This evening, after the third star appears in the sky, as the sun retreats further west, we can look to a new horizon: the Jewish calendar year 5787. Rosh Hashana will have arrived.
We hope and pray the year will indeed bring the sweetness that for centuries has been the thoughtful yearning of our traditional holiday greetings. Sweetness aside, it falls to us – as it has always in every generation – to help fashion our tomorrows and to steer our lives toward the future we yearn. As the late renowned rabbi, scholar, historian, teacher Prof. Michael Brown often said: “We will write our future. It is not yet written.”
But we need Heaven’s help.
And so, during the Holyday that starts tonight and ushers in the Ten Days of Awe, our prayers glide toward the ultimate issues of our existence: a healthy, rewarding life for our families, alongside the imperative of a life well and purposefully lived according to the values of the eternal people whose history and traditions we share.
Much of the holiday’s liturgical poetry speaks of the mysteries and wonders of Creation. But the words that truly focus our minds and stir our hearts are words of tender pleading and unbroken hope. Such as….
“Remember us for life. (Let us live another year. Please)
“Inscribe us in the Book of Life. For Your sake, God, life. (Let us live another year Please.)
“Our Father, our King, have pity on us, our children and our infants. ((Let us live another year. Please.)
“Our Father, our King, act for Your sake, if not for ours. ((Let us live another year Please.)
These and the many other entreaties with which we are all familiar, are deeply personal supplications. They are whispered privately. They are chanted aloud. But both the whispered and the louder voice of our prayers are uttered in plural form. Our individual lives matter. Our lives, all life, is irreplaceable. But our individual lives are tied to our community of lives.
It has always been thus. And thus, it will always be.
The late remarkable Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks described the essence of Rosh Hashana as thinking about, securing and building the future.
There are no prophets who can see tomorrow.
Nor are there any pundits, op-ed writers, hate-laden protestors, or knowledge-less experts who can hector their falsehoods and disrespect of truth onto a wilful, confident, strong Jewish community and our democracy-loving allies.
May we be able to say at this time next year that, indeed, we did our utmost tin 5787 to make it the best year yet, to secure and build our respective futures, to determine our own destinies for the betterment of our families, our people and the wider world.
Shana tovah umetukah.
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Shabbat shalom
Shana Tovah uMetukah
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