Knock, knock.
(Who’s there?)
Honey.
(Honey who?)
Honey, you better get ready, it’s time to head to synagogue for Rosh Hashanah!
L’shanah Tovah! This is the greeting for Jewish New Year. For Yom Kippur, it’s “Gut Yontif!”
What did the rabbi said to the Pope on Yom Kippur?
“Gut Yontif, Pontiff!”
If you had a Catholic mother and a Jewish father like I did, you might like it more!
Family is a big part of the Jewish high holidays. All over the world, if they are able Jews go home to observe the high holidays with their families. Even a convert who has no Jewish relatives, experiences being Jewish as participating in a familial or tribal journey together.
UU Ministers have often used this metaphor that participation in a congregation is a shared religious journey. Within this shared journey there is also an aspect of personal responsibility for doing the footwork. Faith development is what we do together, and it’s also something we must do ourselves.
How and to what extent do we follow our tradition’s prophetic calling? To what extent do we utilize congregational support to do our own heavy lifting? To what extent do each of us adopt the values and practices of our faith tradition, and carry them into a society that needs them badly?
These concerns are the same for Jews and UUs. The high holidays bring a heightened sense of journeying together. It’s an honor and a delight for me to share and offer up something of what is like for me to be Jewish and observe Jewish traditions such as the high holidays. This is also a challenge that humbles me. Perhaps those of you who have shared some of your journey from this pulpit can relate. Even those of you have participated in “Book Sundays,” may asked yourself, “how do I do justice to what I have received from spending time with this author’s work? If the book was one of your favorites, you may have read it more than one time. In sharing, we want to give something more than cliff notes?
People say that the “Days of Awe” begin on Rosh Hashana, the new year and continue through Yom Kippur ten days later. However, Judaism dedicates a month to getting ready. The most important task in preparation for the Days of Awe, is to make amends to any people we have wronged.
A different kind of drama begins on Rosh Hashanah that is represented by the blowing of a ram’s horn, aka the Shofar. They shofar is a symbol that says “Wake up! Pay attention! Remember our most important principles and our shared sense of purpose!”
The task of the Days of Awe is to become clear on the spiritual corrections we need most. The journey of the holidays invites Jews to move from egotistical pride and isolation to the sweet place of humility of knowing oneself in relation to something sacred. Judaism’s ultimate symbol of sacredness is referred to many ways; Hashem (the name), Eternal, Sovereign. Jewish concepts of divinity run a gamut from personal to abstract- the ineffable. Judaism calls its members to participate in a covenant with the One or Onesness aka Creator. The covenant is a way of life that binds us together, gives a sense of identity in relationship to the author of creation. With this comes a sense of responsibility to care for survival of the tribe, and Jewish way of life. Jews learn and observe Jewish laws and traditions for this purpose.
I was touched reading the way one mother expressed this to her son. Her son was unhappy and indicated that his religious education assignments were a drag. He asked, “Mom, why do I have to learn this stuff?” She replied: “Son, if you will learn these prayers you will be inheriting something that is sacred to your parents and your grandparents, something that has been passed on from generation to generation. You’ll possess something that our congregation holds as sacred.
I’ll tell you why I really hope you will receive the gift of Jewish education. If you learn Hebrew and the traditional prayers, when you go to another city or even a foreign country, you will immediately know how to join a Jewish congregation in a meaningful way. It’s like knowing the secret handshake. You will learn things that have sustained our people for thousands of years. You will have a community that will stand by you through anything and everything you go through in life. I want that for you, Son.”
Tradition is part of the sustenance of a community. Many of our UU traditions grew out of Christianity which grew out of Judaism. As I speak of Jewish tradition, I hope you consider the similarity or application to UU tradition.
A biproduct of observing holidays can be an acute sense of being part of a teaching/learning community that shares a sacred and awesome journey. Year after year, I’ve observed Jewish high holidays participating in a public and communal reflection on ways that our choices as individuals and as a group impact the conditions that we face. The holidays have encouraged and goaded me to live more consciously. Both Judaism and UU tradition emphasize the incredible power we have as we choose how to live. The holidays also remind me that in some ways we are subject to a greater reality that we don’t control.
Jewish history, vulnerability and divine protection are themes of the holiday. Coming together we support each other for the hard task of facing our responsibility and our vulnerability. Jewish sacred books tell a story of Jewish survival through great adversity. A joke tells of a common theme in many Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!”
Besides eating, praise and worship for the Source of Life is a central part of Jewish observance. When someone is
born, Jews praise G*d and speak of the awesome miracle of life.
