Hashiveinu Adonai, v’nashuvah. Chadeish yameinu k’kedem.
Cause us to turn, O God, and we will return. Renew our days, as of old. - Lamentations 5:21 & Liturgy
Rosh haShanah is a time for celebration as well as self-reflection. This year, Temple Sholom has much to celebrate - we mark our centennial year, beginning with our 100th High HolyDays as a congregation, and our new home is under construction in Scotch Plains. If all goes according to plan, we will mark our one hundred and first Rosh haShanah in our new sanctuary. As we look forward, we also look back. One of the constant themes of Judaism is that we define ourselves by our history and the past is often our guide to the future.
During the month of Elul, leading up to the High HolyDays, we are supposed to look back over the past year. We have one month to examine the past eleven, and determine where we have gone astray. When we have acted poorly towards others, we are told to acknowledge what we have done wrong, seek out the person or persons we have wronged, offer our apology, and then do what is necessary to make things right. Only after we have completed those steps, to their satisfaction, can we ask for atonement on Yom Kippur.
One month to repent and repair. One month to seek out all those people we have wronged, even those whose lives briefly intersected with our own. Perhaps one of the lessons of repentance is to be constantly self-reflective, do as little wrong as possible, and then act quickly to repent. However, we are all human; we do make mistakes; and all too often we forget in the pressing rush of our lives.
The Jewish calendar, which we will be studying this trimester, is made up of as many stops as gos. Shabbat is a period marking the end of each week. Holidays come at sundown, often at the time of the full moon, not conveniently on the nearest Monday to make a three-day weekend. We think that we are masters of our own calendars, but usually we are dragged on from one appointment to the next, never pausing, never stopping. To stop, we need to acknowledge something outside of ourselves, be it the holidays ordained by God in the Torah, or kept by the custom of our community. If we allow the Jewish calendar to be our guide, we may find that being forced to stop and reflect can truly bring the distinction of holiness to our time.
Beginning this Rosh haShanah, let us resolve to take time - time to celebrate, time to rest, time to reflect, time to be together. Our calendar claims to date back almost six thousand years, to our ancestors’ perceived beginning of time. Though God took the first Shabbat on day seven, it was another few millennia before our ancestors received the memo - at Mount Sinai. Since then, we have marked the weeks by resting on Shabbat, the seasons by celebrating harvests at Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, and the years at Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur. This repeating cycle is the heartbeat of our Judaism, the pulse and flow of our history and our generational legacy. We mark these moments together as the sun sets around the world, and across time linking our distant ancestors with our many times descendants.
The Torah, and our tradition, tell us how to mark time - that is how, as in the verse above, we say that God causes us to turn. However, unless we continue to turn ourselves, we cannot take joy in our rest; we cannot reset our clocks and renew our days. As in all things, we are in partnership with God. We imagine what God wants of us, but we still need to carry it out.
L’shanah tovah v’chadashah - a good and new year, to celebrate together each and every moment - of our centennial, our new Temple home, and the lives of our community.
