“Moral Famine,” Cantor Alicia Stillman’s Sermon

Vayigash Sermon
December 22, 2023 – “Moral famine”

It’s widely known that my husband takes financial advice from the Torah. 

…I’ll explain:

You might remember a few chapters ago, Pharaoh found himself deeply troubled by particularly unusual dreams. Having heard about a mysterious Joseph, who besides being known for his flashy wardrobe, was also an astute interpreter of dreams…Joseph was summoned. 

Pharaoh had two dreams: the first in which he saw 7 sturdy, well formed, healthy cows emerge from the Nile River – followed by 7 ugly, scrawny, emaciated cows that went on to consume the healthy cows. Pharaoh’s second dream mirrored the first, doubling its intensity, significance and likelihood: 7 full, healthy, robust ears of grain consumed by 7 ears – shriveled, thin and scorched by the east wind. In both cases, once the healthy herd and stalks had disappeared within the malnourished ones – they looked just as bad as before, one could not tell they had eaten their fill.

Catching wind of Joseph’s gift, Pharaoh called upon him, at which time he foretold that Egypt would be blessed with 7 years of abundance and prosperity through the land, and most importantly, during that time to save, collect and organize the stores of food – this is critical, for during the 7 years to follow, Egypt would be ravaged by famine and no trace of its former glory and abundance will be left in the land because of the famine’s severity.

So the financial advice? 

When times are good – SAVE. Enjoy your good fortune, it is a mitzvah to celebrate and be happy, but make wise choices to stock your resources; for not all days ahead will be prosperous or sunny or certain. Allow your storehouses to fill … so that fullness carries you through times of scarcity.

The last time I spoke here about famine, I was reviewing the movie Barbie, and we were all laughing, because Barbie’s refrigerator was a sham: a fake, hollow show – she was emotionally starving.

This time we face starvation – and none of us are laughing.

I have a child on a college campus and I am shocked, angry, and pretty sad at what I see regarding hateful talk against Jews.

I read the news and listen to speeches and I wonder aloud: have we entered a period of our own morally lean years without being properly stocked? We’ve enjoyed the last decades of joyful, creative, thriving Jewish life, we’ve experienced security and abundance in this amazing country like we could have never imagined. 

During that time of plenty, did we have the presence of mind to know we would need to draw on that – at a time when our integrity and our lives are questioned – do we have the strength of identity to keep our souls nourished?

Have we prepared as Joseph advised so that all the abundance of our past  would not be forgotten? 

My son and my nephews on campus say something like this: I know what’s true, I know how I feel in my heart, but when some of these kids are screaming in my face, I can’t think – In that second I can’t even find the words to tell them to shut up and back off, let alone set them straight, or that I’m a real person, and who are you to make threats, or get out of my face…  and you know what…even when I do say something, they just don’t believe me. 

My son doesn’t want to talk about it with us, he wants this not to be happening.

I want this not to be happening.

We are currently IN the years of scarcity that Joseph foretold. The world around Joseph seems unrecognizable, barren, and citizens are scared. Ours is as well.

When I hear the violent and hateful calls coming from teenagers, I ask what kind of moral starvation leaves room for this kind of brash, disgusting speech – on camera, recorded forever no less. No kindness, no humility, no shame?

This kind of name calling, and prejudicial, presumptuous, hateful talk is so despicable to us that we have changed language in our prayers, we have literally rewritten our siddur to be more inclusive lest we be perceived wrongly. Our Judaism has no place for hate.

I fear that we have not fed our children enough during our years of plenty. Dara Horn in this very room 1 year ago told us the way to fight hatred of Jews is not to minimize ourselves and apologize for our hard work, or make excuses for what and who we are – but to celebrate the richness of our heritage-because it IS rich; to proudly celebrate our holidays-because they are so very meaningful; to deepen our traditions-they connect us to history and each other – for that is what abundance and richness looks like.

In two weeks we will enter Shemot – Exodus, and there will come a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. We can’t forget who we are, others are all too quick to do that for us. We have done and brought so much to the United States – our creativity, innovation, generosity, in the face of tremendous obstacles…perhaps we became comfortable – and forgot to remember, didn’t want to remember. All the patents, life-saving medication, parenting, Nobel prizes, Hollywood, Broadway, Broadway alone would have been enough – dayeinu – for creating the soundtrack of America.

We don’t want our children to fall victim to this famine.

Genesis 45:5-7: Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither, says Joseph; It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. 

The days are beginning to get lighter – let’s binge on the Jewish wisdom in our spiritual freezer to fill ourselves up. With what we have in our pantry, there is no need for anyone to be hungry.