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Rosh Hashana, Between Universal and Personal
There is no day in the year, except perhaps for Yom Kippur, that radiates intimacy the way Rosh Hashana does. The Mishna in Rosh Hashana teaches us that on Rosh Hashana, every creature in the world passes in front of God “Kivnay Maron.” The Talmud shares different ways in which this was understood. In Babylon they would say “Kivnai Imarna”, like sheep. Just like the sheep pass one at a time in front of the shepherd, so too we pass in front of Hashem. In the prayer of Mussaf we say in U’Netaneh Tokef “Kebakarat Ro’eh Edro”, God looks at each and every one of us like the shepherd looks at his sheep. Reish Lakish says it means like the path of Beit Maron, a narrow ascending path like you would see in Masada, in which only one person can pass at a time, and whoever is on the top can see each and every person. Very personal, very individual.
No concept in Judaism gets even close to the intimacy described in the Talmud, where God famously judges the deeds of every person, writing us into three respective books, the book of life, the book of the wicked, and those in between.
And yet, when looking at the prayers of Rosh Hashana, we can find nothing less individualistic in the entire Jewish canon. Even the average weekday Amida, acknowledges our individuality and needs more than the Rosh Hashana prayers.
“And so, grant that Your awe—Ten Pachdecha—, Hashem, our God, be upon all Your works, and Your dread upon all You have created; and [then] all [Your] works will fear You, and prostrate before You will be all [Your] created beings. And may they all form a single band—Aguda Echat— to do Your will with a perfect heart. For we know Hashem our God that rulership is Yours, strength is in Your hand, might is in Your right hand, and Your Name is awesome overall You have created.”
If you are looking for yourself in that prayer, you will have a very hard time finding yourself.
Then comes “And so, grant honor Hashem, to Your people—U’Vchen Ten Hashem Kavod Le’Amecha– praise to those who fear You, good hope to those who seek You confident speech to those who yearn for You”. Unless you are one of the outstandingly righteous ones, you will also have a hard time finding yourself in there. “
“And then the righteous will see [this] and rejoice— Uvchein Tzdikim Yiru—and the upright will be jubilant, and the pious…And You Hashem will reign alone over all Your works on Mount Tziyon, the dwelling place of Your glory, and in Yerushalayim, city of Your Sanctuary”.
It is hard for the common person to find themselves in this.
The same is true through Malchuyot, Zichronot and Shofrot where the universality of the prayers is beyond overwhelming. “Meloch Al Kol Haolam Kulo… reign over the entire world”
If you are thinking about yourself and your loved ones, it is very hard to find ourselves in the Rosh Hashana prayer.
So had did Rosh Hashana get its reputation as a hyper individual mitzvah when in fact it is so much about the universe, the Jewish poeple, God’s glory, and how those are all intertwined.
While this question has troubled me in past year, this year we have finally learned the answer to this. In the year which has been the most difficult for the Jewish people in 75 years, we have learned our collective wellbeing, is intertwined with our personal wellbeing.
“U’vchen Hashem ten Hashem Kavod Le’Amecha, and so God, give glory to your people”, are the words I will be thinking about the most this year. We have seen this year what just a taste of the lack of that Kavod, honor, respect, and glory to the Jewish people looks like. Following the worst pogrom carried out against the Jewish poeple since the Holocaust, a spike in hate–not against the barbarian perpetrators–but against the Jewish people. Young people who do not know how Jews were treated before the establishment of the State of Israel, got to taste a sliver of what our grandparents and great grandparents saw. They saw what it means when the Kavod of Am Yisrael goes down just a bit, the ripple effects it has over each and every one of us.
Suddenly the prayers of “Meloch al Kol Ha’olam–reign over the entire world with Your glory, and be uplifted over all the earth with Your honor, and appear in the splendor of Your majestic might over all who dwell in the inhabited world of Your earth” become more clear to us. These words go from being a messianic utopia we can only dream about to something we would like to see increase, even if just by one percent. Suddenly year like not other, we understand the inextricable interconnectedness of the Jewish people.
This year we have learned in the most painful possible way that unless we see God’s awe upon all people, unless God shows the world “Kavod Le’amecha”, honor to His people, our lives are radically changed.
