How Something Begins Is Important

Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon · WOW Chavurah High Holidays 5786 / 2025

Adam Cohn

I am in awe as I look out on this room. Randa and I started the WOW Chavurah in summer of 2023. We knew we had a little money to spend, but we didn’t know where it came from.

Our first meeting was at a rented building in downtown Winter Garden. Forty-five people came to the first event. We prayed, we danced, we ate pizza. The kids invented games and played together as kids do. Hey, there is a Chabad Hebrew school that meets in Winter Garden once a week and some of our kids go, so people signed up and now the kids knew each other.

That was the beginning. It was a special moment — there was a new kind of Jewish life in Winter Garden. That day Randa and I resolved that we would do one event every month, in the same template for a year, to see how we would grow.

So we scrambled for space: a coffee shop, someone’s home. It was a time-consuming task each month — do we have a place yet? Then we found the American Legion. The price was right, the building was good. So we rented long term. The third Friday of every month, for the remainder of the year. We signed — me, Randa, and Robin — then we huddled together in front of the building and said Shehecheyanu, a prayer of beginnings. Because how something begins is important.

Between the time we signed the contract and our first meeting in the building, there was October 7th. That horrible day where we all watched the videos, helplessly witnessing an unimaginable cruelty, the kind we thought was reserved for grandparents and great-grandparents, happening today.

We had believed that the world had moved on from its peculiar hatred of our people. It was an illusion. Hostages are still there, and war is ongoing. At that moment we needed our community more than ever.

And then the day we met at the new building, I got a call from the Winter Garden Police Department. I had called them the previous week to let them know there was a private Jewish event in the hall that night. Someone else planned a pro-Hamas protest rally in front of Winter Garden City Hall — right across the street from our new venue on the same night.

We didn’t think we were being targeted. How would they even know? But I had to tell everyone, because people need to make their own choices. Some people didn’t come and some never came back. But we needed to build trust with our community. And this was the first time we met in that location, and how something begins is important.

Bereishit — “In the beginning” — are the first words of the Torah. God starts His message to us talking about the beginning.

So, in the beginning of the creation of Chavurah, I had three basic principles in mind that have guided every decision along the way.

Three principles

The first: there should be a place where all Jews can go, where they feel welcome. With or without money, with or without Jewish education. Wherever you are in your journey, come here. If you are intermarried, or have converted — Reform, Orthodox, Conservative doesn’t matter — you are welcome here.

A “low barrier to entry” space that can be a gateway to connect with the larger community and explore the parts of Judaism that are appealing to you.

The second is that every Jew is unique and important. Each one of us is given a specific mission from God that only your soul paired with your body, at this moment in time, can complete.

It’s a powerful concept and rooted deeply in our tradition: life has meaning. If you don’t accomplish your mission, the Jewish world and the whole world suffers for lack of your contribution. So Chavurah needs to be a place of discovery — of your relationship with the Jewish world here and in other places where life happens.

The third principle is radical cooperation with other Jews and Jewish institutions. You don’t like what I am doing? Great — let’s do it your way. How can I help? It’s why we are having our High Holiday service at the JCC instead of some hotel closer to home.

This is why, when a new Chabad Rabbi comes to Winter Garden, we welcome him into our community. Because now we have two Jewish institutions in Winter Garden: Chavurah and Chabad. And it’s the beginning of our relationship, and how something begins is important.

We’ve planted a seed of Jewish life in Winter Garden and we should be happy to watch it grow. They do things differently than us, and the way they do it doesn’t work for everyone. And that’s OK.

This was our beginning, and how something begins is important.

A new pattern for a new year

Tonight is the beginning of a New Year. It is filled with fresh possibilities. We pray to have a sweet year, one of blessings. And I believe this year will be one.

I’ve been through a few of these, as have you. This is the first one I have ever led. Many years I have sat in my seat in silent meditation, talking to God and saying, “God, here I am again, trying to do better, but I am still very much me.” Some years I have felt defeated or experienced great personal loss, illness and recovery, job stress. Some years I would say, “God, what was that about? What lesson am I supposed to learn from that nonsense?” Some years I have been disappointed in myself. This year has been one of great blessings for me, but of course they aren’t all that way. I suspect your lives have held a similar pattern.

For many years, I would make resolutions to do things and fall short, which created a sense of disappointment and defeat. But about fifteen years ago, I learned a new way, rooted in the stories contained within the book of Genesis in our Torah. So I would suggest that you consider beginning this year with a new pattern.

