CLAL Holy Days
Welcome to CLAL Holy Days, the place where you will find the latest thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on upcoming Jewish holidays.
ROSH HASHANAH
On Rosh HaShanah, Jews proclaim that God is creator and ruler of the universe. But while Rosh HaShanah celebrates cosmic Creation, its central message is addressed to the individual: You are not fixed by your past.
Through Creation, the world came into being; it has a beginning and an end. The individual also has a beginning and an end. In the dramatic imagery of the High Holy Days, each person is on trial for his/her life in this period. "On Rosh HaShanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur, it is sealed; who shall live, and who shall die?" Facing death, would you live your life the same way? Or would you be more considerate and loving, more ethical, more adventurous, more creative?
Most people live as if they cannot change. Past habits control us. Each person is trapped by standing obligations or pigeonholed by past career performances. We believe that once we have done wrong, we cannot ever remove that stain of guilt.
The Torah claims otherwise: "See, I place before you today [and every day] life and good and death and evil ... [you can] choose life" (Deut. 30:15, 19). By strict justice, every sinner must be punished. Once done, a wrong can never be wiped out. By the miracle of God's love, however, the past can be erased. Even evil can be left behind.
Repentance goes beyond guilt or sin. As Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik has pointed out, the basis of repentance is that human beings are capable of recreating themselves continually. If we stop growing, if we are prisoners of our past behavior, then we are truly dead-in-life.
Becoming aware of bad or unsatisfactory behaviors is the first step to coming alive. The month before Rosh HaShanah and the ten days of repentance from Rosh HaShanah to Yom Kippur are set aside for this purpose in Jewish tradition. Our subsequent decisions to change and to create new living patterns add up to choosing life.
(Irving Greenberg)
To join the conversation at CLAL Holy Days Talk, click here.
To access ARCHIVED HOLY DAY COMMENTARIES, click here.
To receive CLAL Holy Days column by email on a regular basis, complete the box below:
