Mina's Musings: Rosh Hashanah First Day 2016

Good morning and Shanah Tovah.  It is wonderful to see all of you this morning.  If I haven’t gotten to tell you yet, I hope you and your family had a healthy, relaxing, and reinvigorating summer, and since it is already October, I hope that you are enjoying the start of fall.

Many years ago I read the story of Isidore Isaac Rabi, the winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1944.  When asked why he became a scientist, he said, “My mother made me a scientist without ever knowing it. Every other child would come back from school and be asked, ‘What did you learn today?’ But my mother used to say, ‘Izzy, did you ask a good question today?’ That made the difference. Asking good questions made me into a scientist.”

I think of Mr. Rabi quite often, and try to ask my children the same question on a regular basis.  While I don’t think I am turning my children into scientists, I do believe that I am helping them achieve something just as important – becoming the best Jews they can be.  How so?  We Jews, as a people, are known for asking questions.  The first instance of Abraham speaking directly to God in the Torah is in the form of Abraham asking God a pointed question.   The first time we hear Isaac speak he is asking Abraham a question.  And the first words we hear from the mouth of Jacob are words of contradiction, questioning his mother Rebekah’s instructions to deceive Isaac.  We are descendants of those who felt comfortable asking questions and demanding answers of both their parents and God.  The rabbis of the Talmud kept and expanded this tradition of questioning and the Talmud preserves many of their inspiring debates. 

As important as it is to ask questions of others though, it is just as important to ask ourselves a few questions.  I recently learned from Rabbi Hillel Cohen about a sermon delivered many years ago by a man named Rabbi Samuel Chiel.  Rabbi Chiel, who passed away in October 2013, once said in a sermon that the three most important questions in human life could be found in the first couple of chapters of the Torah.

The first question comes from the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  After Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, God called to Adam – since he was the one whom God had directly told not to eat the fruit and said, “Ayeka - Where are you?” According to Rabbi Chiel that is the ultimate question for us every day and especially as we start our new year.  Where are you?  Have you done what you wanted to do this year?  Have you accomplished your goals – personally, professionally, academically, spiritually?  Where are you in your relationships with the ones you love?  What have you done to enhance your relationships this year?  What have you done that is negatively impacting your relationships?  What have you done to grow professionally?  What have you done to grow religiously and spiritually as a Jew and human being?  If you haven’t grown, why not?  What do you need to be doing?  Where are you is not just a question for your GPS, it is truly a question for your soul.

The second question comes from the same story of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  After Adam and Eve were caught eating the forbidden fruit, Adam blamed Eve for the sin.  God then asked Eve a simple question:  ‘Mah zot asita? What did you do?’  In context, of course, it means, “what wrong thing have you done?”  This too is a question that God asks of us every day and that we in turn must ask ourselves.  In our country right now we have grown accustomed to watching people blame others for their own mistakes and shortcomings.  But the truth of the matter is that WE are responsible for our own shortcomings, our own mistakes.  Thus as we start the new-year, the story of the first Man and Woman, whose creation we celebrate today, leads us to ask:  What have we, what have I done wrong?  How have I hurt those around me?  Have I been dismissive?  Did I ignore them?  When a friend or a child was talking to me did I listen to them or did my eyes keep straying to my smart-phone? – You know you did -  Did I say something hurtful or act in a cruel way?  Have I lived by the principles I claim to espouse or am I just mouthing words?  Have I knowingly committed a wrong and, like Adam, blamed someone else, refusing to accept responsibility for my mistakes?  And as a sneak preview of tomorrow’s sermon – Have I refused to accept when I am wrong – or minimally, admit the possibility that someone else is more right than I am? Have I been dismissive of Jewish tradition, learning, and observance without truly exploring it?

