mastectomy

All of these force new beginnings inside of us. And all new beginnings mean accepting and embracing change......And whether forced upon you, or chosen by you, change and new beginnings are sometimes painful. They can add stress fear, lack of sleep, irritation....., emotional duress that can force self assessment and may test your self-esteem and self confidence. This is the change inside that we don't often talk about...maybe .it's too touchy feeley or maybe most people dont want their fears exposed so nakedly.

So while I love NUMBERS from a statistical standpoint, . This Torah portion in particular, makes me reflect on the way in which the numbers for the Jews are constantly changing.

For example…Today in 2010, our young Jews are moving to denver, Austin, Raleigh, boston and charlotte. I don’t see many young jews moving to los altos hills…..have you had your children move back to this community and join our congregation?

The Jewish world is moving and changing....you may have seen the Friday J magazine last month that highlighted that some American Jews, like Rabbi Yoshi, are moving to Eretz Yisrael. Today there are several Jewish communities in transition: Entire Communities in the world that are dramatically decreasing their Jewish populations and moving elsewhere.

No, not movements enforced on them.... Not events like the 3 Million Jews who lost their lives in Poland in WWII, but those movements by choice from places like ....South Africa...where the Jewish population was 120,000 in 2000, and now is down to 70,000 as these South African Jews move to Sydney, Melbourne, Atlanta, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Israel.

And Jews are leaving Argentina today for Mexico City, Miami, Spain and Israel. Jews in Russia are leaving for Germany, Israel and the USA. And the biggest immigrant Jewish group in the last ten years, coming to the USA... are arriving from the Ukraine, as Jews downsize in the Ukraine.

In 2009, The top 5 cities in the world where Jews live are

#5 Jerusalem with 600,000 Jews

#4 Los Angeles with 620,000 Jews

#3 Haifa with 655,000 Jews

#2 NY with 2.0 Million Jews , nearly 98% Yankee fans.

And #1 Tel Aviv .....with 2.6 Million Jews.

And while these numbers are interesting, the Jewish population growth: is close to zero percent. That is a big problem. In the last ten years, we grew a paltry 0.3%, compared to worldwide population growth of 1.4%. Maybe I shouldn't be too worried.....about Israeli Jews....their population growth was 2.4% compared to- 1.8% outside of Israel. Jews in the Diaspora, we all included, are a shrinking community .

I wonder what this means to all of us here tonight. The book of Numbers gets its name because Moses conducts two census of the Israelites, before they enter the Promised Land. Jews have had a preoccupation with Jewish continuity from the very beginning...even when Abraham worried about not having a child at his ripe old age. But God's promise to the Jews to be like the sands of the sea, not to be measured or counted.....has seemed to be an elusive commitment to us from God.

Massacres, pogroms, exile, assimilation in the Diaspora, the Holocaust and our own low birth rate have diminished our numbers, forcing us to be satisfied with knowing that we are far more influential in the world than our numbers would suggest. ."The paucity of our numbers drives us to take comfort in the profusion of our quality" said Rabbi Ismar Schorsch.

But I, propose to you tonight....that, the greatest contribution that we Jews in the Diaspora can make, harnessing the skills we have acquired after hundreds of years of constant change (our resilience, our intellect, our internal strength)... The greatest contribution we can make is to live together, build strong and connected Jewish communities, and increase our numbers. This should be our new beginning.

We need more Jewish voters, we need more Jewish musicians, we need more Jewish youth, more Jewish artists and Jewish authors, more Jewish thinkers and Jewish teachers, and we need more Jewish bloggers and html programmers and Yes, doctors and lawyers too, but …. The 21st century is well underway....and we are under-represented and under-counted.

So, Yes I love do Numbers....but underneath the actual Number lies an interesting tale...

So what happened to the Jews as they wandered in the desert? They left Avronah and then camped in Etzyon Gever. then camped in Kadesh and Then left Kadesh and then camped at Hor Mountain Aaron the priest climbed the Hor Mountain at HaShem's command, and then he died at the ripe old age of 123. And it was then that, the next generation of Jewish rulers were assigned.

For Judah, his son Caleb assumed command. For the tribe of Simeon's descendants, it was Shemuel son of Amihud. For the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad son of Kislon. and so on,.... children for the future were assigned for all the tribes of Jacob. Moses, Aaron, Jacob..all were gone. And the future of the Jewish community Grew, and began anew.

Shabbat Shalom