We no longer see the outcome of our prayers is not binary. It is not either all-out God’s glory arriving in a messianic apocalyptic way, or abysmal idolatry and denigration for the Jewish people. God has been able to shine His countenance on us in ways that were not either or. Some of you might remember the days of the Six Day War, Nobel Prize winners, great Torah scholars, American Jewry’s greatest and most successful undertaking: the campaign to free three million Soviet Jews from the shackles of communist slavery, the Jewish Day school movement that now nears one thousand schools across America. We have had our prayers answered. Not all of them. But some.
This year, we realized how a strike against God’s glory and the honor of the people of Israel effects each and every one of us. You may have seen that in your children’s school and high school. In hockey practice, in your college admissions, and most definitely on your college campus. We have seen this in our workplaces and on the streets of New York.
If in the past we didn’t appreciate the unfathomable miracle of being able to finish our workday in New York City, and then head over to JFK or Newark airport just to find ourselves the next day in Jerusalem preparing to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, this year we can appreciate that miracle a little bit more.
Yet far more than we have seen how much the universal impacts our day-to-day lives, the people of Israel have seen that more than a thousand times over. On the dreadful morning of October 7th, Israelis woke up to the horror of a reality in which the world’s most barbaric terrorists no longer feel that “Uvchen Ten Pachdecha—place Your fear”, they no longer know of the fear of God and the glory of Israel. Israel has has seen what happens when now seven countries no longer feel deterred, when Ben Gurion’s vision of diplomacy and Jabotinsky’s iron wall, fail to deter our enemies. Even as I write these lines, there are 101 hostages living in Auschwitz and Dachau-like conditions in the tunnels of Gaza. We have seen God’s miracles just the other day when 300 ballistic missiles from Iran rained in on Israel, with not one Israeli being killed. But we have also seen their lack of fear.
Yet while Israel has seen what happens when “Uvchen Ten Pachdecha” and the Jewish people have seen what happens when “U’vchen Hashem ten Hashem Kavod Le’Amecha” decline, we have also seen what the Jewish people standing together means.
Heads of Jewish organizations tell me that the moment they open events for registration, events have filled up automatically. We have seen people open their pockets and hearts to support the Kibbutz’s, towns of the North and South and to stand with the families of the hostages. People who took leave from successful careers and businesses to go to Israel, barbeque dinner for soldiers, and offer mental health counselling to those who need it.
We have seen the heroism of ordinary Israelis starting at the fateful moment of 6:28 AM when the October 7th attack began, and Dalia Lieberman, a 26-year-old Israel, quickly rushed to the weapons depot in Kibbutz Nir Am, made sure the electricity in the Kibbutz stayed down, and fending off hundreds of terrorists, saving the entire Kibbutz, killing 65 Hamas terrorists, and commanding a force that successfully fought Hamas for 18 hours. We got to know people like Aner Shapira, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s best friend. Aner stood at the entrance with a broken glass bottle and told everyone he would fight to death to defend them all. Aner, with his bare hands repelled nine hand grenades terrorists threw at the 27 people crowded in the bunker, until eventually a Gazan terrorist shot at him an RPG and killed Aner.
In the spirit of Yom Kippur, Aner’s friend Tzur Ehrlich wrote this poem:
“and so he would give life, and count,
One…three…five…until eight,
and in the eighth the candle was extinguished,
Aner was extinguished.”
As much as we have seen how much the universal affects every individual, we have also seen how every individual effects the universal.
We conclude the section of Shofarot with the words “Ki Ata Shome’a Tru’at Amo Yisrael Berachamim”, for You hear the shofar sound of your people, with mercy”. While the Mitzvah of sounding the Shofar is an individual mitzvah, obliging each and every Jews separately, which can be fulfilled by every Jews individually, it is also a mitzvah we perform as a people. The word Rachamim is not mentioned in the context of Jews blowing the Shofar individually, it is something we say when blowing the Shofar as a community.
We enter the coming year with no illusions about its complexity. Yet we must leave no illusions about our resolve either. May this be the year of Ten Kavod Le’Amecha, a year in which God restores and enhances the dignity of our people. May it be a year of Uvchen Ten Pachdecha—may Hashem instill His fear on all of creation, but especially on the enemies of Israel. May it be a year of Ki Ata Shome’a Tru’at Amo Yisrael Berachamim”, for You hear the shofar sound of your people” where we as a people unite to sound the Shofar of awakening and to stand with one another.
May you and your families be signed in to a happy and healthy new year. Shana Tova.
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