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The Jewish Holidays
How to Make Each Holiday a Time for Spiritual Growth
In the preceding class I presented concrete steps for you to follow to develop spiritual Shabbat celebrations in your home every week. Now we will take a look at how to make your holiday celebrations more spiritual. In this chapter, I will not go into any lengthy explanations of how to celebrate each holiday or holy day nor will I go into their complete histories. There is ample information available elsewhere to cover all of that. My intention here is simply to give you some ideas to celebrate the holidays in a spiritual way.
Selicoth
Selicoth occurs about a week before Rosh ha Shana. Its name is derived from the Hebrew word for "I am sorry." The service, held late at night so that it ends after midnight, is full of penitential prayers. For spiritual-renewed Jews, Selicoth is a time to take stock of ourselves, and to see if we have been lax in our daily chesbon ha nefesh katon, or in our daily prayer, meditations and daily walking hand-in-hand with God. If there is anyone to whom you owe teshuvah, Selicoth is the time to ask God to give you the strength to do so. Others may look at Selicoth as just another synagogue Saturday night social event with dinner and entertainment leading up to a service filled with pomp and circumstance. But as a spiritually-renewed Jew you will use the holy day for what it is truly designed, although you may still go ahead and enjoy those other aspects if you wish.
Rosh ha Shana
Rosh ha Shana, means "the Head of Year" in Hebrew and you find everyone wishing you a happy "Jewish New Year." They are incorrect, however. Rosh ha Shana is not the Jewish new year. The first month of the Hebrew calendar is Nissan, the spring month of Passover. Tishrei, when Rosh ha Shana occurs, is the seventh month. The Talmud teaches us this spiritual message, which we should take with us and learn from each day, but especially on Rosh Ha Shana: This is the New Year of the World and of All Human kind! This is the day God created Adam and Eve, who, if we remember, were neither Jewish nor Hebrew. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Ha Shana 10b-11a).
The rabbis teach that on Rosh Ha Shana we should remember that we all have one set of human parents and one Divine parent, and no one individual, people or religion is better than the next. We are all created in God's image. "Humanity was produced from one man, Adam, to show God's greatness. When a man mints a coin in a press, each coin is identical. But when the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, creates people in the form of Adam not one is similar to any other." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 4:5).
Judaism is pluralistic, and while our sages believe God gave Jews a way to Him that is best for Jews, God gave other prophets and holy people in other religions different, but equal, paths to reach God. "God permitted to every people something He forbade to others...(and) God sends a prophet to every people according to their own language," states Rabbi Nethanel ibn Fayyumi. The Talmud tells us that the righteous of all nations and religions have an equal share in the World to Come. This was written in a time when many were still pagans. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 105a). We need to remember to stamp out bigotry in our hearts, and, again, any individual or group resentments.
When doing the Tashlich ceremony on Rosh ha Shana, first reread the chapter on Tashlich in this class. Do your Tashlich with kavenah. You may see a friend struggling with his defects, casting his sins upon water and finding them back in his pocket. Passing along what you have learned in this class may help him with the Tashlich ritual. Hillel said: "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah and God and one another." (Pirkei Avot 1:12).
Eve walks over to Adam in the Garden of Eden and kisses him passionately.
"Wow," says Adam, "where did you learn to kiss like that?"
Now that you have been spiritually renewed, you realize that this newfound spirituality is not for you alone. Your derech eretz is now a billboard announcing the presence of God in your life. Let others be attracted to what you now have. You cannot refuse to be others' guide. Torah and Spiritual Renewal with teshuvah are "Morashah k'hillat Ya'akov," an inheritance of the congregation of Jewish people. Anyone who refuses to teach it after having learned it is a "thief" according to the Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 91b.
Yom Kippur
At Yom Kippur you will see synagogues crowded with Jews who have not been there since last year's Yom Kippur. They will pray for God to forgive them for their sins, but they, unlike you, are not aware of what their sins or character defects are. They also are completely unaware of the problems they cause those around them. They will leave at nightfall, go to exclusive break-the-fast parties and begin immediately to sin again. You, however, are blessed by God to be out of this rut. You now know from your studies, which are an integral part of this process, that Yom Kippur is not the most important day on the Jewish calendar. Shabbat is the most important day on the Jewish calendar.
For the spiritually awakened, Yom Kippur is the day to finish the review that you began on Selicoth. When we say God writes our names into the "book of life or death," it means that living life with God leads us to life, and not doing so leads us to a living death. Yom Kippur gives you the opportunity to pray for those needing help. As Isaiah teaches, if you do not want to be in synagogue after praying at home, you may do mitzvoth of the heart by, for example, visiting the elderly and bringing a Yom Kippur service to them.
It's Yom Kippur and Yitzhak and his young son Aaron are on their way to shul. Yitzhak is watching Aaron pick his nose. "Why are you breaking the commandment 'thou shall not work on Yom Kippur, Aaron?" asks Yitzhak.
"I'm not, dad," says Aaron, "what work do you think I'm doing?"
