The meeting will be held 300-320 Dumps Prepexamwell on Monday, when Learnguidepdf more than 10,000 guests will gather in New York. Tami Joan stared at the billboard – black, white and yellow, Testprepwell all smiling and waved. However, this painting seems to be something not quite right. The proportions and color of the characters are Testprepwell ignored, and each face looks the same pale. 200-310 test Tami Learnguidepdf Joan murmured Dead. They are galloping along the wide freeway. 200-310 test Under the lights, the road reflects a disturbing yellow light. They passed the old Testprepwell Navys naval port and again passed the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. John finally stopped talking, pulled out a calculator from Texas Instruments, and started ticking some numbers. Tami Joan leaned back on the back of the chair looking out over foggy sidewalks and gloomy faces of those who sat on the brownstone EX200 Exam Questions porch overlooking the highway. In the heat, they seem to be in a semi-lethargic state. Taxi is also very hot. Tami Joan reaches for the window button and wants to 300-320 Dumps lower the window a little. The window did not respond, but she did not feel surprised. She reached out across John and went to the other side of the window, Prepexamwell but he 300-320 Dumps was over there too. At this moment she noticed that Testprepwell the door locks on Prepexamwell both sides had disappeared. Not even the door. She groping 300-320 Dumps at the door with her hand to find EX200 Exam Questions 200-310 test the remnants of the broken door handle. Nothing at all – as if someone had sawn it with a hacksaw. What happened John asked. Well, Testprepwell this car door 200-310 test how do we open it Just as John 200-310 test 200-310 test looked around the door, the logo for the Midtown Tunnel flashed past. Hi John tapped the partition. You forgot to bend, where are you going Maybe he wants to go to the Queensboro Bridge, Tameng conjectured. Although the road to go the bridge more distant, but can escape the tunnel toll station. She sat forward and beat Learnguidepdf the plexiglass with the ring on her hand. Do you want to go that bridge The driver ignored them. Hi Not long after, they passed through the entrance to 300-320 Dumps the Queensboro Bridge again. Damn John shouted. Where are you going to bring us Harlem I bet he is going to take us to Harlem. Tami Joan looks out the window. A car is moving forward with 300-320 Dumps them and slowly Learnguidepdf over them. She 300-320 Dumps patted the window. Help She shouts, Learnguidepdf Help The drivers car Testprepwell glanced at her inadvertently, then glanced, frowned. He slowed down and followed behind them. But Prepexamwell then suddenly Learnguidepdf a taxi Prepexamwell abrupt, down the exit ramp down Prepexamwell the highway, into Queens. Taxis turn into an alley, galloping over an abandoned warehouse district, at a speed of at least 60 miles. What do you want to do Tamijong tapped the partition. Open Learnguidepdf slow Where Prepexamwell 300-320 Dumps is this Oh, God No John murmured, Look The driver did not know when to wear EX200 Exam Questions a ski boot. What do you want Shouted Tarim Joan. Do you want money We give you money. The man on the front seat remained silent. Tami Joan opened the bag and removed her black laptop. She leaned 200-310 test back to the side of the Learnguidepdf window and hit the window hard with a laptop corner. The huge noise seemed to have shocked the driver on the front 200-310 test seat, Learnguidepdf but the windowpane was fine. Taxi suddenly biased, almost hit the brick wall of 200-310 test the roadside buildings. Give you money How much I can give you a lot of money John cried angrily, tears flowing down his obese cheeks. Tami Joan again smashed the window with the computer. The screen of the computer flew out of the huge impact force, but 200-310 test EX200 Exam Questions the windows were still intact. She tried again, the computers fuselage cracked, falling 200-310 test from her 300-320 Dumps hand. Europe, Mom Both of them were suddenly thrown violently forward. Taxi stopped abruptly in a dark Testprepwell alley. Driver drilled Prepexamwell out of the car, holding a pistol in his hand. Please, please She begged. The driver 300-320 Dumps walked to the back half of the Prepexamwell taxi, bent over and looked through Prepexamwell the dirty glass to the back seat.