God started His relationship with Abraham as Abram by telling him to leave his father and go to a place — just start walking and I will tell you when you get there. As a reward, I will make you the father of a great nation.

The LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you… I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.”

This was appealing to Abram, because he wasn’t the father of anyone. His wife was sadly childless after many years of marriage. The culture around them was worshiping a fertility goddess — a false god that was no friend to Abram or Sarai.

So he listened, and he went, but instead of completely trusting in God to do as He promised, he brought his nephew with him, Lot, to inherit if anything happened on the way. This was a wrong choice, because Lot was not suited to be Abram’s heir. But this wrong choice was what ultimately led to his blessing and the birth of Isaac.

When Abram arrived in Canaan, God told him: I know what I said, but the land is not ready yet and there is no food. So Abram went to the land of Egypt. Afraid of being killed by the king because his wife was so beautiful, he claimed she was his sister. A wrong choice that put both the Pharaoh of Egypt and Sarai in danger. But the wrong choice still led to many blessings of wealth.

He went back to Canaan, and Sarai, still childless, gave him her handmaiden Hagar to bear the son that she could not. Ishmael was born and Abram had his heir. But this too was the wrong choice. As there was trouble between Sarai and Hagar, he sent them away. The wrong choice, to create an heir through Hagar, led to many blessings. Ishmael was to become a great nation with many descendants.

Soon, Lot who lived in Sodom was kidnapped when the city was attacked. Abram raised a small army and set out to redeem his nephew. He won. At that moment he could have rightly claimed kingship over a large portion of the land, because he defeated the people who defeated the kings of the plains.

Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the possessions for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I swear to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth: I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap of what is yours, so that you should not say, ‘I made Abram rich.’”

He gave back every penny to the king of Sodom.

Then he turned to God and said: What can You possibly give me? You say I am going to be a great nation, but I have no one to inherit it. You have given me nothing.

“Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? … Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.”

And then, finally, God let him in on the plan. No, you will have an heir and Sarah will bear it. Now you will have an even greater blessing than I had originally planned for you. God changed their names from Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah.

The LORD took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken.

This prophecy written thousands of years ago happened exactly as God said it would. And today his spiritual descendants cover more than half of the earth.

Now, we are not Abraham and Sarah. But we are their descendants. In fact, even tonight, we invoked their names in prayer and asked God to remember us as part of His blessing.

Elohei Avraham, Elohei Sarah.

We are blessed because Abram engaged in a real conversation with God in a real world — even though he misunderstood God’s intent many times.

An invitation

So tonight, instead of making the kind of resolutions you might normally make, I invite you to change your way of thinking about the New Year and what is expected of you.

Instead of detailing what you are planning and measuring against it next year, try this. Spend a few minutes in conversation with God — once a day, once a week, once a month — and ask: Am I on the right path? What’s my mission? What are You trying to teach me? If you do this, you will be surprised at the answers you get.

But don’t be surprised when you get the message wrong. Abram did. And when you get it wrong, don’t be surprised when it leads you to an even greater blessing than what you expected.

And I would encourage you not to make it one way. What do you expect from God? Don’t be afraid to tell Him that He is not providing for you. Tell Him He is being unfair. Ask Him for what you want. He is not a small God with limited potential. Jews only recognize the ultimate Creator God. He can give you anything if He thinks it will help you fulfill your mission.

And He wants you to succeed.

Then resolve to recognize the blessing when it comes, even if it is in a different form than you expected. Or if it is smaller than you expected.

And don’t be afraid to be selfish. Don’t just pray for everyone else. Don’t say only the things you think He wants to hear. What do you want? Your desires are real, and, by the way, they were given to you by God to guide you while you are on this Earth.

They are the clues to your mission, your purpose. Your mission is not something that you hate or something you dread doing. It is something that you love and that gives you joy. It’s something you have always wanted to do.

And finally, don’t beat yourself up for your faults. God gave you those as well. They are part of the way this process works.

I know what my mission is, at least I think I do. My mission is to build a community and help other Jews discover and achieve their missions. I do that through Chavurah. Friends helping each other.

Let’s begin this year the way we wish to spend it: together, and by spending a few moments in silent contemplation. If you are so inclined, begin your conversation now.

L’shanah tovah. May you all be inscribed in the book of a good life.