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Elchanan Poupko

Rosh Hashana: Writing Our Own Book of Life

Speaking to a very religious and devout woman cousin of mine in Israel, she said from the depths of her heart, ” Oy, if only we had known last Rosh Hashana what was being written and inscribed for the year to come.”

You do not have to be a very religious person to share that pain. This year, has been the lives of millions of Jews have been transformed in ways that few of us have ever envisioned. We have been caught by surprise. Nothing captures the horror of the surprise like listening to the audio and watching the footage of the recently released documentary about members of Kibbutz Be’eri. People who woke up to a beautiful, tranquil, and ordinary Simchat Torah morning, finding themselves invaded by more than 300 well-trained, sadistic Hamas terrorists. The heroism of the members of the Kibbutz, heroes like their medic Amit Mann, who kept tending to people’s wounds under the most adverse conditions,

For too many of us, this year has been the year in which so much of came out of that sealed book from last Rosh Hashana was something we wish we could have avoided. To this past year we evoke the Talmudic wish: “Tichle Shana Ve’Kileloteha”. Yet as we look to this coming year, we wonder, what is it that this year will bring onto us? What is being written even as we sit here, and as the Talmud says: “Tichle Shana Ve’kileloteha”, may this year and its curses end. Yet as we begin a new year, we might wonder what it is that this year is bringing to us? What might be written even as we speak.

For this I turn your attention to a meeting that took place in Kibbutz Be’eri, between an IDF major, and another wone in the reserves.

On October 10th, standing in Kibbutz Be’eri, Dan Levitt and Erez Sa’adon understood the IDF does not have enough tanks to conduct its full response to the events of October 7th. Together they began going to Israeli depots where tanks that are out of use, were being held. Tanks that the army never planned on using again. Togther, they began the process of fixing those tanks, which were officially out of service. They then began spreading the word, that they are establishing a new battalion for those who are not being called up for reserve duty. Tother they established the Of Hachol brigade, named for the mythological phoenix bird from Harry Potter, that flies into the sun, is burned and recreates itself again. Interstingly, this bird even made it into our own midrash (Midrash Rabba Beresheet 19:5

“she [Eve] also fed the animals, the beasts, and the birds. All of them heeded her [and ate of the fruit] except for one bird that is called ol. The school of Rabbi Yanai says: It lives a thousand years, and at the end of a thousand years, fire emerges from its nest and burns it. An egg-bulk remains of it and it then grows limbs, and lives again. Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shimon says: It lives a thousand years, and at the end of one thousand years, its body wastes away and its wings are shed. But an egg-bulk remains of it and it then grows limbs, and lives again.”

Together, this unit of out-of-service tanks, and retired IDF soldiers who came by word of mouth began securing the Gaza-Israel border, allowing the intact tanks go into Gaza into direct combat. They too, went for several missions, helped the war effort, and protected the borders of Israel. Tanks that were written off, staffed by people who were seen as no longer relevant, wrote another glorious chapter in the history of the Israeli defense forces and the Jewish people’s bravery.

 

As we look to this coming year, we might wonder what it is that is being written now for us for this coming year. Yet more than we think about that, we must remember besides for what is being written, there is also what we write ourselves. We read on the first day of Rosh Hashana about God remembering Sarah and blessing her with a child, yet this miracle would lack the same meaning to us as Jews, had Sarah and Abraham not raised Issac to be who he was and had Isaac not chosen to become who he was. We read about Hannah being blessed with her child Shmuel, yet there is no question Shumel and Hannah played a huge role in becoming who he was. Rosh Hashana is the time of creation, but as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out, it is for us to be God’s co-creators.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, one of the greatest American rabbis and philosophers, notes that Rosh Hashana is not only the beginning of the new year, it is also the beginning of the ten days of repentance. Yet despite it being a day of repentance, the day itself involves no repentance. So lacking is repentance from our prayers on Rosh Hashana that in Hasidic Siddurim, they even omit “Avinu Malkeinu Chatanu Lefanecha, our Father our King, we have sinned before you”. So where is there repentance on Rosh Hashana? Rabbi Soloveitchik goes on to argue that Rosh Hashana is not about doing full Teshuva, that is something we reserve for Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashana is about awakening ourselves to Teshuva. Rosh Hashana is about creating our own path. Rosh Hashana, like the launching of a space mission or thinking of a new idea, is the beginning of a new path we chart. Sure, we will need to refine and power the direction of our rocket, but Rosh Hashana is about charting that path.

Rosh Hashana is the Techilat Hateshuva, Rabbi Soloveitchik says, which is in many ways far more important than the sof Hateshua of Yom Kippur. The first second a space mission takes place, are far more important that where it moves ten days later. Yom Kippur is a time of complete Teshuva, yet Rosh Hashana is the time we decide to launch. It is the time we dream. It is the time the Shofar tells us Uru Yeshenim, wake up oh sleeping ones from your slumber.

Last year, caught too many of us by surprise. More than anyone, Israel and Israelis have been caught by surprise. But it also caught each and every one of us by surprise. Friends that we had, relationships we knew, expectations we had from our society, politicians, professors, friends, and even family may have been shaken. We wonder what is being written as we speak for this coming year, and we do not know. If someone told me that almost a year later, the hostages would not be back, the Kibbutzim of the South have not been fully rebuilt, and almost 100,000 Israelis in the north are still displaced, I would not be able to believe it. It is easy to feel helpless.

Yet it is this year that we have also seen people like Rami Davidian, a 58 year old blue color worker and father of four who saved 750 youngsters from the horrors of the Nova festival.

As the rockets came down on October 7th, Rami Davidian was sitting and drinking coffee in his home in Moshav patish. He had no plans of leaving his home. 15 minutes later he got a phone call from a friend who asked him to get his son out of the scene of the Nova and sent him the location on WhatsApp. Knowing the area, Rami took the back roads and saved the young man; with him were a few other young people. In a Jewish state the word spread fast and frantic parents began sending Rami more and more Whatsapp locations to go and save their children. At one point a young woman called him and begged him to save her. She had no internet where she was and she guided him to where she was. Rami came and honked so she can see he is there. He saw her surrounded by six terrorists. Rami came out and spoke in Arabic, telling the bloodthirsty terrorist the IDF was around the corner and that he would take the young lady so the IDF doesn’t harm them. It worked. He continued to save 750 people that day.

On Rosh Hashana we take action and ask God to write us in the book of life, but we also resolve to write our own book. As Rabbi Soloveitchik says, it is Hatchalat Hateshuva, it is the most important beginning of our resolve to make this year different.

Yet changing our ways, is not an easy thing. Have we not stood in this same place in our lives so many times and told God this year would be different? Have we not said Avinu Malkenu before? Did we not make those resolutions in the past? In the immortal words of the Sader Ma Nishtana, how is this year different than all the other years?

Yet unitlike last year, this year we know how this year is different. We say in Avinu Malkenu “Aseh le’ma’ancha im lo le’ma’anenu”, do for Your sake, if not for our own sake.”

This year as we resolve to write our own book, as we take the path of Techilat Hateshuva, of charting our own path and writing our own books. Like founders of the Of Hachol unit or like Rami Davidian who saved 750 young people from the site of the Nova, let us remember that writing our own book this year, is not just about ourselves—it is about the Jewish people. It is about the future of this world. Let us write our own book of life, our own book of love, our own book of pride in our Judaism and care for one another and may it be a Shana Tova U’metuka.

About the Author
Rabbi Elchanan Poupko is a New England based eleventh-generation rabbi, teacher, and author. He has written Sacred Days on the Jewish Holidays, Poupko on the Parsha, and hundreds of articles published in five languages. He is the president of EITAN--The American Israeli Jewish Network.
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