This place is really messy. Lyme does not like the mess when cleaning the room. He does not like the kind EX200 Exam Questions of chaos and roar, can not stand the harsh vacuum cleaner – he Learnguidepdf found himself particularly annoyed that stuff. He was satisfied with it, satisfied with what it is now. This room, which he calls the office, is located on Learnguidepdf the second floor of this gothic, Upper West Side apartment overlooking the Central Park. 300-320 Dumps The room 200-310 test was large, twenty by twenty feet square, but almost every inch Learnguidepdf of EX200 Exam Questions space was full of things. Sometimes he closes his eyes and plays a game trying to discern the Learnguidepdf scent of different objects in EX200 Exam Questions the room thousands of books and magazines, piles of copy Prepexamwell paper, hot TV transistors, dusty light bulbs, Bulletin boards made 200-310 test of EX200 Exam Questions cork, as well as different upholstery 300-320 Dumps materials such as vinyl, hydrogen peroxide and 200-310 test latex. Testprepwell He can distinguish three different brands of Scotch whiskey. And pest guano taste. I do 300-320 Dumps not want to see him and tell him Testprepwell Im very Prepexamwell busy. Theres another young EX200 Exam Questions Learnguidepdf EX200 Exam Questions police officer, Ernie Banks, who is the same name as a professional baseball player, right You really should have me clean the room. Every time you wait until someone visits you, you will find out how dirty it is here. Visiting God, the word sounds really old, at least in Victorian terms. Far too far .– So to say, there will Testprepwell be a bad ceremony Dirty What Thomas said is room, but Lyme thinks he also includes himself as an employer. Lymes hair is EX200 Exam Questions dark and dense, like a twenty-year-old Prepexamwell – though he is twice as old. However, they are Testprepwell entangled in a muddle-headdresses, grooming needs Prepexamwell to be trimmed. Black beard on his face has not scratched three days, looks dirty. He often woke up from his sleep because of itchy Prepexamwell EX200 Exam Questions ears, indicating that the hair there should be repaired. Lymes nails are long, fingernails and Testprepwell toenails are the same the ugly scary pajamas on his body have been worn continuously for a week without a change. His eyes were slender, his eyes dark brown, and his face looked rather pretty EX200 Exam Questions – I do not know if it was a big deal or something else, and Learnguidepdf Blaine told him more than once. They want to talk to you, continued Thomas. They said it was very important. Well, let them know. You have not seen Leon for nearly a year. Why See him now Did you scare the 300-320 Dumps Testprepwell bird If you scared the bird, beware I was in a hurry Prepexamwell with you. Its 200-310 test very important, Lincoln. Very important, I remember Testprepwell what you just said. He had called earlier, I had a nap, and you were out again. You woke up until six in EX200 Exam Questions the Testprepwell morning. No, he paused. Yes, I woke 300-320 Dumps up very early, but then I fell asleep again and slept well. Did you check your message Thomas said There was no talk of him. He said he would It was around 10 Learnguidepdf oclock. Its just past eleven, and maybe hes temporarily called out of the emergency room, for a while. What do you want to say Did you just call . Testprepwell Maybe he wants to call in, and you just take up the line. I just What did I say Lyme asked, See youre angry, 300-320 Dumps Im not saying you can not call. You Of course its always possible, I just said he might make a phone call, and EX200 Exam Questions you just take the EX200 Exam Questions line. No, you mean, this morning, fucking everything is not pleasing to 200-310 test the eye. You know, theres one thing called call waiting, you can pick up two calls at a time.We should have applied for one.My old friend Leon wants to do.His professional baseball player friend wants Ask them. Ask me now.

© Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff

Why do we celebrate our Jewish holidays? The joke goes, “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” Joking aside, though. Why do we celebrate our Jewish holidays? Our tradition teaches us that religious commemoration is important, so crucially important in fact that a week does not go by without there being an entire day devoted to it. Why?

Rabbi Elijah, the great Gaon of Vilna, explained it this way: G-d Himself stopped working, and rested, to show us that what we create becomes meaningful to us only once we stop creating it and start to think about why we did so. (Cited by Judith Shulevitz)

We do this thinking during the High Holy Days, starting in Elul with the blowing of the shofar and selichot ceremonies, and extending all the way through Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. This Rosh Hashanah day, this anniversary of the creation of the world, is a peak moment in that process of review. It is the perfect time to seek to understand what our place is in this world. Rosh Hashanah is Yom Hazikaron, the Day of Remembrance. “We have to remember to stop because we have to stop to remember.” (Judith Shulevitz). Now is the time to stop, so that we can remember, remember what our place is in this world.

