Community
Torah Portion
We Must Do Our Part
To Perfect The World
OCTOBER 28, 2001
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God and His goodness will suffuse our
entire planet (Malkhuyot), that the
various nations and individuals of the
world are each respectively expected to
do their part in perfecting the world,
with Israel's task being to teach ethical
monotheism (Zikhronot), and that the
he climax to the biblical
prescription for proper God — defini-
story of the Divine rescue
tion and proper human moral conduct
of Noah and his family
is expressed in the divinely revealed
from the primordial flood is
Torah (Shofarot): 613 commandments
the covenant between God and Noah:
(not options) for Israel, which must
Humanity must refrain from con-
strive to be a holy nation and a king-
suming the limbs of living animals
dom of teacher-priests, and
and must avoid the shedding
the seven Noahide com-
of human blood — must
mandments (not possibili-
preserve rather than destroy
ties) for all of humanity,
life — and then God will
which must develop and not
guarantee that He will never
destroy human society.
again send a flood to destroy
But we withdraw within
the world (Genesis 9:4-11).
in order to expand without;
These Noahide laws of
we turn inwards so that we
morality, the biblical "natural
are sufficiently imbued and
law," is further expanded by
inspired to reach outwards.
the sages of the Talmud to
And so, only four days after
RABBI
include prohibitions against
Yom Kippur comes the festi-
SHLOMO
sexual immorality, idolatry,
val of Sukkot, wherein we
RISKIN
blaspheming God, thievery
sanctify all of life, including
Special to the
and the establishment of an
the fruits and vegetables; we
Jewish News
equitable judicial system.
live in booths roofed by that
I believe that a proper
which grows from the
understanding of the festival season,
ground and sufficiently exposed so
which we have just celebrated, will
that we can look up at the stars of the
give relevant urgency to the biblical
sky.
text as well as explain why Israel is
On Sukkot, we emphasize the
occupying center stage.
inter-relationship between all peoples
The seventh month of Tishrei
and our universal concern for a world
opens with Rosh Hashanah — "the
of harmony by offering 70 sacrifices
day the world was born;" it is
for the proverbial 70 nations of the
described by the Bible as the "day of
world.
the sounding of the t'ruah — the
The dream of Rosh Hashanah, the
short, staccato sounds of the ram's
vision of greater perfection and the
horn reminiscent of sighing and sob-
rule of ethical monotheism through-
bing.
out the world, is not a utopian ideal;
What have such cries to do with
it is a stark necessity if humanity is to
the invocation of the creation of the
survive. Our prophetic vision never
world? The prophet Isiah teaches that
insists that everyone become Jewish;
the Almighty created an imperfect,
but it does insist that everyone accept
incomplete world. His assumed pur-
the Noahide laws of morality: Thou
pose in doing so was to make human
shalt not murder, thou shalt not corn-
beings partners in perfecting the world
mit acts of terror.
in the kingship of God, in re-making
On Rosh Hashanah, we sound not
the world in the image of the God of
only the truah of sigh-sobs, but also
love, justice and compassion.
the t'kiyah of joyous victory.
As long as the Divine Presence is
God guarantees that we will not
not manifest throughout the world,
only survive but we will prevail — as
"the only human being who can or
long as we understand how high are
said to be whole is the one with a bro-
the stakes and that whoever is silent in
ken heart"— t'ruah, sighs and sobs.
the face of terror becomes an accom-
The liturgy of Rosh Hashanah
plice to terror.
emphasizes the fact that eventually
May God grant courage to the
nations which revere life and freedom,
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is spiritual
and then God will grant Israel and the
leader of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, and
entire world true peace. E
Shabbat Noah: Genesis
6:9-11:32;
Isaiah 54:1-55:5.
7
the head of Ohr Torah Institutions.