Rosh Hashana Drasha
10/07/2024 04:49:42 PM
As Jews, we’re asked to do a lot of hard things. Maintain multiple sets of dishes, provide our children with Jewish education, leave the office at 2:00 on Fridays half the year, kitniyot.. But one of the hardest, in some years even more than other, is something we do today. When our tradition and our machzor require us to proclaim, with sincerity, enthusiasm and conviction, words that are hard to believe, and to sign on to a vision of the world, a vision of the future, that honestly feels scarcely credible, and utterly unmoored from reality.
A world in which…
וְיִירָאֽוּךָ כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְפָנֶיךָ כָּל הַבְּרוּאִים. וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם
all [Your] works will fear You, and all of creation will worship You, and they will be bound all together as one to carry out Your will a perfect heart.
וְכָל הָרִשְׁעָה כֻּלָּהּ כְּעָשָׁן תִּכְלֶה כִּי תַעֲבִיר מֶמְשֶֽׁלֶת זָדוֹן מִן הָאָֽרֶץ: עוֹלָֽתָה תִּקְפָּץ פִּֽיהָ.
A world in which Injustice will have nothing more to say, And all human evil will fade away like smoke…
Have we not traveled enough of the roads of history – human history generally, and Jewish history in particular – to recognize the hopeless unreality of such a vision? Is it not uncomfortable at very least, and perhaps even a little insulting to be required to pledge allegiance to a hope and a vision for humankind that is thoroughly undermined by the historical record compiled over millenia? This is a really hard ask.
And the passages I cited are of course just the beginning. The towering Talmudic sage Rav undertook in the third century to compose a majestic introduction to the Malchiyot section of Mussaf today, a composition that begins with the words Alaynu lishabeach, and whose second paragraph anticipates the day when
וְכָל בְּנֵי בָשָׂר יִקְרְאוּ בִשְׁמֶֽךָ. לְהַפְנוֹת אֵלֶֽיךָ כָּל רִשְׁעֵי אָֽרֶץ
All humanity will call out in your name, even the evildoers in the land
וְהָיָה ה' לְמֶֽלֶךְ עַל כָּל הָאָֽרֶץ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה ה' אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד
A day when the world is not a zero-sum competition among peoples and nations, but a global celebration of humanity’s oneness under God. It sounds perfectly nuts. A breathtaking hallucination, far too-beautiful -for -this-world.
This is hard thing to do.. Especially after the year we have just had.
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5784 Rosh Hashana’s ago ….
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה והנה טוב מאד
And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good.
As רַבִּי חָמָא בַּר חֲנִינָא imagined he moment:
כָּךְ אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְעוֹלָמוֹ, עוֹלָמִי עוֹלָמִי, הַלְּוַאי תְּהֵא מַעֲלַת חֵן לְפָנַי בְּכָל עֵת כְּשֵׁם שֶׁהֶעֱלֵית חֵן לְפָנַי בְּשָׁעָה זוֹ
God said to the world, “My world, My world! May you always be as pleasing to Me as you are right now.
I am sure that R. Hama bar Chanina intended his words to be read with a hint of foreboding, as it would not take long at all before things would start careening sideways, for God’s Olam to unravel, to the point at which God Himself would express regret for having undertaken the whole project.
But after all of that , 10 generations after that, the Torah begins a new story. The story of an individual, an individual who stumbles upon God when all others had forgotten him, and who out of devotion and loyalty and love, would dedicate himself to not allowing God to give up.
Two midrashim that capture the story:
בראשית רבה ל״ט:א׳
. אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק מָשָׁל לְאֶחָד שֶׁהָיָה עוֹבֵר מִמָּקוֹם לְמָקוֹם, וְרָאָה בִּירָה אַחַת דּוֹלֶקֶת, אָמַר תֹּאמַר שֶׁהַבִּירָה הַזּוֹ בְּלֹא מַנְהִיג, הֵצִיץ עָלָיו בַּעַל הַבִּירָה, אָמַר לוֹ אֲנִי הוּא בַּעַל הַבִּירָה. כָּךְ לְפִי שֶׁהָיָה אָבִינוּ אַבְרָהָם אוֹמֵר תֹּאמַר שֶׁהָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה בְּלֹא מַנְהִיג, הֵצִיץ עָלָיו הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְאָמַר לוֹ אֲנִי הוּא בַּעַל הָעוֹלָם. כָּך וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל אַבְרָם לֶךְ לְךָ
Rabbi Yitzḥak said: This is analogous to one who was passing from place to place, and saw a palace that was on fire. He said: ‘Is it possible that this palace has no one in charge of it?’ The owner of the building looked out at him and said: ‘I am the owner of the building.’
