Rosh haShanah
This year I was invited to give a talk on the first day of the Jewish New Year. New years, whether Jewish, or Christian, or Zoroastrian, to mention the few that I observe, are always linked to resolutions. We always try to idealize things that we should but often fail to accomplish in the new year.
One of the characteristics of the Jewish New Year is the blowing of the shofar. This is a primitive musical instrument, made of a sheep’s ram. When God gave us the Bible at Mount Sinai the blast of the shofar was heard.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is, to me, a neo-hasid. He is an important contemporary intellectual who wrote many books. I quote here a text in which he tells us of different religions:
To me, religions are like languages:
• no language is true or false;
• all languages are of human origin;
•each language reflects and shapes
the civilization that speaks it;
•there are things you can say in one
language that you cannot say
or cannot say as well in another;
• and the more languages you learn,
the more nuanced your
understanding of life becomes.
Judaism is my mother tongue, yet in matters of the spirit
I strive to be multi-lingual.
In the end, however, the deepest language of the soul is silence.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro - www.rabbirami.com
In my book “Em Busca de Deus” (In Search of God) I said that “all religions are moderately true.” This concept, as well as Rabbi Rami’s sayings, led me to offer you the text of my Rosh Hashanah address.
* * *
Today is Rosh haShanah, the festive day that commemorates the beginning of our Jewish year.
This is the day that we celebrate the Creation. And it is also the day in which we crown God as the King of the Universe.
But how do we crown God? Blowing the shofar, of course. But how shall we blow the shofar to crown Adonai?
A hasidic legend tells us that one day the Baal Shem Tov said to Rabbi Ze’ev Kitzes, one of his beloved disciples: “For this Rosh haShanah you will blow the shofar for us. I want you to study all of the kavanot – the meditations of the Kabbalah – to think about them while you play.”
Rabbi Ze’ev worked hard. This was a great privilege, but also a great responsibility. He studied the multiple meanings of the different sounds of the shofar and the way in which these sounds reach different parts of our souls. And he wrote on a piece of paper all of the important information.
The great day arrived. It was the morning of Rosh haShanah and at the adequate moment Rabbi Ze’ev went to the center of the Bal Shem Tov’s synagogue to blow the shofar. Although the synagogue was full of people, there was a total silence while the participants waited to hear the shofar.
Rabbi Ze’ev put his hand in his pocket and became livid. The paper had disappeared. And the panic made he forget all that he had learned, his mind became blank. His eyes filled with tears. He had to blow the shofar, without the kavanot. And so he did. He blew the shofar as well as he could and went back, in shame, to his place.
At the end of the service, the Baal Shem Tov approached Rabbi Ze’ev, whose eyes wee still full of tears, and said, “Thank you, Reb Ze’ev! The shofar that we heard today was the most extraordinary of all!”
“But Rebbe . . . I . . .”
“In the King’s palace,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “there are many doors and many rooms. The palace guards have many keys, each key opens one door. But there is a master key that opens all doors. The kavanot are the keys that open the different doors of our soul. But you used the master key, your heart.”
Therefore, whenever you hear the shofar, please remember than in Rosh haShanah one of its meanings is to crown God as the King of our Universe.
Our patriarch Abraham is an important person in Rosh HaShanah. The following words on his regard were written by the catholic historian Paul Johnson:
In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus describes Abraham as “a man of great sagacity” who had “higher notions of virtue than others of his time.” He therefore “determined to change completely the views which all then had about God.” One way of summing up 4,000 years of Jewish history is to ask ourselves what would have happened to the human race if Abraham had not been a man of great sagacity, or if he had stayed in Ur and kept his higher notions to himself, and no specific Jewish people had come into being. Certainly the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place.... To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person; of the individual conscience and personal redemption; of the collective conscience and social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice... the Jews taught us how to rationalize the unknown. The result was monotheism and the three great religions which profess it. It is almost beyond our capacity to imagine how the world would have fared if they had never emerged.
The Zohar, the most important treaty on the Kabbalah, tells us that Abraham was at his tent’s door when three angels came to visit him. And Sarah heard the opening of the tent and heard the angels convey to Abraham the joyous news that Sarah would have a son. And the Bible tells us that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
From our patriarchs e matriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Lea, the Jewish people were born.
And as today we are celebrating the Creation, we must keep in mind the fact that it is not yet completed. And God needs us to finish it, as we need him to help us make it possible.
Tikun Olam, our task of perfecting the universe, is the most important of all our tasks. On this day we say to God that we need His help to be able to accomplish the Tikun Olam. We have to stop and think and reorganize our plans and also tell him:
Lord of the Universe, You are our King, we count on Your inestimable help to perform our task. Perhaps we have felt somewhat discouraged during this year, as our Universe is becoming more and more turbulent. Many of the religions that exist in our planet – all of them, without exception, destined to help people get closer to You – are being badly interpreted. Some people are extracting hatred, instead of love, from them. Our country has had many manifestations that we hope will eventually lead us to a better future. We are conscious that the task of perfecting the Universe, to walk to the better world that we know one day will come, is not only Yours, but also ours. And for this we have to think and make plans, and this day in which we celebrate Your Kingdom is the best of the days for this.
Each new year we make decisions that are seldom accomplished. This happens because we fail to realize that this is not about the simple realities of our lives. It is about improving the world, for us, for our children, for our grandchildren.
And, according to our prophets, the choice is ours. They remind us that we have the power to make choices that are different from the ones we made in the past. They remind us of the power of teshuvah. We usually translate it as a “return”, which is the real meaning of the word. In the Bible it denotes the repentance that makes the Jewish people “return” to its original paths. In today’s world, however, teshuvah is really a “change in direction.” It refers to our innate capacity, described by the prophets, to change from ignorance to truth, from injustice to justice, from despair to happiness.
Let us fight, then, for Tikun Olam, for the perfection of our planet.
And let us ask for peace. For us, for the people of Israel, for all of the inhabitants of the earth, regardless of the religion that they chose. According to Rabbi Rami Shapiro, “Rosh HaShanah is not only for the Jews, it is for all Humanity; it is merely offered to Humanity through the Jews.”
Our new year resolutions, therefore, have to be meaningful. God asked us to offer Rosh HaShanah to everyone. Our example is important.
For this reason, when we say “Osse Shalom,” our request for true peace, let us not say merely “veal col Israel” – for all Israel – but also “veal col ioshvei tevel” – for all Humanity.
Please, Lord of the Universe, give us peace. Give us a sweet new year, but also rich in spiritual enlightenment and accomplishment.
Shaná Tová Umetuká! (Have a good and sweet New Year). And let us all be registered in the Book of Life.
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