"Noah Voters and Abraham Voters" (Rosh haShanah 2012)
(Parts of this sermon are adapted from my reflections from July 4, http://rabbischeinberg.blogspot.com/2012/07/blessing-for-czar-in-honor-of.html. It’s time for show and tell. Let me tell you about this book, which some of you have seen before. This book has been in the possession of our congregation since it was founded in 1905. It’s a High Holiday Mahzor -- published in the Lithuanian city of Vilna, today Vilnius, in the year 1914. But suppose you didn’t know that. Suppose the title page with the copyright information had been missing. When you look at an old Jewish prayerbook, how can you figure out when and where it was published? Let me show you. I am reading now from page 194- a page immediately before the Torah is returned to the ark. TRANSLATION: May He Who grants salvation to kings and dominion to rulers, Whose kingdom is a kingdom spanning all eternity…. May He bless, protect, guard, assist, elevate, exalt, and lift upwards Our master C