So, because Abraham our patriarch was saying: ‘Is it possible that this world is without someone in charge?’ The Holy One blessed be He looked at him and said to him: ‘I am the owner of the world.’ The Lord said to Abram, go to the land that I will show you…”
Is it conceivable that this world – this word that is on fire! - has no one directing it?! And God, having been acknowledged even through a question, proceeds to ask for help:
To what can their relationship be compared?
וּלְמָה אַבְרָהָם דּוֹמֶה לְאוֹהֲבוֹ שֶׁל מֶלֶךְ שֶׁרָאָה אֶת הַמֶּלֶךְ מְהַלֵּךְ בַּמְּבוֹאוֹת הָאֲפֵלִים, הֵצִיץ אוֹהֲבוֹ וְהִתְחִיל מֵאִיר עָלָיו דֶּרֶךְ הַחַלּוֹן, הֵצִיץ הַמֶּלֶךְ וְרָאָה אוֹתוֹ, אָמַר לוֹ עַד שֶׁאַתָּה מֵאִיר לִי דֶּרֶךְ חַלּוֹן בּוֹא וְהָאֵר לְפָנַי. כָּךְ אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְאַבְרָהָם, עַד שֶׁתְּהֵא מֵאִיר לִי מֵאַסְפּוֹטַמְיָא וּמֵחַבְרוֹתֶיהָ, בּוֹא וְהָאֵר לְפָנַי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל,
To what is Abraham comparable? To a friend of the king who saw the king walking in dark alleys. His friend peered and began illuminating for him through the window. The king peered and saw him. He said to him: ‘Rather than illuminating for me through the window, come and illuminate before me.’ So too, the Holy One blessed be He said to Abraham: ‘Rather than illuminating for Me from Mesopotamia and its environs, come and illuminate before Me in the Land of Israel!’
And so, a partnership was born. A partnership in which Avraham and the people who would issue forth from him and Sara would stubbornly persevere in proclaiming the plausibility, even the inevitability, of the restoration of God’s trod-upon vision, a vision of a world no less pleasing than on the day it was created.
Yes, it’s an exceedingly difficult task, especially when we are living in a moment when you need not be a cynic, merely a realist to dismiss the vision as unmoored and incredible. But
אָנוּ עַמֶּךָ, וְאַתָּה מַלְכֵּנוּ. אָנוּ קְהָלֶיךֳ, וְאַתָּה חֶלְקֵנוּ
AL KEN NIKAVEH L'CHA…. And therefore, we will do Your hoping, God. We will proclaim, and embrace Your Hope as our hope, Your prayer as our prayer. We are the Jewish people and we do hard things. That’s why we’re here.
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And we can do more than pray. We each have opportunities, to reach outside of our bubbles and to create relationships, relationships that may have their challenging moments, but relationships that had never existed before. We can build bridges where there had not been any before, or perhaps they had been there but had gotten blown up We can generate good will where before there had been something quite else. It may feel like a drop in a bucket, but each one is a fulfillment of the pledge we made to God, to not allow Him to give up on the great Hope, Olami Olami may you be as pleasing to Me as you are on this day.
It’s been such a tough year. And there were so many days that I, like you, was feeling so disillusioned. By the realirt that I have a 2 year old grandchild who knows the routine of sirens and safe rooms. By the fact that we are, collectively, still needing to send our sons and husbands and nephews and cousins into battle. By the reality that we still have hostages, who are being held by people who are completely ruthless and merciless. And when thinking about the thousands of innocent people who have gotten caight in the crossfire.
But we’re not quitting. Because Jews don’t quit. Because the thing we’re pledged to preserve and maintain is just too precious and too sacred. We will throw ourselves into the Amidah and into Aleynu today and tomorrow, and then we’ll go out after that with renewed determination try to live them.
We’re Jews. We do hard things. And we do them with optimism, grit, devotion, and love.