"Digging." replies Yitzhak.
Sukkoth
Sukkoth comes from the Hebrew word for booths. We are asked by God to live in them for a week. This derives from the fall harvest festival when the Hebrews had to leave their homes and live by the fields they were harvesting. The Talmud tells us various ways of making the walls, but that the roofs should be made of the same materials, (s'chach, e.g. palm fronds), for everyone, rich or poor, so that we can see through them to see the stars at night. The spiritual connection here is that we are being taught that when we think we have control, or have "made it" by living in our big homes or in gated communities, we are delusional. Sukkoth reminds us that we are in God's hands and are part of His nature and His universe. It also is spiritual reminder to us that we can live without material goods and that God provides us with what we need. Rich or poor, we can live in a hut for a week and actually come to enjoy it!
During this time we spiritually invite 7 guests, one for each night, called Ushpizin. Each represents a different character trait on the Kabbalistic Sefirot tree. During the 7 days of Sukkoth we try to grow even more spiritually. We of course invite human guests as well.
Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah is from the Hebrew words meaning "to Celebrate Torah." It is the holiday at the end of Sukkoth when we end the last parasha (portion) of Deuteronomy and immediately being the first parasha of Genesis. Spiritually you are to remember that you are never finished studying Torah, and that God's influence in our lives is never- ending.
Children are given their first lessons on this day. A bit of honey is placed on the texts for them to bring to their mouths. This is symbolically teaching them that the words of Torah and study will bring sweetness into their lives. "Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll… and I ate it and it tasted as sweet as honey to me." (Ezekiel 3:3). This can also be done at Shavuot. However, with the secular school year coinciding with Simchat Torah in autumn, and because both holidays are about Torah, this custom is commonly done for both holidays.
Rabbi Cohen arrives at his shul's weekly children's service. This is when he gathers all the little children around him to give a brief Talmud lesson before dismissing them. He never misses an opportunity to give them a suitable message.
On this particular Shabbat, Rabbi Cohen decides to use squirrels as an object lesson on teaching the children the need for industry and preparation. He begins by saying to the children, "I'm now going to describe something to you and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is."
The children nod eagerly.
"This thing runs around in trees (pause)… and eats nuts (pause)..."
No hands go up.
"And it's grey or brown (pause)… and it has a bushy tail (pause)…"
The children look at each other, but still no hands are raised.
"And it takes big jumps from one branch to another (pause)… and it chatters and flips its tail when it's excited (pause)…"
Finally, little Sam tentatively raised his hand. Rabbi Cohen, breathing a sigh of relief said, "Good, Sam, so what do you think it is?"
"Well, rabbi," says little Sam, "I know the answer must be Moses … but it sounds just like a squirrel to me!"
Hanukkah
Hanukkah means "dedication" in Hebrew. It is not the Jewish Christmas. The worst thing one can do is try to turn it into one with Hanukah bushes, decorated snowmen with Mogan Dovids around their necks, wearing kippot in lieu of winter hats and other such attempts to associate Hanukkah with the Christmas season. Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday and should be celebrated…well…Jewishly. I don't know if there is such a word, but you get the point. We can celebrate non-Jewish holidays with our non-Jewish friends; I celebrate with my Christian, Hindu and Muslim friends. They do not make adjustments to their traditions, nor should they and neither should we. I have yet to see, thank God, a Dawili, or Ramadan bush.
Hanukah is not a holiday about "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat." In fact, the rabbis were so afraid that the real meaning of the holiday would be forgotten that they added to the Haftarah, read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah ,the words from Zechariah 4:6:8: "Not by might and not by armies but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts."
The rabbis wanted us to remember that as the Maccabees rededicated the Syrian-Greek desecrated
Purim
Purim, which comes from the Hebrew word for "lots," is another holiday that the rabbis did not want us to celebrate because "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat." It took place in
The spiritual aspect of Purim is that God's name is never mentioned in the entire Book of Esther, yet we can see His Hand on almost every page. He is never hidden from us, but He was hidden from Haman, the antagonist in the story. So we are to wear masks to remember this. But you, a spiritual Jew, have renewed your Judaism. Therefore, you will never forget that God is always with you.
Passover
The spiritual aspects of Passover are many and much too numerous to fully explore in a few paragraphs. Some have been alluded to in this text. We put ourselves into bondage of ego with our narrowness, our Mitzraim (
In fact the whole spiritual context of the Talmudic Tractate of Pesachim (Passover) is about Jewish Spiritual Renewal. Biblically there is a second Passover, a month from the first, for those who were ritually impure to be allowed to accept the Pascal offering. The Rabbis say this proves that God is always giving us second chances to change from our egotistical selves doing our will, to spiritual Jews doing His will. "He and I cannot dwell in the same world," says a Talmudic Tractate quoting God speaking about the egocentric person.
