Happy New Year 5769 (2008/2009) (Belated)

So sorry I was not here to wish you all a Happy New Year on the thirtieth of September. I hope those of you who celebrated it had a great one. That is one of the big disadvantages of where I live now. The nearest shul (it literally means school, but is also used to refer to synogogue which is a place of learning) is at least about fifty or sixty miles away. I miss the connection I had when we lived outside WDC with my favorite Rabbi (teacher) and going to services. I miss dahvening (prayer) in a group, even though my comprehension of Hebrew is very small it gives me a feeling of peace, calm and security that the secular world does not offer.

I especially miss the High Holidays which are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (pronounced kee-poor not kipper like the fish). Rosh Hashana is the first and second of the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur will be on 9 October by the way. After Shabbas (the Sabbath) they are probably the most important holidays on the calender. My favorite part of the holidays is when they blow the Shofar which is a ram's horn. The sound digs deep into your heart and soul. It is a call for you to join with G-D, to renew yourself, to look over your life and reflect on it. At least it is in my mind. The Torah (Bible) commands that the Shofar be blown at this time. I really miss hearing the Shofar.

When I went to services conducted by Rabbi Saks some of the younger guys used to get up and see who could blow it continuously the longest. I always got a kick out of that. So here is the end of what I am going to say. I am going to cut and paste (Yeah, I know, you guys love that!) two articles from Aish and a link if you wish to read and/or learn more. To be honest I still haven't decided which two to use because they all have something wonderful and in my most humble opinion powerful to say. So I recommend you take a look at the site (It's a great site to learn about all things Jewish.) and read some of the other articles, they are fairly short.

In closing you might want to take this time until the ninth and reflect on the last year, on your relationship with G-D, your family, your friends, your community and your world. Even if you are not Jewish. Reflection is a good thing. Shabbat Shalom, (Peaceful Sabbath, Yes I know bad Chana!) may you be inscribed and L'chayim (to life)!
5 Tishrei 5769 (4 October 2008)

Rosh Hashana Dreaming
by Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt

"I have a dream..." -- a phrase immortalised by Martin Luther King. "...I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character...." It was a dream that he did not live to see realized; a dream that is still not realized. But a man who dreams is a man who cares. And a man who cares is a man who makes a difference.

We Jews also have a dream. A dream that we have dreamt for almost 3500 years. And Rosh Hashana is the day that we remind ourselves of that dream. You would think that on the awesome Day of Judgment, -- "who will live and who will die, who by fire and who by sword..." -- you would think that we would pray for forgiveness, for health, for a year of life. But if you look at the essence of the prayer service, you will see that we ask for none of this.

What do we ask? We ask that G-D perfect the world. We ask for unity amongst people. We ask for harmony. We ask for the destruction of evil and justice in response to righteousness. In short, we ask that G-D bring us the Messianic Age. It's all lovely stuff, but at first glance, it seems a little out of place on Rosh Hashana. In fact, it's exactly what Rosh Hashana is all about.

Are we living for something that matters? Or are we concerned about our next lollipop?

We stand before a loving G-D, our Father. Every Father wants their child to live a long, healthy and prosperous life. And so, like any good father, He is offering us another year. The question is whether we are interested. The year is on offer, but what are we going to do with it? Are we living for something that matters? Or are we concerned about our next lollipop? Are we striving to be great, or meandering towards mediocrity?

Rosh Hashana is there to lift our sights, to remind us to dream. And to dream of great things --peace, love, justice... Why bother dreaming of anything less? By dreaming grandiose dreams, we remind ourselves that life really does matter. This is not just another year of drudgery. It is a year in which we can accomplish great things. We remind ourselves that we really do want another year, another opportunity to strive towards making a difference.

Rosh Hashana is a day to ask the all important question: What am I living for? If we know what we are living for and it is something that matters, God will give us life. If we're wasting life, G-D may give us a little more to waste, but then again, He may not.

Let's not take the chance. On Rosh Hashana, let's make sure we have a dream.

