Taking The First Step
chickens and not eat the eggs, but
shall sell them and buy me a heifer.
And
I'll not eat the heifer, but shall
We resolve to be better people,
raise
it to a cow and not eat the cow
to study Torah more often, to grow
until
it
calves. And I'll not eat it then,
closer to God. Yet, like so many fad diets, as
either;
and
we'll have cows and calves.
Yom Kippur fades into distant memory, we
For
I'm
a
wise
woman!
all too often forget those lofty resolutions and
"And I'll sell the cows and the
revert to the same behavior we exhibited
calves and buy a field, and we'll have
before Rosh Hashanah. How then do we
fields and cows and calves, and we
ensure that we transform our resolutions from
won't
need anything any more!' The
fantasy to reality?
countrywoman
was speaking in this
Rabbi Hayyim of Zans answered this ques-
RABBI REUVEN
fashion
and
playing
with the egg when
tion with the following parable:
SPOLTER
it
fell
out
of
her
hands
and broke."
"There was once a poor countrywoman
Special to the
Said
Rabbi
Hayyim:
"That is how
who had many children. They were always
Jewish News
we
are.
When
the
holy
days
arrive,
begging for food, but she had none to give
every person resolves to do teshuvah
them. One day, she found an egg. She called
(repentance), thinking in his heart, 'I'll do this, and
her children and said: "'Children, children, we've
I'll
do that.' But the days slip by in mere delibera-
nothing to worry about any more; I've found an egg.
tion,
and thought doesn't lead to action."
And, being a wise woman, I'll not eat the egg, but
Our
sages teach us that God dedicates the Aseret
shall ask my neighbor for permission to set it under
the Ten Days of Repentance
Yemei
Teshuvah,
her setting hen until a chick is hatched. And we'll
between
Rosh
Hashanah
and Yom Kippur, for
not eat the chick, but will set her on eggs; and the
repentance, self-evaluation and self-improvement.
eggs will hatch into chickens. And the chickens in
During this time of year, feelings of compassion and
their turn will hatch many eggs, and we'll have many
forgiveness are awakened; and God extends His
chickens and many eggs.
hands to us. During this time of year, each of us
"'But I'm a wise woman, I am! I'll not eat the
it
osh Hashanah, the Jewish new
year, is a time for resolutions.
must ask ourselves:
"Do I seize the moment and take advantage of this
opportunity? Do I treat the egg with care, making
sure that it grows and prospers? Or do I play with it
casually until it falls from my hands and breaks?"
When we take the time now to examine the
mitzvot (good deeds) that we perform and the way
we interact with our fellow man, not only must we
resolve to change. We must make that change now
when our resolve is strong. While it begins with a
small act, it has the potential to grow into some-
thing much greater.
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, we hope and
pray that God sees in our thoughts and actions of
teshuvah a desire to continue to grow ever closer to
Him. To that end, we take that step — perform an
act that will put us on the road to growth and
improvement.
Finally, we ask God to bless each of us, and the
entire Jewish people, with a year of peace, happiness
and health, so that we all end up with much more
than scrambled eggs.
❑
Rabbi Reuven Spolter is a spiritual leader at
Young Israel of Oak Park.
A Great Legacy
acknowledged and nurtured if life is
to be holy.
The philosopher Robert Nozick
wrote that, after the Holocaust,
human life became desanctified. No
longer is society surprised by mass
murder — it has become a regular
feature of our bloody century. This
trend is exemplified all too often as
the violence continues to mount.
We must respond with an urgent
message: Life is holy, and the habits
and tools of violence must be elimi-
nated.
This conviction must radiate
from within until it again permeates
all of society. Only then can life be
re-sanctified. Only then can we ful-
fill God's mandate of kea'oshim
tihyu:
"You shall be holy, for I, the Lord
your God am holy." --'
I feel the surge of dignity, the awesome swell of
Iff uch of my life's time is spent try-
defiance that moved through the uprising in the
ing to understand what is really
Warsaw Ghetto.
important.
We are the bearers of a great legacy History has
When the ordinary tasks, the
been handed to us. It is now our turn to mold, to
clutter that makes up the husk of daily life, are
carve, to chisel our contribution into the song of the
stripped away, what is it that is left? What is it that
Jewish people. It is never enough to simply receive
gives meaning to our lives?
legacy,. We are responsible for adding in our own
At the core of the answer to this question, I hear
ingenuity. We who live during this remarkable time
the song of a people. It is a song that comes to me
in Jewish history when the Jewish people have never
from lands that I have never seen, and yet my feet
been
freer. We, who are now living during the time
AMARA
T.
RABBI.
feel that they have trod over its soil. It is a song
of a Jewish state and carrying its joy and its burdens.
KOLT
ON
that comes to me in voices that I have never heard,
When I think down the bones of my existence,
Special to the
and still they sound clear and familiar. It is a song
when I try and see into the essence of who I am and
Jewish
News
that comes to me from times well before I was
what it is I am here on Earth to do, I hear the voice
born, and yet I feel that I have lived each moment.
of my people singing out their song. And I know
It is the song of a people, rising over ancient hill-
that my life must be about adding my own unique voice to this
tops, moving through desert dunes. It is a song carried in the
historical choir. I know that I must find the words and sing the
palms of millions, written across expanse of time and sky It is
out, so that when my children's children come to live upon the
my historical memory, the stone from which I perceive my life
Earth, they, too, will hear the song of our people.
to have been carved. It is the song of the Jewish people.
In this new year, let us, therefore, live our lives know-
I often feel that I live my life in two dimensions, in the past
ing gratitude and responsibility. And let us greet each
and in the present. Oftentimes, history feels as vital and rele-
other in shalom.
vant to me as to what is happening today. I breathe in all the
courage, the struggle and the strivings of the Jewish people over
the past 4,000 years. I hear the melodic sounds of the sages
Rabbi Tamara Dolton is a spiritual leader at the
finding faith in a faithless universe. I smell the smoke of the
Birmingham Temple.
Spanish Inquisition suffocating the hearts of Spain's Jews.
❑
Rabbi Daniel Nevins is a spiritual
leader at Adat Shalom Synagogue
9!14
2001