A famous Midrash (Midrash Tehillim 12) says that even the laws of Torah weren’t given as clear cut decisions. Instead with every law that the Holy One spoke to Moses, God offered 49 arguments by which one could interpret it one way, and 49 arguments by which it could be interpreted another way. As a result Moses said to God: how should we Jews act in order to determine the true sense of the law? And God answered, “the majority is to be followed.”

“The majority is to be followed.” That’s a problem nowadays. If we went by what the majority of Jews do then we’d be in trouble. Just in our own city the majority of Jews don’t belong to a synagogue, celebrate the holidays on a regular basis or study Jewish texts. I think the answer lies in the Tosefta, written some time after the 3rd century which adds that the way to follow the majority is to “make a heart of many rooms.”

“A heart of many rooms.” I turned to Rabbi Hartman, “What does that mean to you?” He raised his voice and passionately cried out, “it means that we have to open our heart to a multiplicity of views and truths. That we have to internalize two contradictory points of view and at the same time find one way to act, always haunted by the uncertainty that there is another way to live.”

A final implication of this Talmudic story is found at the end of the tale. Hillel’s approach to Jewish law is followed not because their theory is sharper, but because they were nochin v’ aluvin – they were respectful. The House of Hillel was clearly old fashioned! It’s embarrassingly sad that today we don’t often judge people based on their kindness and humility.

Recently I went to lunch with a student who grew up in our Temple. She finished her first year of college and decided to take a leave of absence to study first in Israel and then at a Chabad, black hat yeshiva for girls in Brooklyn. When I asked her why she choose to become Lubavitch, she began with her own history. She said that when her father died she got very angry at God. She talked to her mother about her anger but never felt she had an outlet. Slowly over the years people in the Orthodox world began literally opening their doors to her. She had places to go for Shabbat lunch, the rabbi’s wife offered to study with her, she felt taken in and cared about, the kindness that people extended to her was meaningful. Are the Orthodox nicer people then we are? No. That’s ridiculous. But there is something larger than their own sense of “wouldn’t this be nice” that motivates them to open their homes to strangers. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be a Lubavitch Jew, but I think their commitment to being welcoming and accepting of all Jews stands in contrast to many of us T.V. clickers. Chabad is committed, how about us?

Today we Liberal Jews sit next to Hillel and Shammai. It’s easy to say we are committed to family or our children. But what else? Sure, Reform Judaism is about making informed choices, but let’s be committed to that process. Let’s require ourselves to go beyond good deeds. Good deeds are easy. Mitzvot are harder. Mitzvot demand that we ask ourselves where the authority lies. Is it personal? Divine? Communal? As a Reform Jew I’m committed to equal rights for gay Jews, female rabbis, and welcoming interfaith families into our community - rights which the other movements don’t automatically embrace. And in the end, as a Reform Jew, I make the decision, but my authority is in constant dialogue and tension with a history of Jewish texts and tradition. To be a committed Reform Jew means to be loyal to this process.

Even in a world both unsettled and unsettling, a world where it’s easier to be cynical, ambivalent or paralyzed, we have a responsibility to thoughtfully choose and then to act. Despite anxiety, despite doubt - our faith commands us to be pleasant, to be humble, to respect the opinions of others and to keep the brit. Like the penguins, stay loyal to the fight. Don’t walk away.

In the words of the Talmud “It is not incumbent on you to finish the work, but neither are you free to exempt yourself from it.” (Mishnah, Avot 2:16) Seize this moment to reconnect, to live humbly, kindly, and with passion. On this Yom Kippur, I pray that each of us finds a way stay committed - to reenter the covenant.