Spirituality -

Synagogues

t of us
the-very last
Moshe that God wants to kill
ept. 11
w4p.t-e-dt
them in the desert.
our lives. We •
wW,tp/ekain
What happened to the
,
.ur
grief,
the suf-
focn4(..
prophecy and spirituality and
.,
loftiness they had achieved at fermg t e country, our
struggle .Ari_th terrorism —
the Red Sea? Where is their
anything.. gut, how many of
faith? What's wrong with
us took the opportunity to
them?
truly ask ourselves: am I
Nothing is wrong with
happy? Am I leading a mean-
them. In fact, God considers
ingful life? And, most impor-
their reaction — at least ini-
tantly, what am I doing to
tially
—
entirely
normal.
10 plagues, to the vanquish-
answer
these critical ques-
Meaningful
change
comes
in
ing of the Egyptian army, to
tions?
increments
—
not
in
large
the splitting of the Red Sea,
Rosh Hashanah presents a
chunks. Cataclysmic events,
the Exodus provides the clear-
golden
opportunity to ask
no
matter
how
est view of God's
these
very
questions, and per-
shocking,
jarring
hand the world has
haps
begin
a search for
and
earth
shatter-
ever seen.
answers
to
these
critical life
ing,
fade
as
quick-
In fact, the
issues.
A
time
for
introspec-
ly
as
our
memory
Midrash tells us that
tion
and
personal
growth,
allows
us
to
fo*
during the Exodus
,
Rosh
Hashanah
requires
us
And
we
need
to
from Egypt, the
to
evaluate
our-year
and
forget,
because
we
Jewish people see
resolve to make real and
cannot live and
visions that the
meaningful incremental
function
with
the
prophet Ezekiel
change.
freshness
of
a
Sept.
never achieved dur-
RABBI REUVEN 11 day after day
As we gather in shul on
ing his greatest
SPO LTER
Rosh
Hashanah this year, the
and
year
after
year.
height of spirituality
question
we should ask our-
Young
Israel
of
But
if
our
memo-
and prophecy. In the
selves
is
not,
"Where was I
Oak
Park
ries
fade,
so
does
words of the Torah,
one
year
ago?"
Rather, the
our
resolve
to
"they believed in
question
we
must
find the
change
and
any
God and in Moshe,
correct
answer
for
is, "On the
hope
we
had
of
making
our-
His servant." And yet, only a
Shabbat
after
Yom
Kippur,
selves
better
because
of
the
short time later, when the
where
will
I
be?"
❑
event.
food supplies get too low, the
When we think about it,
people come complaining to

Where Were You,
And Where Will You Be?

here were you?
I was sitting
in shul, working
on my comput-
er when I heard. I remember
noticing afterward the eerie
quiet in the sky. No planes.
Absolute silence that I would
have welcomed and enjoyed
any other time chilled and
haunted me.
And it isn't just me. Every
one of us will remember Sept.
11, 2001, for as long as we
live. The airborne bombings
of the Pentagon and World
Trade Center — the senseless
murder of nearly 3,000 inno-
cent men and women —
shocked the world in their
magnitude and horror. That
evening and throughout the
following week, as the people
of America prayed for
strength to overcome such

incredible evil, we knew that
we would never be the same.
We knew it, but could not
have been more wrong. We
really haven't changed one bit.
Ask yourself: what one specif-
ic thing do I do differently
now than I did before Sept.
11 because of the events of
that horrible day? For most of
us, myself included, we can-
not find a single thing — a
personality trait, a bad habit,
an act of kindness for others
— that we've changed because
of the WTC bombing.
Why haven't we changed?
What's wrong with us?
In reality, nothing's wrong
with us.
In world history, we have
witnessed no event so cata-
clysmic and fantastic as the
Exodus from Egypt. (Yes, it
really did happen!) From the

.

the water and it agreed to
remain on Earth under the
following conditions: Firstly,
that water would be poured
on the alter in the Temple
during Sukkot as a libation.
Secondly, a token amount of
it would be sprinkled on
every sacrifice. (To remember
this, we always put salt on
the Shabbat table and when-
ever bread is served.)
greater than existence in this
This seems to be
world. This also
very meager corn--
seems to be
pensation for the
emphasized in
"poor" water that
Pirkei Avot (4:21)
was to remain on
when Rabbi
Earth! However,
Yaacov said, "This
the water actually
world is like a
had a very pro-
lobby before the
found understand-
world to come." It
ing of this world.
seems clear that
Yes, heaven is a
this world is only
place of extreme
RABBI
secondary to the
pleasure and godli-
MICHAEL
world to come.
ness, but the only
COHEN
However, the
place that exists for
Keter
Torah
Midrash contin-
us to serve our
Synagogue
ues, God appeased

Mission Accomplished
With Mitzvot

I

n the past year, we
have encountered great
turmoil and an enemy
that is more interested
in the "next world" than in
the present world.
How are we as Jews to
view this world and the next?
Is it true that our "real" exis-
tence is in "heaven" and life
in this world is futile? There
is a beautiful Midrash that
deals with this very dilemma.
We are told that on the
second day of creation, God
wanted to divide the great

body of water that rested on
the face of the firmament.
Whereas half of the water
was to ascend and "enjoy" an
existence in the presence of
God in heaven, the other
half was to remain on this
mundane world.
; When hearing of the
choice of either ascending to
heaven or remaining on
Earth, none of the body of
water was prepared to remain
on Earth.
This seems to be our very
dilemma; surely existence in
the world to come is far

`

Creator is this "mundane"
world. When given an
opportunity to serve, God in
this world, the water was
prepared to stay.
This is indeed borne out
by the next words of Rabbi
Yaacov in Pirke Avot (4:22).
He used to say, "Better one
hour of repentance and good
deeds in this world than the
entire life in the world to
come."
- As Jews, we love the idea
of a life in the world to
come, but we are more
enthusiastic about the oppor-
tunity and privilege of being
able to fulfill the many com-
mandments that God has
given to us to perform in
this world.
May we merit a year of
tranquility so that we will be
able to fulfill our mission as
a light to the nations and as
a people of God. ❑

9/ 6
2002

U'