This explains why we need special days for celebration. But why do we need a special place for celebration? Why can’t we just find a place where we feel, well, spiritual? Why can’t we go to the beach, or a picnic, or a museum? Why can’t we just relax in the privacy of our own homes, whether alone, or with our families, or, at most, with a small circle of friends? Why here? Why a synagogue?

Why? Because, if you think about it, the synagogue is the command center for everything that truly matters to you, for the values that mean the most to you. So taught my friend and colleague Rabbi Arthur Steinberg, of very blessed memory, who passed away a few months ago. It is here, the synagogue, that we come to bring out the best in us, and, ultimately, to bring out the best in the world.

Here’s an example of what I mean by “the best in the world.” There is a debate in the Talmud about exactly which sounds one should make on the shofar. Although the rabbis differ on exactly which sounds, all agree that the sounds should emulate a cry—in fact, a particular person’s cry, the cry of Sisera’s mother. If you recall, Sisera was the Canaanite general who was defeated by Deborah and Barak. The Tanach gives us an extraordinary image of Sisera’s mother, waiting with deepening anxiety for the sound of Sisera’s returning chariot. The shofar, say the rabbis, should sound like Sisera’s mother’s cry when she realizes that her child will not be returning to her.

This, my friends, is a phenomenal message. Isn’t it remarkable that the pain felt at the death of our enemy should be used as a model for our spirituality? Doesn’t it demonstrate a profound compassion for all of humanity? Is it not a masterpiece of emotional empathy, of sophisticated morality, and of passionate spirituality? Where else, besides here in this sanctuary, could one expect to find this kind of depth? And I should mention in passing that we note today the death of one of Israel’s great leaders, Shimon Peres, who truly embodied the deep embrace of the humanity of all people, even our enemies.

Abraham Lincoln, in concluding his 1st Inaugural Address, said, “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

“The better angels of our nature:” Those angels live in this building.

That may seem like an audacious claim, but we Jews are known for making audacious claims. The great thinker William James, founder of the philosophical school known as pragmatism, had as a maxim, “I will act as if what I do makes a difference.” That’s what Jews have been doing for 4000 years. And we have made a difference.

We claim that the Lord of the Universe is somehow our tribal G-d—adoshem elokeinu; and, perhaps more audacious, we claim that our tribal G-d is somehow the Lord of the Universe. We claim that we are, somehow and for some reason, am habchira, the chosen people. We claim that, in ways we can barely fathom, our life and our people’s life is of extraordinary significance to the world. This is standard fare in Jewish theology. We are no strangers to audacious claims.

Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, a great Hasidic master, once put it this way: “The rule is that, although G-d created all the levels of existence, His guidance of them is according to the will of Israel: When Israel’s will is to draw G-d’s blessing upon someone, G-d lets His grace flow forth; and, when Israel’s will is that someone be judged, G-d fulfills that will and exercises judgment …Everything happens because of Israel and, indeed, by Israel is everything guided.”

It may seem hard for us to imagine that we guide the world. Particularly after the horrors of the last century, it seems almost surreal to think that Israel’s will makes any difference at all, much less determines the fate of the world. After deeper reflection, though, you will see that it is true. Broadly speaking, the values our ancestors carried with them from Sinai—the values that are enshrined in this sanctuary—have become, over the course of time, the norm for the world.

So, on this High Holy Day, on the day when it is appropriate for us to contemplate what we do and why, when we gather in this Holy Place which represents the very best of our values, it behooves us to ask: what kind of guidance have we been offering to the world?

And on this High Holy Day, when honest introspection is at a premium, it is fair to say the answer is: nowhere near good enough.

Sure, we collectively are vaguely okay, even good in a manner of speaking. Our lack of social pathology, when compared to other groups, is praiseworthy —but considering the corruption of much of American society, that isn’t really saying very much. Our community is pleasant, to be sure, the living is good enough.

But for us, for Jews, for the masters of audacity, good enough is not good enough.

On the occasion of Winston Churchill’s death, the great philosopher and political scientist Leo Strauss told his students, “We have no higher duty, and no more pressing duty, than to remind ourselves and our students, of political greatness, human greatness, of the peaks of human excellence.”

