rosh hashanah »

Rabbinic Greetings
For

5777

A

nne Frank once wrote, “How
noble and good everyone
could be if we reviewed the
good and the bad every day.” Perhaps
we would be better off by doing this
each and every day. Yet how easy is it to
distinguish the good from the bad? Is
life simply that black and white? While
I agree that spiritual soul-searching is
important, I wonder how we can do it
wisely.
We may find a clue by examining
more closely the very phrase with which
we greet each other at this time of year.
When we say “L’shanah tovah,” we’re
saying “have a good year.” The word
shanah, however, doesn’t merely mean
“year.” In fact, it is also a contranym
(sometimes also known as an antonym),
a word that carries opposite meanings.
One of shanah’s meanings is “change,” as
in the word shinui, Hebrew for “change,

STAYING ON THE TRAIN

L

ast summer, I served as a hos-
pital chaplain at the Veterans
Administration of Jackson,

Miss.
I worked closely with seven
Christian colleagues, and we would fre-
quently discuss both
ideological and prac-
tical differences and
similarities between
us. One day, we were
discussing member-
ship, and a pastor
of a large church in
Atlanta informed
Rabbi Megan
me that they would
Brudney
erase members from
their rolls after only
a few weeks of not attending services!
He seemed puzzled by my confusion
at this practice, earnestly explaining to
me: “Well, the train is leaving; and if

modification or
revision.” Thus, the
phrase L’shanah
tovah means “Have
a good change,”
which hints at the
possibilities that
open to us by doing
Rabbi Aura
something differ-
Ahuvia
ently — by chang-
ing it.
The other meaning of shanah is “rep-
etition,” as in the word Mishnah, the
core of the Talmud, whose title means
“study by repetition” or “review.” Thus,
L’shanah tovah also means “Have a good
repetition,” which hints at the blessings
available to us by repeating something.
How confusing, that shanah tovah can
mean opposite things! It would seem
that when wishing each other “Shanah
tovah,” what we’re really wishing each
other is both a “good change” and a
“good repetition.”

So which is it? What bears chang-
ing and what merits repeating, as we
review our lives this past year? The
answers may be found through the
systematic ethical/spiritual review that
the Days of Awe, starting with Rosh
Hashanah, open for us. Literally, Rosh
Hashanah means “the start [or] head
of the year.” As we now know, however,
it also means both “the start of repeti-
tion” and “the start of change.”
Only in the depths of our heart
might we discover our inner truths —
only we can discern what we ought to
repeat and what we ought to change.
May we be blessed with the insight,
courage and open-heartedness to
change what needs changing, to
repeat what merits repeating and to
truly enjoy a sweet and renewed year.
L’shanah tovah u’metukah, may you
have a good and sweet new year.

you’re not on the train, you’re missing
it — and the train is moving on!”
During the High Holiday season, I
certainly feel that I am on a very fast-
moving train. I experience the pres-
sures of the professional obligations of
a rabbi as well as the anxiety of com-
pleting my own personal spiritual work
as the holidays approach. Amidst all of
the prayers we offer during our High
Holidays, one particular line jumps out
at me in articulating our choice wheth-
er to be on the proverbial train.
Midway through Unetaneh Tokef,
the solemn prayer affirming the power
of the day, comes the line: “The great
shofar is sounded, and a still, small
voice is heard.” Both clauses are written
in the passive voice — removing the
human interaction entirely. We have
no sense who is sounding the shofar or
who — if anyone — is hearing it. We
know that someone must be hearing
the still, small voice — but no listener

is indicated (least of all ourselves). At
this seminal, sensory moment of grave
reflection, we find ourselves written
out of the text completely. Thrown off
the train!
Unless, that is, we actively demand
reentry and insert ourselves back into
the text. As we sit and pray in services,
we can choose to let that sound of the
shofar, the still, small voice or anything
else pass us by. Conversely, we can
emphatically choose to stay on the train
and search for ourselves in our texts.
This High Holiday season, I pray to
stay on the train no matter where the
journey takes me. I pray to listen for
the drama of the great shofar that tells
me to act boldly in the world. I pray
to discern the tremor of the still, small
voice of the godliness inherent in all of
us. And I pray for you to come along as
well. L’shanah tovah!

ur tradition teaches that all year we
must visit God in God’s palace. We
approach the throne of glory with
humility and awe, hoping that through the merit
of our good deeds we will be granted counsel with
the Holy One. But on the days leading up to Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the teaching goes,
God comes down from the sacred throne, tosses
aside the royal garments and steps into the fields
to meet us where we are.
It’s near impossible to com-
prehend this idea without
provoking some anxiety. When
we approach the palace, we do
so with preparation and even
some protection. We make
sure to look and sound our
best, to mend the tears in our
garments and to clean the dirt
Rabbi Yonaton
off our hands. But when God
Dahlen
comes to our front door, we
are exposed in a powerfully
personal way. Our lives are laid out before the One
who created all life. Our fears, our insecurities,
our faults, our falters — all are there in the open,
in plain sight.
But when God comes into our field, He comes
with shovel in one hand and a hoe in the other,
reminding us of the partnership our ancestors
accepted millennia ago and helping us to harvest
all of the fruits of our lives. And as we continue
our work together, we do so with a song in our
hearts and on our lips that goes like this …
“Baruch Atah HaShem Elokeynu, Melech
HaOlam, shehecheyanu, v’hiyamanu, v’higiyanu
la’zman hazeh.”
“Blessed are You, oh God, King of the uni-
verse, who has given us Life, who has sustained
us, and who has brought us to here, to now, to
this moment.”
During these Days of Awe, may the fields of
your lives be bountiful. May the work be mean-
ingful and rewarding, and may you and God sing
together through it all. May your year be sweet
and filled with blessings, and may you be written,
now and always, in the Book of Life. Shanah tovah
u’metukah!

Rabbi Megan Brudney
Temple Beth El, Bloomfield Township

Rabbi Yonaton Dahlen
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Southfield

Photos by John Hardwick

CHANGE / REPETITION

T

his Rosh Hashanah, which begins the evening
of Sunday, Oct. 2, Detroit’s Jewish community is
fortunate to have new voices to hear from in six
pulpits. We’ve asked each of these spiritual leaders to
offer some thoughts for the New Year.

Rabbi Aura Ahuvia
Congregation Shir Tikvah, Troy

MEET HIM IN THE FIELDS

O

continued on page 48

46 September 29 • 2016

