Confronting Mortality
On The Days Of Awe

The theme of the High Holy Days is the trial of our lives — and
the result and goal is a new appreciation of life

RABBI IRVING GREENBERG

Special to The Jewish News

1 j nlike the other Jewish
holidays, neither Rosh
Hashanah nor Yom
Kippur is linked to
remembrance of libera-
tion or commemoration of catas-
trophe. This is the time for the in-
dividual to concentrate on mortality
and the meaning of life.
Later tradition, uneasy with the
absence of historical connections, did
link these days to historical events.
The forty days from Elul to Yom Kip-
pur are the anniversary of the forty
days that Moses spent on Sinai to
receive the second set of tablets.
Moses sought to win forgiveness for
the sin of the golden calf and to en-
sure continued life for the Jewish peo-
ple. Yom Kippur thus becomes the an-
niversary of a day of forgiveness and
reconciliation. Similarly, on Yom Kip-
pur, Jews mourn for the lost Azazel
(scapegoat ceremony) and the collec-
tive forgiveness it won. This loss
becomes the paradigm of the national
tragedy of exile.
Whatever the historical associa-
tions, however, they are marginal to
the High Holy Days. There is no
mistaking the "universalist" theme
of Lord as Creator and Judge of
mankind, rather than God known
through Jewish history. Many prayers
focus on the hope that all humanity
will come to know God. The
marvelous dialectic of individual and
community, of God of Israel and Lord
of Mankind, that marks the High Ho-
ly Day liturgy is a standing rebuke to
those theologies or secular views that
insist one cannot have both. Because
the sense of Jewish group identity,
historically shaped, has weakened
among Jews since the emancipation,
particularly in the diaspora, these
universalist- and individual-oriented
days have maintained their grip on
the imagination and loyalty more
powerfully than the other holy days.
But the real power of the days lies in
their tapping into the deep human
feelings about death.
In the period of the High Holy

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988

Days, tradition guides the individual
to take up the challenge of death on
three levels. One is to deal with the
constant gradual, partial encroach-
ment of death in one's own life. Life
is also a process of dying. Routine and
stagnation are forms of death in life.
People often stop growing long before
they are recognized as dead. Such a
"dead" person cannot be an agent of
redemption. The tradition holds that
the key to vital living is perpetual
renewal of life; it seeks to attain that
renewal by generating a continual
process of examining life and constant
rebirth. The awareness of being judg-
ed for life and death is a stimulus to
stop living routinely.
The second level of the challenge
is to deal with encountering abrupt,
total death itself. Starting before and
going through this period, the Jew
focuses on the vulnerability of life and
the limits of the human. People
rediscover that "our entire life is
God's mercy; by miracle we stand—
but miracles may not happen every
day."
The encounter with nonexistence
is set off by the awareness of creation.
Whatever is born, dies. By tradition,
Rosh Hashanah is the "birthday" of
the world or of humanity. This birth-
day, that is, New Year's Day, is not the
occasion for a party to wipe out the
passage of time in the oblivion of
celebration but a time for taking
stock. The possibility of non-being
leads one to the questions: What is it
all worth? What has been accomplish-
ed? By what merit does it still stand?
The Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur liturgies focus on creation and
on God as Creator and Ruler of the
universe. "To say of the world that it
is created is to say that it is not its
own ground but proceeds from a will
and a plan beyond itself . . . [To say it
is not created is to say that] the world
at every moment is the last word
about itself and measured by nothng
but itself." In Jewish tradition, crea-
tion also implies the goodness of the
world: "And God saw everything that
God had made and, behold, it was
very good" (Genesis 1:31). In other
words, the controversy whether the

To know how fragile the shell of
world is created is less a theological
argument than a moral one: The con- life is, is to learn to handle it with
cept of creation teaches that this is a true grace and delicacy. Only one who
world of divine purpose, a universe of realizes the vulnerability of loved
value and meaning. By the standard ones can treasure every moment with
of creation, human beings can be them. The encounter with death
judged as to whether they are acting turns the individual toward life.
in accordance with these values and Death can only be opposed by life just
as death-in-life can only be opposed by
goals.
From the combined themes of growing in life. Instead of standing
non-being and judgment comes the there, letting death constantly invade
central image underlying the Days of life, Judaism strikes back by raiding
Awe season: the trial. Jews envision the realm of death and turning this
a trial in which the individual stands encounter into a spur to life.
The climax comes in living out
before the One who knows all, with
one's life placed on the balance scales. death on Yom Kippur. On this day,
A thorough assessment is made: Is traditional Jews put on a kittel, a
my life contributing to the balance of white robe similar to the shroud worn
life? Or does the net effect of my ac- when one is buried. The life processes
of eating, drinking, washing and sex-
uality are stopped for twenty-four
The trial image captures
hours. Guilt (in the form of confes-
the sense of one's life
sion), encounter with the dead (in
being in someone else's
Yizkor memorial prayers), and the
final trial judgment dominate the
hands.
days. But then relief from sin emerges
tions tilt the scale toward death? My on Yom Kippur. God forgives! "The
life is being weighed; I am on trial for Lord your God will open your heart
my life. Who shall live and who shall and your children's hearts . . . for the
die? This image jolts people into a sake of giving you life!"
heightened awareness of the fragili- (Deuteronomy 30:6)
This is why the tone of the Days
ty of life. This question poses the
deeper issue: If life ended now, would of Awe is basically hopeful and even
it have been worthwhile? Is one aware joyful. This is why the liturgy bursts
and grateful for the miracle of daily with life. "Remember us for life, King
who loves life; write us in the book of
existence?
The trial image captures the life, for your sake, Lord of Life."
sense of one's life being in someone
This period seeks nothing less
else's hands. The shofar of Rosh than the removal of sin and the
Hashanah proclaims that the Judge renewal of love. People who confront
before whom there is no evasion or their guilt and failure in human and
hiding is now sitting on the bench. divine relationships—in the context of
Sharpened self-awareness, candid community oneness and divine
self-judgment, and guilt are activated forgiveness—can correct errors,
by the possibility that a death develop new patterns, and renew life.
sentence may be handed down. Like "For I do not desire the death of the
standing before a firing squad, a trial wicked, but that he turn from his
for life wonderfully concentrates the paths—and live." To turn is to be
mind.
reborn.
At the climax of the drama on
Thus, the High Holy Days operate
Yom Kippur, Jews enact death by de- to meet the third challenge of
nying themselves the normal human mortality—to harness death into a
pleasures. It is not a morbid ex- force for life. The people of Israel come
perience, however, because this en- out of Yom Kippur reborn. Forgiven
counteer with death is in the service and pure, at one with God and its way,
of life. The deeper result and goal is the people renew life with vigor and
a new appreciation of life.
love.