THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, September 9, 1983 109 Reflecting on High Holy Days: Matter of Life and Death By DR. IRVING GREENBERG National Jewish Resource Center NEW YORK — Judaism is a religion of life — against death. According to classic Jewish teaching, the world is grounded in God, an infi- nite source of life energy and goodness. Therefore, life itself will grow and de- velop until it it totally per- fected. The very fact of death is a Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MRS. ZAL AARON & SON CHARLES May the coming year be filled with health and happiness for all our family and friends ELEANOR & DAVID RISEMAN denial of dignity, value and perfection. It is a "con- tradiction" to God who is pure life. Therefore, in the final end, death will be abolished ("He will swallow up death in eternity" — Isaiah 25:8). Classically, Judaism insists that when the Messiah comes, all those who have died will come to life again. Resurrection of the dead will totally nullify death retroactively. Normally, Judaism treats death as the enemy. All laws of the Torah — except three — may be set aside to save a life from death. Death is set up as the nega- tive pole of contact with God. The human -corpse was considered the- most in- tense archetype of ritual impurity. No burials were allowed inside Jerus- lalem, the Holy City. People who came in con- tact with the dead were 'span nai\1 mu'? to all our friends and relatives DORA KANER & FAMILY May the coming May the coming year be filled year be filled with health and with- health and happiness for happiness for all our family all our family and friends and friends HAROLD & DOROTHY HABER MARSHA & DAVID WEIN, -ERIC, TRICIA & MARLA We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MOISHE & MOLLY LEVIN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year IRVING, DOREEN, LORI & SHELLY LICHTMAN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year NATHAN, SONIA & CAROL NOTHMAN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year SIDNEY & SHIRLEY RICER & FAMILY RABBI GREENBERG not allowed to enter the Holy Temple without going through an elabo- rate purification rite — including immersion in a body of living water, i.e., a symbolic rebirth from the grip of death. Death- is the opposite of God because God is all life. When death strikes person- ally, the tradition prescribes acceptance, showing love through per- sonal, caring treatment of the corpse and expression of grief and loss — for the im- mediate relatives. Other- wise, it is almost as if death is to be quarantined as a dangerous antagonist. Priests who were consec, rated to full-time service of God were not allowed to have any contact with the dead. Priests were prohib- ited from entering a graveyard or attending fun- erals — except for those of their closest -of relatives where denial of attendance would be "inhuman." It is almost as if God (Pure life) is God, and Death (Anti-life) is Death, and never the twain shall meet. The classic exception to this arm's-length treatment of death is the period of the High Holy Days. On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur the tradition deliberately concentrates our attention on death. From the New Year to the Day of Atone- ment 10 days later, the Jew is taught to focus on the vulnerability of life. Human beings cannot be mature until they encompass the sense of their own death. The ter- rible sense of shortness of human existence gives urgency and significance to the totality of life. Sometimes, we experi- ence this gift of deeper life after an accident, crit- ical illness, or the death of someone close. Too of- ten, the effect fades as the presence of death re- cedes and the round of normal life becomes routine again. The Days of Awe structure the imaginative encounter with death into an annual experience in the hope that it will not be lost but will recur to liberate life continually. Unlike all the other Jewish holidays, neither Rosh Hashana nor Yom Kippur is linked to remembrance of liberation or the commemoration of catastrophe. This is the time for the individual to concentrate on mortality and the meaning of.life. The encounter with non- existence is set off by the awareness of creation. Whatever is born, dies. By, tradition, Rosh Hashana is the birthday of the world, the anniversary of creation. Then, too, the image of being on trial for one's life which dominates this pericid jolts us into heightened awareness. "Who shall live and who shall die?" This question poses the deeper issue: if our life ended now, would it have been worthwhile? Are we grateful for the miracle of our daily existence? The trial image cap- tures the sense of our life being in someone else's hands. The shofar of Rosh Hashana proclaims that the Judge before whom there is no evasion or hiding is now sitting on the bench. Sharpened self-awareness, candid self-judgment and guilt flow from the possibility that a death sentence may be handed down at the end. The climax comes in liv- ing out "death" on Yom Kippur. On this day, tradi- tional Jews put on a kittel, a white robe also worn when one is buried. The life proc- esses of eating, -drinking, washing and sexuality are stopped for 24 hours. Guilt (in the form of confession) and encounter with the dead (in Yizkor memorial prayers) and the final trial judgment dominate the day. This intense focus on death could turn morbid or nihilistic. Romans ex- hibited a skull at orgies and cried, "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!" But Judaism's encounter with death is in the service of life. Catharsis and recon- ciliation emerge on Yom Kippur as love and fore- giveness come into play. "For I do not desire the death of the sinner," cries the Lord, "but that he turn from his way and live!" The liturgy bursts with life. "Remember us for life, King who loves life; write us in the book of life, for your sake, Lord of Life." The people of Israel comes out of Yom Kippur reborn. Forgi- ven and pure, at one with its God and its way, it renews life with vigor and love. To know how fragile the shell of life is, is to learn to handle it with true grace and delicacy. Only one who realizes the vulnerability of loved Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MR. & MRS. HOWARD CRAIG nal\I mv? our friends and relatives DEBBIE, HOWARD & SHAYNA WEINSTEIN MR. & MRS. SIDNEY STOISKY May the coming year be filled with health and all our family and friends THE LEITSON FAMILY SIDNEY & SHELIA, JEFF & TONA, MARC & NANCY & ALLAN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year ERWIN & BERTHA FRIEDMAN & FAMILY Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year ANTAL, HERMINE GRUBER & FAMILY We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year ELSIE & MAX JAFFE We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MR. & MRS. LOWS LEVINSON & FAMILY BUDAPEST — The Jewish community's new kitchen, financed by the American Jewish Joint Dis- tribution Committee, pre- pares 1,000 kosher meals each day for seven canteens and the home-bound el- derly. Approximately 700 of the 1,000 meals are served free of charge. We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year SAM & TILLIE MYERS We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year Telephone Wait "They delude the people, crying 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace." —Jeremiah Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year happiness for to all Budapest Kitchen JERUSALEM — There are just 32 telephones for every 100 persons in Israel (compared to 75 per 100 in America and 40 per 100 in Great Britain and West Germany). Israel has 1.35 million phones on 900,000 lines and the price to install a tele- phone in Israel rose last year from $85 to $300. ones can treasure every moment with them. "The unexamined life is not worth living," said Soc- rates. The examined life is very worth living is the message of the High Holy Days. FREDA & HAROLD PODOLSKY We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year SYLVIA, DAVE & SUSIE SCHANE , We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year RAYMOND, ARLENE & IDA ZIMBERG .