VAERA INSTALLATION 1980

In the Torah portion Vayera we learn about Pharoah and in the Haphtorah we learn about Pharoah's character.  He said I made myself, I made the Nile.  He was a person who said over and over again I, I, I.  He was so self-centered he thought the world only created for him.  People who only say I, I, I they make everyone else say Aye, Aye, Aye!  They're destructive.  

There is another kind of person, the they type of person.  Everything is they did it, they're to blame, they maybe alright but.  These people, too, are destructive.  They divide instead of unite.  In Judaism we're not I people or they, we're supposed to be we people.  All our prayers are we.  What we're supposed to do is consider ourselves as one, to cooperate, to work together.  That is really the meaning of the Menorah, the basic symbol of our faith.  A Menorah never has only one candle, a Menorah in Judaism has seven or eight candles.  It never has just one.  On Shabbos the minimum number of candles we light is two.  

In Judaism one person's light is not enough.  We must have many working together to make a united glow.  We only have one instance in Judaism where we only have one candle and that is the candle for the dead.  But if we're really living, if we're growing spiritually we must always think in terms of we.  We mustn't say they're doing this, they're doing that, and divide ourselves up into factions, etc. looking down our noses at each other and none can say, I'm the only one who's important, only I deserve all the love, etc.  Even the burning flame itself attests to this.  For many years people thought that what makes a substance burn was that it contains phlogisten.  Even though people couldn't find the phlogisten they kept believing in it until about 200 years ago a Frenchman named Lavosier discovered oxygen.  He learned that those substances which burn brightly do so because they combine readily with oxygen.  We, too, if we want our spiritual light to burn brightly must always combine and combine with others not divide or set ourselves apart.  

I'm reminded of the story about the teacher who asked her students how many stars they could see.  One student said hundreds, another student said thousands.  A third student said one!  The teacher asked how come only one.  And the student said because I have a small backyard.  That's the trouble with many people.  They have a small backyard and small vision.  We today are passing on the leadership of our Congregation to new hands.  We've had an excellent past administration.  It is our hope and prayer that the next administration will be even better and that the flame of Judaism will burn even brighter.