I wrote this sermon after George Zimmerman was acquitted after Killing Trayvon Martin… and it’s still not enough this Rosh Hashanah

Seven is a significant number in Jewish tradition: Six days of creation give way, as the sun sets and the workaday week becomes the rest of Shabbat. This year, Rosh Hashanah, the new year, dubbed both “the birthday of the world” and the “day of judgment,” falls on Shabbat. It has been seven years since Florida’s heinous “stand your ground” law allowed George Zimmerman to go free after killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Seven years later, the list of the acquitted killers of Black Americans grows longer and longer, and I find myself turning back to the sermon I gave back as the year 5774 dawned. What will 5781 bring? Here’s what I wrote then, adapted for the screen rather than the bima (or pulpit)…

Maybe you’ve seen the schmaltzy Cheerios commercial: A mom sits at the kitchen table eating her bowl of cereal when her daughter interrupts, asking “Are Cheerios really good for your heart?” “Sure!” mom answers, rattling off some facts about whole grains. Cut to the dad, just waking up from a nap on the couch… his chest completely covered in Cheerios.

Get it? They’re good… for your heart!

In one of those “kids-react” youtube-wormhole videos, a group of children talks about the commercial “Cute!” most of them declared. One deftly notes, “But I think she was thinking literally!”