Rosh Hashanah >> rabbinic messages
Diversity Is A Blessing
T
he Talmud (Berachot 58a) and
Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 21)
teach us that when a person sees
a great multitude of Jewish people, one
should say a blessing, "Praised are You,
Sovereign of the Universe ... the Sage of
the Secrets (chacham ha'razim)."
We recite this blessing, the sages say,
since just "as people's countenances are
not like one another, neither are their
thoughts like one another:' God created
a great diversity not only in the way
people look, but in the way they think,
feel and believe. Perhaps because of that
great diversity we tend to congregate and
find comfort amongst those people of a
similar mindset. During the High Holy
Day period this is expressed in the many
congregations we are blessed with in the
Detroit area. Each congregation is able to
observe these sacred days in a way that is
unique to them.
Yet, when we walk out the
doors of our congregations,
it seems that we more often
focus on those matters that
divide us, usually over issues
of authenticity and personal
status. But does this need to
be the reality?
As the teaching from the
Talmud and Midrash above
suggests, there has always
been, and always will be,
diversity among people.
Instead of ignoring that diver-
sity, we honor it by reciting a blessing.
Yet we need to take this recognition of
diversity a step further. Rabbi Menachem
Mendel of Kotzk taught on this Midrash,
"Just as you can tolerate the
fact that your fellow's face is
not similar to yours, so, too,
should you be able to tolerate
that your fellow's opinions are
not similar to yours:'
We can and should have our
sense of truth in this world; yet
we should understand that our
sense of "truth" for our individ-
ual Jewish community may not
be the only valid path within the
larger Jewish community.
Rabbi David Hartman
expresses this understanding
in the following way: "If your tradition is
based on learning, interpretation and dis-
agreements among scholars, rather than
on the absolute word of prophetic revela-
tion, you cannot escape the haunting
uncertainty of knowing that alternative
ways are religiously viable and authentic:'
As we enter into these Days of Awe and
following them I pray that we remember
Rabbi Hartman's message and live our
lives celebrating our views while accept-
ing that alternative ways of observing our
Jewish faith can be "religiously viable and
authentic"
May we each find beauty and fulfill-
ment in our individual congregations.
L'shanah Tovah, a happy and healthy
New Year to all.
❑
Robert Gamer is a rabbi at Congregation Beth
Shalom in Oak Park.
Become An Integrated Part Of Your Community
A
s Rosh Hashanah approaches us,
I would like to tell you about a
life-saving technique that I try
to employ every year on Rosh Hashanah.
This technique, I believe, has brought me
much life and vitality, and I hope you can
find it useful as well.
As we all know, Rosh Hashanah is much
more than a holiday celebrated by eat-
ing honey-coated apples, hearing a good
sermon in the synagogue and attending a
meaningful prayer service. Rosh Hashanah
is also the birthday of mankind as we
know it, the day that for the first time, God
blew a Divine spirit into a human form,
turning a prehistoric humanoid into the
modern human being endowed with free
will at a level no other creation has.
Because Rosh Hashanah is our birthday,
it is also the annual Day of Judgment, the
day where our Creator re-evaluates our
performance and decides exactly what
our coming year will look like. This is an
awesome day, one that will determine the
health, wealth, success and har-
mony of our coming year.
I try to come into Rosh
Hashanah every year acutely
aware of the shortcomings of
my previous year. I am well
aware that I did not actualize
my full potential. I often did not
do the greatest good and even
frequently deliberately made
wrong choices. Understandably,
this gives me concern as to how
my future year will look. But
fortunately, there is a technique
told to us by the Jewish greats of yester-
year that gives me hope.
Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv Broida
(1824-1898), the great mussar ethicist
of Yeshivat Kelm, tells us that those who
wish to secure a favorable judgment on
Rosh Hashanah should make
themselves an integral part of
the community so that even
if they personally may not
deserve a year of great suc-
cess, God will give it to them
anyway for the benefit of the
tzibbur, the community. The
more indispensable we are to
the community, the more the
community's merit stands for
us as a "character witness:'
obtaining for us a shanah
tovah, a good year, simply
because our good is synonymous with the
good of the whole community.
The more we resolve to bring peace
and unity to our community, the more we
commit ourselves to promulgating feel-
ings of good will and fraternity, the more
we undertake to build our community
into a place of kindness and love, the
more God wants to give us a great year
despite any personal shortcomings we
may have displayed.
This year, let us enter the Day of
Judgment not as individuals, but as a uni-
fied community, for the power of our tzib-
bur, our community, will surely be more
than enough to guarantee us a year filled
with blessings, success and peace.
❑
Rabbi Leiby Burnham is an educator with
the Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
Jean and Theodore Weiss Partners in Torah
program.
Hineini: Being Present
T
he traditional Torah portion for
Rosh Hashanah morning is the
Akedah, the binding and near-
sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham.
God asks Abraham to take Isaac and to
bring him to a high place and to offer
him up to God. This is a difficult Torah
portion to read, a text that demands
our attention. How could God ask this
of Abraham, how could Abraham com-
ply, what was Isaac thinking, and where
was Sarah, Abraham's wife and Isaac's
mother?
Throughout the text, one word stands
out, and that word is Hineini, which
translates to "Here I am:' In the Rosh
Hashanah reading, Abraham uses it to
answer God's call, and Abraham also uses
Hineini when Isaac calls out to him.
66 August 29.2013
29 •
This word, Hineini, is used later in
the Bible when God calls to Moses at the
burning bush; the last instance of the
word being used is when God
calls upon the prophet Isaiah,
asking him to be God's mouth-
piece to the Jewish people.
So what is the secret of the
Hineini?
I believe that in each
instance the word is used, the
person who speaks the word
hineini is saying much, much
more than "Here I am:' They
are saying, "I am truly present.
I am listening. I am willing to
do what you ask of me. You are
the center of my attention:'
Perhaps, the power of the Akedah story
is that it should spur us to ask ourselves,
"Am I really here?" Am I fully present
at services or am I looking at what oth-
ers around me are wearing or
doing? Am I fully immersed in
contemplating my journey of
the past year, reflecting hon-
estly on where I have been and
what I have done? Am I truly
concentrating on improving not
only myself, but also commit-
ting myself to sustaining the
Jewish community and fixing
the broken parts of the world
around me? Can I truly say
that I deserve to say the word
Hineini?
Furthermore, can I say that I am truly
present in my relationships with others?
Have I forgotten that being a friend is
more than "friending" someone? Have I
substituted Facebook for face time? Have
I lifted my eyes from the screens that
surround me to look into the eyes of those
across the dining room table, across the
conference room and across the ocean?
Have I fully been a source of strength or
has my multitasking watered down my
ability to say Hineini?
The High Holidays are a gift: precious
moments in time to take stock of our roses
and thorns, where we have succeeded and
where we have fallen short. Let us vow
to find ways to truly be present in 5774.
Hineini!
❑
Karen Alpert is a rabbi at Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township.