The peaks of human excellence. That is where we need to be. Not merely “good enough.” For those who have been to the peak of Sinai, “good enough” is an insult. We are drawn back to this sanctuary again and again, we rehearse repeatedly the moral and spiritual values that have shaped the world, but what do we really take with us when we leave it? What impact does it really have on our lives, and the life of the world, today?

Judaism demands of us discipline and commitment. I know that these days it is not popular to talk about such values. They sound so limiting, so authoritarian, so… judgmental. We react instinctively whenever anyone says to us that there is something that we have to do. The simple fact of the matter, though, is that you can’t dance at the Bolshoi just because you feel entitled to. You need discipline and commitment. You can’t win a Nobel Prize just because it would look good in the living room. You need discipline and commitment.  You can’t have more than 3000 hits like Jeeter or strike out 200 batters a season 10 times like Seaver (notice the politically correct balance there) by playing a few rounds of fantasy baseball. You need discipline and commitment.

Now, I don’t expect any of us to be on the world stage as ballet dancers, or as great intellects, or as Hall of Fame athletes. That kind of excellence is for an elite only. In contrast, I do expect us, and, far more important, G-d expects us, each and every one of us, to be on the world stage when it comes to standing for values that matter. Our Torah, and this sacred building in which it is housed, teach us precisely that: You can be excellent, you must be excellent, when it comes to moral and spiritual values.

If you want to see what a world looks like which is not guided by excellence, well, consider the election.

Or not.

Let us spare ourselves that anguish, and focus instead on the dumbing down of American society that made the election morass possible.

The textbooks our children are using have been censored in utterly bizarre ways, with “the inevitable effect of stripping away everything that is potentially thought-provoking.” (Diane Ravitch) Ray Bradbury, the great science fiction novelist, wrote a classic description of censorship gone insane, Fahrenheit 451. He later discovered that in order to get that book quoted in textbook adaptations, his publisher “had quietly, and without his permission, removed 75 sections of” it. In our anemic intellectual world, in other words, the classic protest against censorship got censored. As Diane Ravitch has demonstrated in her stunning book The Language Police, our children are being taught about “a world that has been methodically purged of reality.” Where will this all lead? And what difference should it make to us?

Allow me to mention one example: Each textbook publisher has a checklist of concepts and terms that are considered too upsetting or inappropriate for students. Any one word on that list is enough to have a paragraph omitted from a standard text. If a writer wished to describe Auschwitz, though, such a description would be impossible without mentioning every single word on that forbidden list. And thus, a clear and honest understanding of the reality of the Holocaust has become functionally impossible in American schools. And thus begins the slippery slope into the world of trigger warnings and political correctness.

Ironically, we have allowed this unspeakable dumbing-down of our educational system at exactly that time when we are facing a devastating new phenomenon that preys on misinformation and ignorance: the infodemic, the information epidemic. Whether Zika, or terrorism, or police shootings, the pattern is the same. “A few facts, mixed with fear, speculation and rumor, amplified and relayed swiftly worldwide by (youtube and facebook) …affect national and international economies, politics and even security in ways that are utterly disproportionate with the root realities.” (David J. Rothkopf)

Just to mention one example, consider that during the Obama administration, there were in the United States 90 deaths that can be attributed to radical Islam. In the same period, approximately 264,000 Americans lost their lives to firearms. To put that in perspective, the 90 deaths attributed to radical Islam over 8 years are less than the number of women murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every 2 days. Now, you will not find a harsher critic of radical Islam than this rabbi, but nothing justifies having a completely distorted and unbalanced perspective. As much as radical Islam is a problem, and it most certainly is, the firearms epidemic presents a much clearer and more present danger to our society.

It is hard to imagine a better platform for demagogues and fanatics to practice new forms of social disruption and manipulation than infomedia. And if you think that doesn’t matter to us as Jews, imagine, for one terrifying moment, what Hitler and Goebbels could have done if they only knew how to tweet.

How do you fight an infodemic? You have to be able to see the whole picture, know what to do with the information you have, distinguish the truth before rushing into action, and above all…understand. Put another way, you have to have a grasp of reality, an intellectual acuity, and an emotional balance that can only be described as…excellent.

In other words, what you need is exactly what our society suppresses! And exactly what Judaism demands!

