Shana Tova,

Chag Sameach and G'mar chatima tova and Shana tova, Many of you know how I love flying, and even though my main airline has been American for a long time, I have enjoyed flying on all of them since my first flight alone to check out Yeshivas Brisk back in the winter of 1981.

I have great memories of flights on the old Pan Am which I used to take over the Atlantic from Oxford to Boston: first they sold their New York landmark building, then their Asian routes, then their European routes, then they were liquidated. I never flew the venerable Braniff, but I remember reading about it every time it was resurrected until, through American Airlines shenanigans, it was finally killed by its giant rival at its Dallas hub.

There is a lot we can learn from these troubled airlines. We can take a lot of comfort by the incredible generosity our courts and subsequent investors have shown to allow them to do t'shuva without the burdens of the past. Billions and billions of dollars of debt have been lifted from them; the Aveira of under funding pension plans by billions of dollars has been forgiven by the government taking over that obligation.

How do the airlines can get away with such settlements in bankruptcy court? First, they have great lobbyists in Washington who convince everyone that America needs the airlines, no matter what the cost, no matter how inefficient they are. These lobbyist convince our leaders that liquidation is not an option.

Secondly, the airlines are getting second chances because their investors are an integral part of the airline: General Electric builds the engines most of these jets are using. So GE Capital has leant the airlines billions of dollars to keep them going and keep buying their engines. And they keep lending them more and more money give them the opportunity of beginning anew - to buy more engines.

But a fair judge will demand of any company entering into Chapter 11 to examine the mistakes that got them into such financial trouble, and to make basic changes to avoid the same mistakes. We stand before God with the same challenge: Yes, God will bail us out, God will forgive our debts, God will give us a second chance, but we need to re-examine what we have done over the years that has gotten us into trouble with God or with those around us. What things have we said which we should not have said? What insults or words of anger have we hurled at others - in front of them or not - which we should have avoided? What structural, strategic changes do we have to make to lead us on the path of Hashem and Torah and menchlichkeit it the year ahead? Filing for our moral chapter 11 cannot be about avoiding our past: It has to be about learning from our past, and changing our ways. Then the great and merciful judge, Hamelech Hamishpat, with clear us for a future unburdened from our sins.

In all this discussion though, of engines and airlines and bankruptcy, we forget sometimes about the wonder of flying. We forget what a miracle it is for a plane to start slowly down the runway, then gradually pick up sufficient speed to lift off the ground, to soar above the clouds, to get us to those we love and care for. To land safely is another miracle. In addition to t'filat haderech on take off, I always say "Baruch hashem" when the plane touches ground, and then I add "Thank God" when we have slowed down. Sometimes we have to step back and appreciate the beauty of a miracle. We need to return to the wonder and awe and the innocence of the first time we stepped on a plane, or the first time we went to the airport to send off our grandmother or aunt.

We need to return to the image of an Alaska Airlines DC-4 pilot rescuing Yeminite Jews: From the Alaska Airlines Web Site:

So on this Yom Kippur 5766, Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation is two things. First it is a place where as individuals we can all come to plead bankruptcy before Hashem's court, to seek ways to convince Hashem and ourselves to let us embark on a new plan of t'shuva, to begin to change our lives in ways which allow us to become morally and spiritually solvent again. And Anshe Sholom has worked over the years to maintain that non-judgmental atmosphere, for all of us, where we can each declare bankruptcy without feeling embarrassed or shameful. We feel loved and supported in our shul.

But on a loftier level, Anshe Sholom is the place which brings together all of us individuals with our own issues, and elevates us as a community like an airplane soaring in the air. When I look around at our members, I realize that Anshe Sholom is made up of incredible individuals who restore the wonder and awe that we need to find in order to really connect to Hashem, to reach the potential that our spiritual engines and wings can reach.

I am amazed by those who can wake up to make it to minyan every day, or several days a week - even once a week. Everyone can do it once a month, or more, and everyone should, but I draw a particular inspiration from the group of men, and frequently women, that is here at shul every morning even before I stumble in a few minutes late. They are the ones that carry our shul "on eagles wings" on a magic carpet early in the morning.

I am in awe of one of our members who spent his life earning minimum wage, and now in retirement still pays almost full membership, gives almost every week an extra $18 to the shul, and still gives $118 for the Yom Kippur Appeal. And this person never asks for any kind of honor - he does it because he is simply a man of God, a mentsch.

I am amazed by our members who find the time to volunteer to put in hours and hours, or just a few precious minutes, towards thankless jobs at the shul just to make sure that our shul runs well: supplying a havdalla candle, or grape juice for kids, or a seat for Yom Kippur, turning on yarzeit lamps, schlepping tables and bottles over to the JCC for kiddush, walking a senior member to and from shul, working on the garden, setting up Shalosh seudot, checking to make sure all the doors are locked, making the coffee in the morning, Xeroxing parsha sheets, making cholent for kiddush or Israeli salad for a dinner, teaching tot Shabbat, checking the eruv, fixing the eruv, designing and raising the money for the Mikveh, working on the sukkah, planning a homeless event, giving a shiur in the morning or a d'var torah at the third meal, leading the Purim shpiel and the Purim concert, preparing leining theTorah or the megilla, blowing shofar for the sick in the hospital, bringing food to those in happy times and in sad and difficult times, hosting a meal on Shabbat co-hosting a meal, or fulfilling the dream of a new halakhic and inclusive day school. . . .

Look around you, and look deeply, and be inspired and strengthened . All the little unnoticed things people do for our shul.

On this Yom Kippur, may Hashem allow us to plead our individual cases, and may we embark on a sensible plan of t'shuva. But may we also rediscover by looking around our shul a sense of awe and wonderment at what we can achieve as a community, of how high we can reach when we all come together, of what a miracle it is for all of us, so different, with so many different individual needs and issues, to come together to spend Yom Kippur in this Holy Community, a Kehilla Kedosha, that enables every single member to fly above the clouds and the fog, to reach as close as he or she can to the Hashem, who is reaching out to us from the heavens above saying "Shuva Yisrael" - return O' Israel.