Choiceless Choices Sealing Our Final Verdict
Tekiah Gedolah…the climactic conclusion of Yom Kippur. We sighed, breathed, hugged our neighbor,wiped away a tear. Can we say, this time next year? Didn’t we think that, this time last year?
To borrow from Robert Frost The Road Not Taken literary analysis-Is the sigh one of relief or regret?
In this world of Post-October 7th -Pre-Simchat Torah Anniversary-The answer is,…both!
What a year it has been. We made it. We now have -a clean slate…really? What now? It’s the happiest time of the year/Z’man Simchataynu, Really? HOW do we do this?
WHAT have we been doing, Repenting? But, we are forced into an emotional state. We are commanded to be happy? How can that be? Well, isn’t happiness the ideal emotion, one that we always want to feel? nevertheless, if you just don’t feel this, it is such a difficult mitzvah, one which the Vilna Gaon noted as – the most difficult of all.
In this generation which puts such an emphasis on its happiness and fairytales of happily ever after, horrifically so, instead, it has been a nightmare in finding that happiness .
What is the reality? What is going to be? Borrowing from Holocaust terminology to depict our existing reality…Choiceless choices everywhere we go. They chant: “Bring them home”! But… how?… Choiceless choices… We say: “Let our people go!” The choice has to be made. We had all been wondering, what is wrong with our leaders, while so many families are anguished? There are so many lost loved ones, so much pain and trauma. The suffering will in many cases segway into PTSD. Will it ever end? Decisions need to be made, only by whom? Choiceless choices wherever one goes…And yet,…as to most of the sides, Everyone Is Right! As John Polin cried “In a competition of pain, there are no winners”. Choiceless Choices…
What are the choices? Who can make them? What do we do?
Choiceless Choices… So, each one of us have been inscribed in one of the “books” by that final Tekiah Gedolah. We have made behavioral choices and therefore, a choice was made for us. As the Book of Esther states, the decree of the king once stamped and sealed cannot be revoked.
Did I choose correctly? Is my fate totally sealed? What if I missed that deadline? What if my choices were wrong?-Choiceless Choices. Are there second chances? Can the clock turn back to 2023, October 6th…. 7,8…9th? Have we ever wanted a redo, so badly? Choiceless Choices….
Interestingly enough, there will be one more chance.The verdict was sealed. But there is a final verdict which is then, actually sealed by the master of the world above. So, there is a second chance to seal in that final verdict for the year ahead. By the end of Wednesday, the last day of Chol Hamoed Sukkot, another day for Kapara known as Hoshanah Rabbah, Where the Adon Olamim will be all ears for that final verdict. Have we taken advantage since Sukkot began, to be as happy as can be? Have we been trying our best to bring joy to ourselves in a healthy, spiritual way, thereby proving to our creator that we are worth the investment of another year because through our happiness we have so much good to share and spread around this beautiful world that has gone mad and turned upside down? Will we be given that chance to help heal our fractured world?
Z’man Simchateinu, rejoice with family, friends and our community. By opening our homes to those we love and to those in need, we must reach out and help those who need to be helped and may have fallen between the cracks. This is how we will begin to help heal our fractured world and help bring the much necessary unity. But now, in good celebratory times. For we have shown and proven, united we stand in times of torture, misery and affliction. But we can’t unify only in distress, endlessly and follow the commandment to be happy during this holiday season.
As we just read in Megillat Kohelet: (explained by Rami Shapiro)
Everything in this world has its moment,
a season of ripening and falling away:
Moments of birthing and moments of dying;
moments of planting and moments of reaping.
Moments of killing and moments of healing;
moments of demolition and moments of building.
Moments of weeping and moments of laughing;
moments of mourning and moments of dancing.
Moments of scattering stones and moments of gathering stones;
moments of embracing and moments of distance.
Moments of seeking and moments of losing;
moments of clinging and moments of releasing.
Moments of tearing and moments of mending;
moments of silence and moments of talking.
Moments of loving and moments of hating;
moments of warring and moments of peacemaking.
We must note that laughter happens and tears happen as part of the same process of life.
And so, as the clock is ticking closer for us approaching the final verdict, we need to validate that each day is filled with opposing emotions, feelings and actions. This is all part of the book of life that we are begging for which has a limited edition subscription renewal. So, while we celebrate The Holiday of Sukkot, (
the only Holiday which In Messianic times will be joint with all nations of the world) with the purposeful path to be observed, laden with simcha, let us acknowledge to the King of all kings, the Holy One Above, our human frailty in the lack of understanding his ways. We must recall that final shofar blast beckoning us as the clock ticks for any last minute deeds of prayer, charity and repentance. Simultaneously, we will be beseeching Him for wisdom, clarity, resilience and strength, as we lock hearts in unity, no matter which eclectic path we may be on individually and communally to fight our enemy with finality and turn the choiceless choices into the correct choices. Please, bless our leaders to guide us righteously, unite and guide us to that final verdict, sealed for all, in the Book of life-the only choice for us all! Master of the World, heed our calls, cries and deeds, to empower us and our leaders with the wisdom and gumption to make these choiceless choices and unify our nation,ending war and suffering and bringing peace to all. Am Yisrael Chai!