The Sound Of Freedom
by Rabbi Doniel Baron

The sound of the shofar is the call to freedom. The Torah provides for the blast of the shofar to mark the start of yovel, the jubilee year in which all slaves were freed and land reverted to its tribal owners. The Torah tells us of a great shofar that will sound at the End of Days -- the debut of the ultimate freedom characterized by the messianic era.

What spiritual power makes the blast of the shofar so liberating? We blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana and, according to custom, during the entire preceding month of Elul. This shofar is traditionally understood as a call to repentance. What does this have to do with the freedom?

The answer lies in the spiritual expression embedded in the call of the shofar. Human beings express themselves through different means of communication. We generally express ordered ideas, conscious thoughts, and intellectual observations through the most suitable medium: the realm of speech. We join words to form premeditated and meaningful sentences and paragraphs.

While speech is an effective form of conveying information or thoughts, it is also a step removed from one's deepest feelings. One can easily control speech and manipulate it so that it transmits a message that does not necessarily reflect that which lies deep in one's heart.

There is, however, another system of communication, one that comes from a deeper and more genuine place within -- a place where words are inaccessible and insufficient. It is a form of communication that is harder to convincingly manipulate, and is often the product of involuntary expression. When a person is touched to the core, whether through shock, tragedy or uncontainable joy, a new system of expression takes over. It is the world of "tzeaka," of crying out. It is the sound of a primal scream from deep within that breaks through to the surface.

Sometimes its message is an expression of one's pain; sometimes it simply broadcasts one's existence. Children use this more pure, though less intelligible, form of expression long before their ability to speak develops. They employ to call attention to themselves and make us aware of their presence.

The sound of the shofar begins with a simple breath, and ends with a note, broken or straight, depending on the required sound. In describing those sounds, the Talmud uses metaphors of crying -- a protracted sighing cry and uncontrollable broken weeping. That primal cry of the shofar reveals its secret. Mystical sources explain that the shofar spiritually expresses places in a person that words cannot reach. It penetrates the core of a Jew's existence, and taps into the essence of the Jew. It is the primal cry of the soul, an existential scream.

If the shofar expresses the inner self of a Jew, how is it liberating? Furthermore, what in the shofar blast is a catalyst for repentance and intimacy with G-D? Judaism maintains that the inner will of every Jew is to connect to spirituality -- to G-D -- on the deepest level possible. This existential desire is not manifest in our every behavior because something external, a foreign partition, prevents the heart of every Jew from bursting forth. Our rabbis attribute this barrier to the evil inclination and the sorry state of exile in which we find ourselves, a state which impairs our ability to connect to our inner selves. Our tradition reveals that the shofar slices through all those external layers and frees us to do what our inner self really wants. The ultimate moment of that freedom is on Yom Kippur, a day on which our connection with our inner selves is so evident that even the forces of evil are virtually powerless.

The shofar, therefore, is a liberating force that spiritually frees us from that which coats and clouds our core desires to connect to out heritage and our G-D. The shofar paves the way for growth and self-knowledge. The barriers often fool us into thinking that they, and not spiritual aspirations, reflect our true inner will; the shofar exposes those alternate desires as fraudulent. We can't always consciously feel the effects of the shofar, but the impact on our souls is unquestionable.

We blow shofar throughout the month of Elul to herald the call to repentance. In Hebrew, the word for repentance is "teshuva," which literally means return. One can understand how the term applies to a person who lived a spiritual life, left it, and then returns. But why is teshuva an appropriate term for one discovering Jewish roots and identity for the first time? How is the liberating message in the shofar connected to teshuva?

Regardless of one's background, social upbringing, or religious affiliation, the mystics teach that the desire to connect to G-D shines from every Jewish soul. The shofar's power pierces all the barriers that separate a Jew from the Jew's inner self. Connection to that beacon of light, therefore, is not the incorporation of some new, external idea, but a return to one's genuine self, regardless of whether that true self previously surfaced.

By opening our hearts to hear its message, the shofar can serve as a mystical signpost that directs us back home.

To learn more:

High Holidays

Rosh Hashana

Yom Kippur

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