MARY LEE TALBOT
Staff Writer
Cantor Olivia Brodsky began her sermon at the 9:15 a.m. Tuesday morning worship service in the Amphitheater singing “L’dor Vador,” (From Generation to Generation), music by Josh Nelson. This prayer is a compilation of words from Psalms 145 and 146.
She said, “Together, these verses express a remarkable idea. God’s holiness is made manifest because one generation refuses to let the story end. This is Judaism’s ultimate heritage prayer. It explicitly links sanctification of God’s name to the continuity of the Jewish people. The story survives because the people survive.“
Brodsky was accompanied by Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, on the Steinway piano. The title of Brodsky’s sermon was “Jewish Identity as an Ethno-Religion,” and the Scripture readings were Genesis 17: 1–10 and 2 Kings 16:6.
One of the problems with interfaith dialogue, Brodsky told the congregation, is some participants believe that all religions function in the same way. The Abrahamic faiths have different answers to the same questions, and each must answer from their own perspective. For Judaism, this means that each generation bears the responsibility of giving an identity to the next generation.
“The Torah, or Old Testament, goes to great lengths to preserve a detailed record of the Israelite and Jewish lineage,” Brodsky said. “Long before there were synagogues, rabbis, cantors or prayer books, there was Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel and Leah and their descendants. Jacob’s sons became the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel, whose descendants became known first as the Hebrews. Then, as the Israelites and following the establishment of the kingdom of Judah, as the Judeans.”
The English word, Jew, comes from the people of the kingdom of Judah. All of these names are for the same people at different moments in history. “The Torah traces the history of a family that becomes a people, and a people who ultimately become a nation,” she said. The Torah begins with peoplehood and moves to covenant. The covenant is the spiritual expression of peoplehood.
That historical continuity is essential to understanding both Judaism and Jewish identity, Brodsky told the congregation. “Jews are connected not only by a shared religious tradition, but also by ancestry, history, homeland, language, culture and collective memory. Those dimensions, ethnic and religious, have never existed independently of one another. Together, they form what scholars describe as an ethno-religion.”
Ethno-religions have three characteristics: They do not proselytize; membership is defined by birth, heritage and lineage; and culture — including language, history and ancestral land — and religion are completely intertwined. “A person can often be culturally part of the group while being personally secular, agnostic or even atheist,” she said.
On Sunday and Monday, Brodsky used her sermons to talk about belonging, but Tuesday’s sermon was focused on identity. She noted that for many Christians, the belief that Jesus is the Messiah is foundational. In Islam, the foundation is the Shahada, the affirmation that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger. These are explicit affirmations of belief, she said.
She contrasted those affirmations with the Shema, the most sacred passage of Jewish life. It begins with the phrase, “Hear, O Israel,” addressing the people, the ones who are listening. Before proclaiming God’s unity, the prayer first addresses a people. “Even Judaism’s central declaration of faith cannot be separated from its declaration of peoplehood,” Brodsky said.
The Shema ends with instructions to pass on this teaching from generation to generation. For Jews who are cultural or ethnic participants in the community, the commandment is the same as for the religious Jews — to pass on the teachings from generation to generation.
Brodsky noted that about one-third of American Jews consider themselves cultural Jews but not religious. In Israel, she said, almost half of the Jewish people consider themselves secular. “Together, the United States and Israel account for approximately 85 to 93% of the world’s Jewish population. That means that nearly 40% of the Jewish people worldwide don’t consider themselves religious.”
Yet, the other 60% have not abandoned Jewish identity. “Millions continue to gather around the table for the Passover Seder, an annual retelling of our history,” Brodsky said. “Many observe other holidays because they are participating in an ancient culture worth preserving. Why? Tradition.”
She sang the line from Fiddler on the Roof and observed that for Tevye, tradition was not the opposite of reason; it preserves memory and the ability to create an identity. “To preserve culture for future generations is as meaningful as worship.”
Brodsky said, “The covenant encompasses ancestors, land and future generations. It is simultaneously spiritual and national. It is a covenant with a people. Know therefore that the eternal your God keeps this covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation. Once again, the Torah speaks not simply to isolated believers, but to ‘Am Yisrael,’ the nation or people of Israel.”
The form of Judaism most familiar to us is centered around the synagogues, rabbis, fixed liturgy and Jewish rabbinic law. Brodsky told the congregation that this is a historical adaptation. Rabbinic Judaism emerged after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and was codified in the beginning of the third century. Before that, Jewish life revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem, tribal affiliation, land and covenant. The institutions changed because the people endured,” she added.
Brodsky continued, “Understanding the peoplehood or ethnic element of Judaism also explains why antisemitism is so unique. Judaism has never distinguished between the Orthodox Jew and the secular Jew. It explains why someone who has never attended synagogue may nevertheless feel profoundly connected when they hear Hebrew spoken. It explains why questions surrounding Israel, assimilation, intermarriage and Jewish education evoke such powerful emotions.”
The synagogue is a house of worship, learning, gathering and memory. “It is one of the primary institutions through which civilization transmits itself from one generation to the next. We, the Jewish people, are not simply practicing a religion. Through our traditions, we are ensuring that our people, all 16 million of us, continue to survive for generations to come,” she said.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua, presided. Esther Northman, former president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, read the scripture. Organ scholar Owen Reyda played Prelude, Op. 37, No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn for the prelude on the Massey Memorial Organ. The Motet Choir, singing in Hebrew, sang “L’dor Vador (From Generation to Generation), music by Meir Finkelstein. The choir was under the direction of Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, and accompanied by Reyda. Cantor Olivia Brodsky was the featured soloist. Sutton played Sonata, Op. 65, No. 4: “Allegro con brio” for the postlude on the Massey Organ. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by The J. Everett Hall Memorial Chaplaincy and The Randell-Hall Memorial Chaplaincy.