When someone dies, Jews praise G*d and speak of the awesome miracle of life. Jews participate in this tradition regardless of their theological beliefs. Many Jews do not subscribe to the notion of G*d as a person or as a deity. Religious liberals consider the word as poetry referring to the unfolding of life as somewhat incomprehensible. Another part of Jewish myth is the love, guidance and protection of G*d. .
Throughout the holidays, there is recitation of the qualities of the divine. This liturgy aims to develop faith and trust in divine justice as well as mercy.
The final 24 hours of the Days of Awe are known as Yom Kippur, the day of remembrance or the day of Atonement. It’s a day of fasting, reflection, centering prayer, coming to terms with loss, and it’s a day of communal confession that we have fallen short of our best intentions.
It’s no small feat to admit that we have fallen short of our intentions. Doing it as a community helps us summon the courage to look at the conditions of our society and to confess that we have had a hand in creating them. We wish to learn from our mistakes, to reconcile ourselves with the better life for which we were created. The holiday journey reminds us of human fallibility, of life as a profound gift from a source beyond our understanding.
The Days of Awe are an annual spiritual marathon.
The Hebrew word for this work is “Teshuvah,” often translated as “repentance.” Literally it means doing
a turnaround, an about-face. It’s remembering and returning to what is sacred.
Part of the medicine of this annual journey is the remembering of family and friends who have died. There can be something sweet about the grief that tradition supports. It’s an experience a bit like Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue” which says “funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice, and before you know it, you start to feeling good.”
During the holidays I remember my father. Observing the Holy Days was something that we did together. Sometimes during services my father would fall asleep. When awake, he would be the only person singing harmonies. I felt embarrassed and wanted him to be like everybody else.
Years later, I became the weird guy singing harmonies without invitation. It can be sweet to sit with the pain of loss.
Another somber aspect occurs at the communal reciting of a litany of sins or mistakes. These reassure us that imperfection is a given. However, these also acknowledge that normal behavior has often resulted in great harm and suffering for humanity, and especially for the most vulnerable. It has us reflect on what humanity has done with the gift of life.
Before the sermon, we recited a version of the liturgy of sins authored by Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs. I want you to hear the Hebrew that is repeated many times during the holiday. “Avinu Malkeinu, our Creator our Sovereign, Avinu Malkeinu, Choneinu V’aneinu, Ki ein banu ma’asim. Aseh imanu tzedakah vaChesed, Aseh imanu tzedakah vachesed, vehoshiyeinu.”
The rituals state that G*d is merciful and seeks only that we learn. Communaly, we ask G*d to inscribe us in the Book of Life for a year of health and happiness. I don’t remember a time that I ever took this literally. I didn’t imagine G*d a person who would grant or deny our requests. We were reciting poetry. We address the author of life and death, war and famine, peace and abundance. This poetry has always moved and made sense to me. It’s a language that expresses the vulnerability of life, the wisdom of awe and faith for its continuance.
Rosh Hashanah is said to be the birthday of the world. On birthdays we reflect on the passing of time. To start the new year right, we take stock of our actions and resolve to do better. We acknowledge our limited understanding of all that is. We confess that we have fallen short of becoming the people who we would like to be. This holiday suggests that we have the capacity to change our behavior and we can make amends our past actions.
The recitation of a long list of sins is undeniably heavy: greed, avarice – behaviors which create more suffering. Alone, it is too much for us. Together, we find the strength to reflect on these character defects, and realize that we want to do better.
Repentance enables us to face the new day with a clear head and pure heart. We can learn from our mistakes, and we can create beauty. We can face our intergenerational trauma. We can forgive and be forgiven. We can accept ourselves as incomplete, and choose to continue our journey with awe, wonder and gratitude.
Once again, I am aware words and rituals don’t make anything happen. At best they invite us to do the work that heals. Where do we get the energy to try again, to believe we can do better when we have fallen short so many times before? Where do we gain faith?
Judaism and our UU faith remind us that inability to do it perfectly does not take away our power to do what we can. We can be part of a learning community.
The Jewish holidays remind me to show up for the next chapter, to open my heart to all the beauty and pain of living. Faith enables me to sing a little more often, color outside the lines more often, explore and play, and most of all love more often. We can accept the challenge to love, mourn and celebrate what “is.” A softspoken voice from within tells us that more is possible. We can exercise faith by taking our next steps.
It’s my pleasure to extend blessings of the Jewish New Year upon this UU congregation! I pray that the year ahead be filled with happiness and abundance for us. I pray that we will grow in our ability to accept ourselves as we are, and be willing to learn from our mistakes. I pray that we will see the beauty in living and that we will serve life with joy and peace.
May it be so!
Recent Comments