The third question that Rabbi Chiel put forth was not from Adam and Eve, but from the story of their sons Cain and Abel.  When Cain killed his brother Abel, God asked Cain:  “Ayeh Chevel achicha? Where is Abel, your brother?” According to Rabbi Chiel that question, which resonates down through the ages means asking ourselves “Am I concerned about other people? [If I see a stranger at synagogue do I say hi and engage in a conversation or do I walk by and ignore them as I look for my own friends?  If I see an obviously in need person on the street – personal effects in a grocery cart, sitting despondently, do I offer them food or money or pretend they are invisible? Since there are children in the room,] if you are a student and there is a classmate of whom everybody makes fun, do you join the rest or do you try to help? [If you are the teacher in the room do you let the teasing take place?]  If you are at a meeting and somebody is the target of a (vicious) [verbal] attack, do you remain silent or do you speak up for the victim? If you see a police car and an ambulance near a neighbor’s house, do you watch the scene through the window or do you go over and ask if you can be of help?”  Each of these questions boil down to one simple question – while I obviously say I care about others, do my actions match my words, or are my actions more akin to staying silent in the face of injustice?  I will be speaking about such silence on Yom Kippur.

Rabbi Chiel’s three questions are indeed foundational questions for a “questioning people.”  But let’s be honest.  Asking questions is not enough.  We must be strong enough to listen to the answers that others give us when we question them and we must be even stronger to honestly answer the hard questions this season of the year demands we ask ourselves.

Luckily, I believe that a guest speaker we had this summer can help us embrace the challenge that comes with asking such questions.  In August our congregant Ken Cliffer shared some of his thoughts on the Shema, one of our most well-known prayers.  One of his ideas in particular resonated with me and I think it can help us with those challenging questions from Rabbi Chiel. 

Now, in case you have forgotten, we normally translate the words Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad as “Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is one.”  That is in fact the translation in our mahzor.  However, the word Yisrael is a compound word.  The first part of the name Yisrael comes from a root meaning wrestled or striven and the second half of the word, el, is one of the many names for God.  The Torah says that Jacob received the name Yisrael after wrestling with an angel all night long, telling us “because you have striven with God and man and prevailed.”  Using a version of this translation like God wrestling/God struggle, Ken suggested we understand the Shema as:  "hear our struggle with God, Adonai, our God, singular Lord." He then said:  “the striving struggle with God can mean the struggle to be true to the מצוות [mits’vot] - the commandments/ laws/ principles of the Torah and its teachings.”  I have to tell you, I love that expression – the striving struggle, and I believe it can also mean the struggle we go through each day if we pose Rabbi Chiel’s three questions to ourselves. 

We live in a world in which we try to minimize struggle as much as possible – think safe spaces on campuses and participation awards for all.  But that is not who we are supposed to be as Jews.  We are God wrestlers, we have always struggled with the biggest and hardest question of justice, continuity, the meaning of life and more.  It is who we are.  We seek to challenge ourselves.  I know that within our congregation there are many who have done marathons, triathlons, walks for cancer, intensive bike rides for a cause, etc.  Many more live by the fit-bit on their wrist, holding themselves accountable for their physical fitness.  But today I tell you we also need to be accountable for our spiritual fitness.  If you don’t like the answer you give yourself to one of these questions what are you prepared to do?  Say sorry again next Rosh Hashanah or actually take steps to change and improve?   

A couple weeks ago I read an article by Rabbi Jay Michaelson in which he stated his personal belief that people who rarely go to synagogue should NOT go on Rosh Hashanah.  He had two primary arguments.  The first was that the various themes of the day are the hardest ones of the year to handle – God as king, the book of life, etc..  The second was that the messages are confusing – is it a happy day because it’s the birthday of the world or is it a serious day because we’re asking for forgiveness for our sins both as individuals and as a people? 

I believe Rabbi Michaelson is correct in saying that making sense of everything in the mahzor is difficult.  But I believe his conclusion is wrong if he truly thinks that the answer to the solution of dealing with difficult texts or liturgy is to simply avoid them.  On the contrary, asking hard questions, wrestling with those questions, living with and even IN the inconsistencies is the quintessence of what it means to be a Jew.  As I noted earlier, the first words the Torah records Abraham saying to God are words of challenge.  That is what we do.  We question, we challenge, we seek, & if we work hard enough, we find as well.  In order to help you this year we have in our lobby multiple copies of Chancellor Arnold Eisen's essays on what it means to be a Conservative Jew in the 21st century.  We also have Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's new book The Israel Warrior.  Please take them and use them for your growth this year.

As we begin 5777 my prayer is that we each find the strength to ask the hard questions of others,  of God, and most importantly ourselves – that we engage in the struggle to grow spiritually and Jewishly this year – that we encourage others in their questions and seeking – and that we work together to find the answers.

Shanah Tovah.