And They Are Awesome!
Leviticus 23: 23-25 “The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. You shall not work at your occupations, and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Eternal. “And thus, we are commanded to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The passage goes on, Lev 23: 26-28, “The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Mark, the 10th day of the seventh month is the Day of atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: you shall practice self-denial, and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Eternal: you shall do no work throughout the day. For it is a Day of Atonement on which expiation is made on your behalf before the Eternal your God.” Thus, we are commanded to celebrate Yom Kippur. Five verses capture the essence of these most attended synagogue services! We are commanded to acknowledge and celebrate the Yamin Noraim, the Days of Awe! And each year, for those ten days, we rebuild and strengthen our Jewish Identity. From Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur, we acknowledge and celebrate our identity!
What is the draw, the power of these days? Shabbat comes every week, but we never have to worry about crowds of people entering the doors of the synagogue or overwhelming our live streaming of Shabbat. I wish we did, but we don’t. We don’t need any extra chairs on any given Shabbat or Chag or Yom Tov, and we definitely don’t have to have some sort of ticket system to monitor how many people are coming at any time of the year, other than Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. They all come or tune in – members of our Solel community who may rarely, if at all, come to the synagogue, are there on those holidays. Unaffiliated Jews who are looking for a relatively close and welcoming community, want to attend services on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana. Why? What is the attraction of these days? What makes them awesome?
These days are awesome, and we make them so because it is at this time, perhaps more than any other time during the year, we remember who we are, and how important it is for us to identify as being part of a ‘kehillah’ – a Jewish Community. It is the time for us to affirm our belonging to a peoplehood, and for those who support us to say they understand who we are. It is the time for us to understand and value our roots, the roots that have sustained and nourished us for some 5000 years. It is the time to focus on this amazing world God has given us and that we are responsible to take of this world! Rosh Hashanah is considered the birthday of the world, and we need to celebrate birthdays with joy, with pride, with thankfulness. During the Yamin Noraim, we realize how fortunate we are to have life, community, this planet Earth. When we all get together, we confirm our very essence, human beings created in the image of God! We can meet again with old friends, acquaintances, make new friends. We can welcome (as we are commanded) the stranger with open arms. Our Jewish and Jewish adjacent families come with us because they want to support us.
When we enter into the sanctuary on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are energized, we are affirmed. We meet together to begin again the cycle of our yearly Jewish life and the cycle of celebration and introspection. As Moses Maimonides said, the shofar blowing wakes us up to who we are and reminds us of how valuable our Judaism is to us, and how important those who support us are to our Jewish Identity. As we sit and pray together during the Rosh Hashanah service, and listen to the inspiring words of our Rabbi, we renew our dedication to our Jewish identity, and we are supported by those in our family that value that dedication. When we eat our apples and honey and think about the sweet and fruitful new year that lies in store for us, we have to be thankful for the gift of this world that God has given us. And even when, perhaps, there will be pian and sorrow ahead, we can be comforted with the knowledge that God is with us.
And we are thankful, not just individuals, but as a community- kehillah! When we begin to fast on Yom Kippur, we enter another stage of our Jewish identity, with introspection and soul searching. We are taking a tabulation of our soul – Cheshbon Ha Nefesh! We look inward to find out what is motivating us, what we’re feeling, why we are feeling, and what we need to mend our souls personally. As well, we look to our community, and we take on the responsibility for one another. When we ask for forgiveness of our wrongdoings, we talk in the plural. The wrongdoing, the missing the mark are not only personal missteps, but they can also be community missteps. We take on the guilt, the responsibility of all community when we list our “chet”! We are responsible for one another!
There have been times where someone might criticize someone else for only coming once or twice a year on the High Holidays. Let us rather be grateful, thankful that they still come. They have not forgotten! We should just be taking comfort that they have come, no matter what else has happened in their lives. They remember that this is the time to begin again, to come together as a community and celebrate the new year, to make atonement for wrongdoings, to look ahead at all the wonderful possibilities awaiting us during the coming year So yes, these days are awesome and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the synagogue or knowing that you’re online , beginning again, with all of us, the new year 5785 and may it be a better year for all, a fulfilling year of hope, safety and peace.
Shanah Tovah U’metukah!
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