D’Var Torah
5785 (October 2, 2024) Erev Rosh HaShanah
Rabbi Micah Friedman
Shanah Tovah!
Here we are once again – on the precipice of a new year.
As a chill sets into the air, the leaves begin to turn colorful, and we fill the seats of the synagogue as we come together to pray to be written into the Book of Life in the year to come.
Personally, as soon as I hear the special melody of erev Rosh HaShanah with which the Cantor lead us tonight in Ma’ariv, I feel a wave of awe and inspiration – a difficult to describe sense of connection both with the young boy who I was when I first became familiar with these powerful melodies and with the countless generations of our ancestors who sang the words of the Machzor long before any of us were born.
To put it simply, I feel a sense of Kedushah – of holiness. I hope you do too and it is a blessing to share it with you.
But, what do I mean by holiness? What is it to describe this day – this long day that will last two days – as holy?
Tonight, I suggest that the Holiness of this day is that it offers us an invitation to renew ourselves and our lives through deepening our connections to our roots.
This season is a time of creation and re-creation, and we are invited – even commanded – to consider how we might want to re-create ourselves anew. Paradoxically, the way in which Jewish tradition invites us to look ahead towards the future is to return to the wisdom and traditions of the past which continue to speak to the timeless nature of the human spirit.
In our Musaf Amidah – the central, special, celebratory section of Rosh haShanah services – at the end of each of the special sections – Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, and Shofarot – we call out in a chorus:
haYom Harat Olam – Today the world was born – or today the world is conceived
According to one school of thought among the ancient rabbis, Rosh HaShanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world and, particularly, of human beings. The creation of the first human is the event that we recall and relive each year as we celebrate Rosh haShanah – in much the same way that we recall and relive the Exodus when we celebrate Passover and we recall and relive the Revelation of Torah at Sinai when we celebrate Shavuot.
According to tradition, when we commemorate an ancient miraculous event that took place at this time of year, some of the same spiritual energy that was at play in the time of the miracle is reawakened in our time. This, perhaps, is why Rosh haShanah begins the 10 Days of Repentance – the Aseret Yamei HaTeshuvah. This time of year is a season when we are gifted the miraculous ability to re-create ourselves – to re-invent ourselves – and we do so through Teshuvah.
While the word Teshuvah is most commonly translated as repentance, the word Teshuvah could more accurately be translated as “self-return” or “returning one’s self.” As much as Teshuvah is about turning away from our sins – from our wrongdoings, short-comings and mistakes – Teshuvah is also about re-turning to who we truly are – to the roots of our soul.
The re-translation of Teshuvah from repentance to self-return, hopefully, can illustrate to us what is at the center of the spiritual work we engage in at this time of year. We turn our attention to our roots and attempt to open ourselves up to the wisdom and inspiration of Jewish tradition with the hope that this return and opening will enable us to chart a better path forward into the year ahead. We remind ourselves of the formative experiences we shared with our parents and siblings – with family, friends, and fellow community members in years past and this remembering serves as a tool for us to genuinely ask ourselves: where do I want to go in the year ahead? How do I hope to continue to grow while maintaining connection with where I come from? How can I truly change in the year ahead while still remaining the same me?
These are the challenging, perhaps paradoxical, questions that Rosh haShanah poses for us. The choices we make today and every day over the 365 days until next Rosh haShanah become our response to these questions.
In a minute, we will officially sanctify this day of Rosh haShanah through reciting Kiddush and, if we pay attention to words of the Kiddush of Rosh haShanah we can identify again this process of moving forward through deepening our connection to our historied tradition.
In Rosh haShanah Kiddush we say רוֹמְמָֽנוּ מִכָּל לָשׁוֹן – Praising G-d for lifting us up above all other languages – apparently reflecting our traditional sense that the Hebrew language is Lashon Kodesh – a holy tongue with unique spiritual significance and potential. At the same time, we describe G-d’s word as True and Enduring Forever: דְבָרְךָ אֱמֶת וְקַיָּם לָעַד
These phrases both speak to the power of engaging with the ancient holy language of our people and the stories that have been and will continue to be told and retold forever through that language. The words of Kiddush reveal our people’s timeless faith that using our lips to pronounce the words of G-d’s Torah enables us to be lifted up – to ascend spiritually and to grow morally. Our use of the special, ancient, sacred words with which we pray today somehow – miraculously – empowers us to channel the ancient miracle of creation and to re-create ourselves anew – to grow and to improve.
May we open ourselves to be lifted up through the holiness of this day and the days that will follow – and through this experience may we realize our G-dlike ability to recreate ourselves in the year to come.
L’Shanah Tovah