Rabbi Jonathan Roos delivers his sermon “Get In The Boat: A Post-October 7th Theology of Relationships” Sunday in the Amphitheater.
There is a joke about Jewish law, said Rabbi Jonathan Roos, when Moses was up on Mt. Sinai and receiving the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 23:19, God tells Moses, “Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.
Moses responded, “So that means no cheeseburgers.” God said again: “Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.” Moses said, “OK, separate dishes for milk and meat.” Again, God said: “Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.” Moses said, “OK, wait seven hours between eating milk and meat.”
God said, “Have it your way.”
Roos preached at the 9:15 a.m. Monday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon topic was “Holiday Wheat Money Gets the Best Bread (for Helping Others)” and the scripture readings were Isaiah 58: 5-8 and John 6:1-11.
The encounter at Mt. Sinai poses a continuing challenge for humanity, Roos said. What is the commandment and source of all duties and obligations? In the Torah it is God, but “Adam and Eve showed that humans’ capacity to defy God is as great as their capacity to follow God’s law.”
Enlightenment thinkers like Kant said the “categorical imperative” found in reason was the universal guide to what humans should say and do. However, Roos said, “human actions throughout the 20th century, in science, philosophy and culture coexist with the brutal efficiency and technological prowess of the Holocaust, nuclear weapons and disinformation.”
The question, Roos said, is how do we live with others so there are conditions for long, fruitful lives? He then began the “drash,” the tearing apart of the Biblical text to see what is revealed.
In the Gospel of John, where does Jesus get the idea that he needs to feed the 5,000 people who have followed him out to a hillside? “Jesus was known as a healer, and people followed him because of that,” Roos said. “So why didn’t he do a mass healing or open a wellness clinic? It would make more sense.”
In Matthew and Mark’s Gospels, it is the disciples who decide that someone needs to feed the crowd. They urge Jesus to send the crowd away before it gets dark. Jesus has other plans.
“Like good, modern clerical practice, Jesus just keeps doing good work. He tells the disciples to figure out how to feed the crowd,” said Roos.
In John, Jesus asked Philip where they could buy bread. Philip tells Jesus it would take almost half a year’s wages to buy enough bread. Andrew then says he found a boy with five loaves and two fish. Jesus took these elements, blessed them and everyone got more than enough to eat.
Roos asked several questions about the text. There was a lot of grass for people to sit on — what did that mean? Jesus did not ask how they were going to get the food, as he asked Philip how much money they had to buy bread. Where was he going to get the money? And there was more than enough for everyone. How did that happen?
“The answer lies in verse 4, where John writes that it was the season of Passover,” Roos said. “If you want to know what John’s text is trying to teach with those details, you need to know the Passover commandments. This is ma’ot chittin, wheat money, or matzah. It is a mitzvah to buy food for the poor so they can celebrate Passover with a proper seder. Jesus was saying, ‘Hey guys, we have to do this obligation.’ ”
The instructions for a seder command that everyone shall recline comfortably. The seder cannot continue until the poor can recline like the rich, when the poor have enough to eat and the four glasses of wine that are drunk during the meal.
Since John sets the story of the feeding of the 5,000 during the Passover season, there was an obligation for the people to be fed.
The text signals “that Jesus and the disciples, nice Jewish boys (mostly), have certain religious obligations that would not be active otherwise,” Roos said.
Are they just going through the motions, or are they good people who really love humanity?
The Talmud asks if it is more praise-worthy to do something because it is commanded, or from spontaneous affection.
“Most people would be surprised to learn that it is what is commanded,” Roos said. “It is not surprising that we encounter needy people, but altruism is not enough for us to do our best for them. Maybe we are too tired, or we are running late or just not feeling sympathetic.”
In Jewish thought there is a difference between charity — caritas in Latin — because it is a sign of how your heart is moved, and tzedakah — coming from the Hebrew word for justice — which means the act of giving is what justice demands.
Roos said there was a problem with this interpretation: it was not actually Passover, but the season of Passover. This story is an example of practice making perfect. It can’t just happen once a year; giving takes practice to become a part of life. “Giving has to run through our lives like it runs through scripture,” he added.
Isaiah 58 describes a society of people who keep the Commandments, but are not really helping the oppressed. The fast that God desires is to unlock the fetters and let the oppressed go free. “This commitment needs to be renewed every day because every day is different,” Roos said.
There is a rabbinic story that says God lifted Mt. Sinai over the heads of the Israelites and gave them the choice to accept the law or not. Contracts entered into under duress, the rabbis said, are not binding.
“So how,” Roos asked, “is the law still binding?”
The answer is in the book of Esther, when Mordecais sent a letter to all the Jews that they would willingly do as they had begun. Roos noted that Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not mention the name of God.
Roos said we cannot live by the spiritual whims of our hearts. Humans need a regular framework in order to be able to act when we don’t want to.
“We can be spiritual. We can be religious,” he said. “But our traditions remind us that the world needs to be fed, and that happens best when we are both.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, presided. Renee Andrews, former president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, read the scripture. For the prelude, Owen Reyda, 2024 organ scholar, played “Prelude Op. 10, No. 2,” by Joseph Sulzer, on the Massey Memorial Organ. The Motet Choir, under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organ, sang a capella “The eyes of all,” music by Jean Berger and words from Psalm 145: 15,16. The postlude was “Festival Prelude No. 1, Op. 37,” by Louis Lewandowski, played by Stafford on the Massey Organ. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and services is provided by the Harold F. Reed Sr. Chaplaincy.
