I have been waiting to do this for a few years, so it is appropriate that the weekly protion is the beginning of Leviticus, ‘vayikra’ in Hebrew.  For millenia, Young Jewish students at the age of five would begin their studies of Tora with the Book of Leviticus.  They would be rewarded with honey or a coin.  Pure and innocent, children absorb the culture of purity detailed in the laws of priest and people.    The first verse  describes God calling Moses.  The Hebrew word for calling out is ‘vayikra’.  However, the last letter of the word, a small alef is written even smaller, as every letter is written small somewhere in Scripture to teach a lesson.  Rashi, the great commentator, compares the word being written without the alerf at all, since it is lliliputian to begin with.  Without the alef, it would be read, ‘vayakkar’ to occur or to appear,with a sense of randomness or circumstantial happenstance.    I became aware of this distinction when introducing then State Senator Barack Obama as a candidate for U.S. Senate to a pro-Israel political action committee for urban young professionals, called CityPac.  I had given the invocation several times before, so I knew to pay attention to the synchronicity of the event.  The Monday night program was preceded by the resignation of the Republican Candidate, Jack Ryan.  I then invoked the words of Vayikra, offering to Mr. Obama and the assembled lovers of Israel, that God can call us, ‘vayakar’,  as was called Bilaam the prophet, albeit through chance.  Running unopposed fore the Senate should be taken as random, like winning a lottery.  Rather, we should be aware that windfalls of fortune and fame are not accidental or the result of our own cleverness and strength.  Like God calling Moses, sudden gifts are God calling us repeatedly, out of affection, with love and concern for Israel.   The candidate would be called upon to vote or to speak regarding Israel.  Let him understand that God is calling him repeatedly, out of love, with affection for Israel.   Having won the lottery myself, now, by having been appointed rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, I wish to constantly remind myself that it is not random to be back home in the city of my birth.  Indeed, we are all being called again and again, out of concern and love for the Jewish people.  Coincidence is often just   an eleven letter name for God.  May we all at this time of reading ‘vayikra’ feel called.

I grew up in the Garden of Eden: Miami Beach, where a produce broker’s son could ride his bike along the sand, play with sea creatures in tidal pools, and lurch down Stillwater Drive, where his family lived, on primitive skateboards fashioned from sawed-off canoe paddles and roller-skate wheels.

I always loved Miami Beach and always felt I wanted to be here. And I didn’t want to wait too long. A lot of things are different, but the basic ambiance that comes from tourism of taking care of people has a great quality of spiritualism.