Approaching Rosh Hashana this year

Approaching Rosh Hashana feels different this year. And it’s not just the weather.

As we wind down September, it is a little cooler than usual. There has been time to settle into the new academic year before turning our full attention to the upcoming holiday.

But it’s not that. It’s something deeper. Whether we have fully identified it or not.

It’s the pervasive feeling that we have been in Rosh Hashana mode all year. That with Simchat Torah so brutally interrupted, we never fully closed the previous High Holy Days season.

The seasons changed, but the themes stayed the same.

Rosh Hashana is the time of year when we confront our mortality. But death has been at the forefront of our minds throughout this challenging and painful time.

And when it is not up front, it has been there lurking in the background:

In the “cleared for publication” announcements each morning. In the mourning widows, children, parents and siblings.

In the life plans cut short. In our inability to make plans for our life.

In the black humor. In the not so funny comments of our children.

In feeling our days are numbered. In making our days count.

In facing the fragility of life. In never feeling more alive.

“Who will live and who will die. Who will die at his predestined time and who before his time. Who by fire and who by sword. Who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer. Who will be degraded and who will be exalted.”

Not a day went by this year that I did not think about the value of each day.

We don’t need to be reminded this year to ponder our existence, to think about our choices, to prioritize the things that matter.

We don’t need to be reminded why we need to coronate The King, why His presence is needed in this world, why we feel bereft when He appears far.

But we benefit from reminders that there are other parts of our High Holy Days prayers that have deep resonance.

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the wedding of a special young woman. Standing under the chuppah, they invited her grandfather, Mr. Yehuda Widawski, a 105-year-old Auschwitz survivor, to recite the 5th blessing. Before he began, those in attendance were requested to think about the many young people killed in the Holocaust who were never given the opportunity to marry and build their own families.

Slowly and carefully, he recited the blessing:

“שוש תשיש ותגל העקרה בקיבוץ בניה לתוכה בשמחה. ברוך אתה ה’ משמח ציון בבניה”

“May the barren one (Jerusalem) rejoice greatly and delight in the ingathering of her children within her in joy. Blessed are you Lord who causes Zion to rejoice with her children.”

Later, when he came to dance with his granddaughter, the band played a song that could not have been more fitting and appropriate. The words are pulled straight from the amida prayer that we recite as part of every single service throughout Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur:

“ובכן צדיקים יראו וישמחו וישרים יעלוזו וחסידים ברנה יגילו”

“And so, too, the righteous will see and be glad, the upright will exult, and the devout will be mirthful with glad song.”

Sometimes, before our eyes, we merit to see the fulfilment of our prayers.

If someone can survive Auschwitz, settle in a newly formed State of Israel, build a family, experience the miracles of this country and dance at his granddaughter’s wedding, it gives us reason to believe that as a nation, we too, will see, be glad and exult.

We have been blessed to directly experience the actualization of some of our prayers these last couple of weeks:

“ועולתה תקפץ פיה וכל הרשעה כלה כעשן תכלה כי תעביר ממשלת זדון מן הארץ”

“Iniquity will close its mouth, and all wickedness will evaporate like smoke, when You will remove evil’s domination from the earth.”

And so, all year, we have lived the themes of Rosh Hashana.

But those themes are bigger than the emphasis on “Who will live and who will die.”

They are sweeping, they are grand, they contain vision for a world where good reigns supreme and where evil is destroyed, where there is awareness of God and where we each have an understanding of our place and mission.

Approaching Rosh Hashana feels different this year. Winds of change are blowing. Maybe as the situation heats up, it can also cool down.

Let us embrace our prayers. Let us believe in their potential. Let us exult in their tidings.

Their promise is more relevant than ever.

”ובכן תן כבוד ה’ לעמך…שמחה לארצך וששון לעירך…במהרה בימינו”

“May God grant honor to His people, gladness to His land, and joy to His city…speedily, in our days.”