Podcasts religion From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life Shabbat Sermon: In The Wake of San Diego: What Can I Do? with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: In The Wake of San Diego: What Can I Do? with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Published: May 4, 2019, 6 p.m.

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Four words.  They are just four words. They make up a simple sentence.  But how you say this sentence makes all the difference in the world.

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What can I do?  Emphasis on I.  Meaning that I am so small, the world is so large.  My energy is limited. The problems of the world are unlimited.  What can I do?  Not much.  A recipe for contraction.

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But then there is:  What can I do?  I cannot do everything.  But I can do something.  What can I do to make our world a little more decent.  A recipe for doing something.

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Which way do you say it?  Are you a what can I do person?  Or a what can I do person?  What life are you living?  What life do you want to live?

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In the spirit of these questions, and in the week of San Diego and Yom Hashoah, I want to tell you two stories about a man named Rabbi Herschel Schacter who died six years ago at the age of 95.  He never said what can I do?  He made his troubled world a little more decent.

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Follow this link to view the sermon on our website  https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/in-the-wake-of-san-diego-what-can-i-do/ 

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