A different day of judgement

Beginning Wednesday night, Rosh Hashanah, the day of judgment, begins. According to tradition, God sits upon the divine throne in the heavenly palace with the books of life and death in his hands. We poetically relate to this idea In the powerful U’Netaneh Tokef prayer:

Let us now relate the power of this day’s holiness, which is awesome and frightening. On this day, Your Kingship will be exalted, Your throne will be established with kindness, and You will sit upon it in truth. You are indeed the one who judges and reproves, knows all and bears witness, inscribes, and seals, reckons and enumerates. You remember all that is forgotten. You open the book of records, and all shall be read from it. In it lies each person’s insignia. And with a great shofar, it is sounded, and a thin, silent voice shall be heard. And the angels shall be alarmed, and dread and fear shall seize them as they proclaim: behold! the Day of Judgment on which the hosts of heaven shall be judged, for they too shall not be judged blameless by you, and all creatures shall parade before you as a herd of sheep. As a shepherd herds his flock, directing his sheep to pass under his staff, so you shall pass, count, and record the souls of all living, decree a limit to each person’s days, and inscribe their final judgment.

Thus, on Rosh Hashanah, through the ten days of repentance, and culminating on Yom Kippur, God, alone, judges us. This year, who cannot be touched by the continuation of the prayer:

On Rosh Hashanah, it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur, it is sealed – how many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time, and who by an untimely death, who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by wild beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague, who by strangulation and who by lapidation, who shall have rest and who wander, who shall be at peace and who pursued, who shall be serene and who tormented, who shall become impoverished and who wealthy, who shall be debased, and who exalted.

How little did we know last Yom Kippur what horror was in store for Am Yisrael only a week and a half later? How could we have known of the rockets, the invasion, the horrors of the murders? People tortured, families decimated, and loved ones snatched to the bowels of hell? Could we have foreseen how many soldiers’ lives would be taken, families torn apart, and others displaced? Where was God? We, as a community, shared in this suffering.

When Job cried out to God about what he saw as the injustice of his suffering, God replied, “Then Hashem answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘…Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have the understanding.'”  (Ch. 38) The book of Job proclaims that we have no answers. This response was echoed by the rabbi in the Talmud,

When Moses ascended on High, … Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, You have shown me Rabbi Akiva’s Torah, now show me his reward. God said to him: Return to where you were. Moses went back and saw that … Rabbi Akiva was tortured to death by the Romans. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, this is Torah and this is its reward? God said to him: Be silent; this is My decision. (Menachot 29b)

How can we mortals ask about the divine calculus?  The classic theological answer is that we cannot plumb the depths of divine justice or logic.

But there may be other theological responses.

Many years ago, I spent a wonderful Shabbat with a Chabad family living in Tzfat. The couple were middle-aged, pious Jews who revered Hasidic tradition. Several calamities befell the community that year. I was shocked to hear the mother of the house suggest that “God has a lot to answer for this year.”

As a young yeshiva student, the announcement that we can make claims against God seemed utterly blasphemous. Indeed, in this week’s parashah, Moses declares, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Devarim 32:4). How can man point an accusing finger at God?

And then our joy on Simchat Torah turned to mourning.

Jewish tradition also teaches us that Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, challenged God’s justice, “It would be a sacrilege for You to do such a thing, to kill the innocent with the guilty, so that the innocent be like the guilty! It would be a sacrilege for You! Will the Judge of the whole earth not do justice?!” (Gen. 18:25)   God loved Abraham and chose him to be the first of our people. Abraham taught us that it is not blasphemous to question God’s actions. Perhaps, like our forefather, we can demand an accounting or, at the very least, a different way to balance the ledger.

The Mishna declares, “The king does not judge others …and others do not judge him, he does not testify, and others do not testify concerning him” (Sanhedrin 2:2.) What prevents the human king from serving on a court? The Talmud tells the story of King Yanai, who once committed a treacherous murder. When brought to court, the rabbis feared passing judgment. When asked their opinions, they buried their heads in their hands out of fear. The rabbis declared, If we cannot or are unable to judge the king, then he has no right to sit in judgment on us.

If this is true of an earthly monarch, perhaps this is also true about the Master of the universe. If we cannot judge God for the calamities of this past year, can he then sit in judgment on us? Indeed, God is king, but perhaps the books of judgment must be put away this year. Am Yisrael has suffered grotesque losses. God’s hand was often hidden. Perhaps we can venture to say that this year, our suffering has been enough – perhaps this year, of all years, the day must pass without harsh judgment?

Indeed, this year, Rosh Hashanah falls out on Thursday and Friday. That means that Yom Kippur will coincide with Shabbat. The tale is told that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the great Hassidic master known for his defense of the Jewish people, declared that because, according to Jewish law, courts are not allowed to sit in judgment on Shabbat, when Yom Kippur lands on Shabbat, the harsh judgment is automatically suspended. This year especially, it would seem, forgiveness for the Jewish people should be automatic.

The suspension of punishment doesn’t only relate to Am Yisrael.  The rabbis teach in the Mishna that,

Rabbi Meir said: …When a man suffers in the wake of his sin, what does the Divine Presence exclaim? I am distressed about My head, I am distressed about My arm, [meaning, I, too, suffer when the wicked are punished.] From here it is derived: If God suffers such distress over the blood of the wicked that is spilled, even though they justly deserved their punishment, even more He suffers distress over the blood of the righteous. (Sanhedrin 6:5)

Not only did Am Yisrael grieve this year, but, claims Rabbi Meir, the Shekhinah, God’s earthly manifestation, as it were, also suffered. In a way, our pain is God’s pain, and God’s pain is ours. This year, even God, as it were, desires the judgment to be abated and the suffering to end. We have all suffered enough; these Days of Awe, we pray; the books of judgment should be put away, and the caring embrace of God should spread peace and healing.

May the captives soon return to their families, may the soldiers be protected, and May God grant peace over all of Israel and the entire world.

Shanna Tova