Excellence involves embracing the complexity of the world, and devoting the time and the energy and the depth and the commitment necessary to make a difference. Torah, when studied to the point and very edge of love, leads to excellence, and becomes a mighty fortress against the invasion of the barbarians. It is the only thing that can rescue us from a life of degradation and emptiness, the life of a prisoner trapped in America’s Funniest Home Videos, a life lived not in reality, but in, G-d help us, reality TV.

We must not fall into the same swamp of intellectual mediocrity and dullness as the society around us, not only for our own sake, but because we are the ones charged at Sinai with the responsibility of pulling the rest of the world out of that swamp.

How demeaning it is, in light of all this, in light of our need for excellence, pleading with people to devote an hour a week to the study of Torah. An hour a week? How about study every day? How demeaning it is to beg people to come to minyan once a week. Once a week? How about at every opportunity? How demeaning it is to cajole people to make a contribution to the synagogue and the other venerable charitable institutions both inside and outside the Jewish community? Make a contribution? How about living a life devoted to tzedakah?

Yidden—can you sense what we are losing?!! Shrei gevalt! If we have survived all these tumultuous thousands of years, it was through encouraging excellence, not settling for the least common denominator. Rav Kook, the great Chief Rabbi of Israel, pointed out that the Torah outlines the great lengths to which we must go in order to remain tahor, pure, and to continue our dialogue with the Almighty. The biblical sacrifice, the korban, was intended to bring us close, karov, to G-d; the slightest blemish, whether of the animal or of the heart of the person performing the sacrifice, was enough to disrupt this relationship.

Nothing less than excellence would do. So it was then, so it is now.

If you want to know what the opposite of excellence is, think about Adolph Eichmann, yemach shmo, may his memory be blotted out. He was “emblematic for contemporary evil. [He] showed that today, even crimes so immense that the earth itself cries out for retribution are committed by people with motives that are no worse than banal…the most unprecedented crimes can be committed by the most ordinary people.” (after Susan Neiman). Geniuses don’t commit mass murder. Disturbed, confused, insecure, mentally and emotionally challenged nobodies commit mass murder, in numbers proportionate to the amount of power they amass because people of excellence don’t stand in their way.

The distinguished people within the nation, wrote Rav Kook, provide sustenance and protection for the entire people. Without them, the whole nation is threatened with extinction. And the same is true as regards the people of Israel and the nations of the world. The world is desperately out of balance, and will remain so unless we do something about it. How out of balance? Half of the world’s wealth is now in the hands of just 62 people. Put another way, the richest 300 people on earth have more money than the poorest 3 billion. In Bangladesh, garment workers are paid an average of 1.6 cents to sew a baseball cap that retails in the USA for $17 (Wade Davis). There is an international network of tax havens allowing people to conceal $7.6 trillion, more than double the annual budget of the United States. Meanwhile, the majority of the world’s population has never had a phone call, let alone sent an e-mail. And not only do we live better than the poorest, we live substantially longer, about 14 years longer on average.

Oh, and one small detail I didn’t mention. According to the latest reports, the effect of rising sea level will create 600 million refugees over the next decades. Considering how poorly the world has handled a few million refugees from Syria, the future looks ominous, if not apocalyptic.

If you think all this isn’t a problem, you aren’t thinking clearly. And if you think someone else has the intellect and the dedication to tackle these world class problems, let me remind you that we live in a country where 2/3 of the population have never left the United States. For most of Americans, in other words, when they say “foreign travel” it means they’re going to Texas or Florida.

“You,” said Mahatma Gandhi, “must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Or, in the classic words of Pirkei Avot: “Lo aleicha hamlachah ligmor…” “You need not finish the work, but you must never stop.”

Does this sound arrogant? Perhaps, to the untrained ear. In reality, it is a statement of profound humility. We do not become excellent simply by virtue of being Jews. That is arrogant, and pure pretension. We become excellent through considered reflection on who we are, what we must do, and how far, how very far, we have yet to go. This day, this sanctuary, this people Israel, cry out to us: remember! Remember to stop, so that we will stop to remember! Remember the purpose for which we were created. Remember how hard we must strive. Remember that it is forbidden for us to settle for anything less than excellence in the eyes of G-d. Remember—and then do something about it, do something about it every single day, do something about it like your society and your life and the life of your children depend on it.

Because they do.