Help me help you!
“Help me help you.” Sports agent Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise in the movie of the same title, offers these words as a plea to his sole client as Jerry strives to secure him a lucrative contract.
Jerry represents disgruntled wide receiver Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) to the best of his abilities; his success would mean a big payday for the football player and a sizable cut for the agent, but Rod isn’t making it easy. Jerry needs Rod to play the game with a better attitude—for the fans and the media—in order to seal the deal. “Help me help you,” Jerry pleads in the face of a stiff-knecked and prideful Rod.
As your shaliach, or agent, this coming high holiday season, I want to represent you as best I can. And I want to see you bring your best. I want your compensation to be your name signed and sealed for a lucrative reward. Of course there is something in it for me as well. But in order for us both to get what we want and deserve, I need you to help me. Help me help you!
It’s not easy for rabbis, year after year, to ascertain what their constituents want and need from them on the few days they have the chance to speak to a large portion of the congregation. There are plenty of self-righteous voices out there telling us what we should be speaking about and what we should be saying on those matters! But they don’t know us; and they don’t know you. Your particulars aren’t even necessarily the same as those of the others on your congregational team whom I represent. Moreover, given the fact that this world is placing so many stumbling blocks in our path, it’s nearly impossible for me to know which of those blocks you find the most difficult to evade.
It’s game on. The horn sounded with the shrill of the opening shofar blasts this morning. We are four weeks away from the opening of the signing period, and I want to do right by you. I can help you best to navigate this path if you tell me what it is that you need to hear from me. Please note: I’m not asking what you think others need to hear; I’m asking what topics you need to hear your rabbi—as your representative and representative of our tradition—address for you and your betterment in the new year.
Email me at Rabbi.scheff@theojc.org with up to 3 questions or ideas about which you would like to hear what our Judaism offers. There are so many topics I’d love to address throughout our holy days. Help me narrow them down to your specific needs. Help me help you!
Rabbi Craig Scheff
Holy days
When I was much younger, in my junior high and high school years, the last days of the Passover holiday were a time I truly cherished. Even if school was in session, my father would allow me the days off from school to be with him in synagogue for holiday services. It was school policy that no new material or exams could be assigned on the holy days, and my parents were willing to make sure that policy was observed. After all, as I was the only student in my class of 550 students to utilize the excused absence, there wasn’t much incentive for teachers to abide by the policy.
There are 13 “holy days” on the Jewish calendar: the first and last 2 days of Passover; the 2 days of Shavuot; the first and last 2 days of Sukkot; the 2 days of Rosh Hashanah; and Yom Kippur. Schools are closed on the 3 days of the “high holy days” in most New York and New Jersey districts, and some of these holy days occasionally fall on weekends (especially this year). Given that our calendar and dietary rules are two of the things which serve to best distinguish Jewish people from others, one would think that the Passover holiday would be an ideal time to avoid school and find our way to synagogue (where we are serving the very tastiest of Passover cakes this Friday and Saturday). When Jon Stewart of The Daily Show claims that Easter crushes Passover as holidays go, he skips the fact that Easter always takes up a Sunday, whereas 4 of the days of Passover are excused absences from school!
So maybe you scheduled a family vacation on some kosher-for-Passover island to avoid all the extra work that accompanies this holiday. But if you can’t join us this Friday and/or Saturday to celebrate our freedom, you have another opportunity that is 45 days away! As we count up to the holiday of Shavuot to celebrate the giving of the Torah, please consider that our next festival’s 2 holy days fall on Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend! That means that you (and your children!) can pull an all-nighter with us at our Tikkun Leyl Shavuot (our all-night learning session from Saturday night through Sunday morning), catch up on your sleep through the day, and then join us on Monday for services and a Shavuot/Memorial Day barbecue picnic! Okay, so dairy is the prescribed holiday food, but we can make an exception for one meal if it means that we can bring true meaning to our religious and secular holidays. Besides, the opportunity to celebrate receiving the Torah, to recite Yizkor in remembrance of our own loved ones, to give honor to our fallen troops and to be together as a community–all in one day? Who could ask for anything more?!
And maybe, just maybe, the experience will inspire you to give your kids a holy day off from school when we celebrate Simchat Torah on Tuesday, October 6.
Rabbi Craig Scheff
Two Rabbis, One Voice, Three Opinions 
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