Even the Four Sons in the Hagaddah are said to be just one person. Today we would call it spiritual schizophrenia. The four actually represent different aspects of the same person who is not integrated. We were like this before our Jewish Spiritual Renewal. We prayed to God, calling Him "Oseh Shalom" (Maker of Peace) and then managed to become the cause of discord.
The Talmud tells us that our Yetzer ha Ra never leaves us. Good is not the absence of Bad. One can be righteous and wise while the evil inclination persists in trying to dominate him. The Kabbalah takes the Gemetria numerical equivalent of Echad (one) son, which is 13, and multiplies it by four to arrive at 52. Fifty-two is the Gemetria numerical equivalent of Ben (son). Passover's story of the four sons is a lesson in becoming integrated and not being spiritually schizophrenic any longer.
It is not generally known that a few years ago the Jewish community in
So, in desperation, the Spanish Chief Rabbi called his friend in
So, as it is said, "The chrayn in
Shavuot
Shavuot comes from the Hebrew word for seven. It is seven weeks from the second day of Passover. During these 49 days we count the Omer, also counting up from one to 49, as we did with the Hanukkah candles. We are commanded to grow spiritually during this time. Those same 7 visitors of Sukkoth each have a week during which we study their good traits. During this time we also study Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) to aid our spiritual growth. This is in preparation for Shavuot. Shavuot is the day that God revealed Torah to Moses, the Hebrews and the other peoples at the base of
Spiritually, we are married to God and Torah under a wedding Kupah on this holiday (Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 49B), but there are other spiritual lessons. The Midrash tells us that
Another spiritual lesson is the dissolution of the idea of Jews being the "chosen people." Torah was offered to many other Nations before the Hebrews accepted it. Some Nations said, "we do not want Torah because we can no longer steal," and others said, "We do not want it because we can no longer commit adultery."(Midrash). The Hebrews said, "We will do and we will hear." (Ex.24:7). We chose God, He didn't choose us. We aren't special. We are like everyone else, although it has been quipped, "only more so."
It has also been written that once the Hebrews started to hear God speak, they became afraid and wanted to run and not accept Torah, and that God had to
We read the book of Ruth on Shavuot because she accepted God and Torah as a convert and this took place during the end of spring harvest festival on which Shavuot is biblically-based. A spiritual question for us is "if Ruth came to our shores today, how would we treat her?"
"How does love for one's mother-in-law make a person a good Jew?" the sages ask in the Talmud. The rabbis in Talmud Bavli Tractate Ketuboth 111B posit that one cannot love another without knowing details about the person. Therefore one cannot love God, which is one of the greatest of all mitzvoth, if one has not studied God. This is one of first points of Rabbi Ibn Packuda's "Duties of the Heart" of circa 1050 C.E.
Sarah was taking her daily walk on a particular hot August afternoon. As she neared her local shul, she noticed that the shrubbery outside the entrance was on fire. She pounded on the gabbai's door and when he answered, urged him to call the fire brigade before the fire got out of control.
The gabbai dialed 911, identified himself, gave the location and explained the situation.
"Do you mean to tell me," said the emergency operator, "that there's a burning bush on the synagogue lawn and you want us to put it out?"
Tisha b'Av
Tisha b'Av, which means in Hebrew the "ninth day of the month of Av", is a fast day commemorating the destruction of both
The Talmud tells us over and over that when bad things happen we are to look inside ourselves for the reason, not outside (Talmud Tractate Bavli Beracoth 5a). The rabbis tell us that the first
The rabbis also talk about Hebrews following the letter of the Torah law but not the spirit of Jewish Talmudic law (Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Metzia 30B). When the Romans heard the Jews were going to rebel, the Romans wanted to test them. They sent a calf to be sacrificed at the
Tisha b'Av mourns a number of deficits. We mourn Jews widespread lack of knowledge of their own religion. Many Jews do not understand that intrinsic to Judaism are the concepts of "love your fellow" and "Shalom ha gadol" (peace is the greatest of virtues) (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 10a). Other wise teachings of the sages show that the root cause of problems with others and with ourselves stem from our own defects of character. As spiritual Jews, Tisha b'Av is a time for mourning our past character defects and working toward improving our behavior in the future.
As Moses leads the tribes out of
Moses says to the first tribe, "Please cross now," but their leader replies, "No, we don't want to cross."
"Be reasonable," says Moses, "I've just performed the miracle of the parting of the
"Why must we cross?" asks the leader.
"Because over there, on the other side," replies Moses, "we'll find a land overflowing with milk and honey. In any case, you must cross because I've just paid for a full page in the Bible."
There are many other Holy days and holidays on the Jewish calendar: the fast of Tammuz 17, Tu B'Av, a monthly Rosh Chodesh (new moon celebration), the fast of Gadaliah, Hoshana Rabba, Shemini Atzeret, fast of Tevet 10, Tu B'Shevat (the New Year for Trees), the fast of Esther, Lag B'omer and added ones like Yom Ha Shoah and Israeli Independence Day. Every one of these has a spiritual lesson. Read about them from different sources and begin to decide for yourself.
Become what the name
For example is Tu B'Shevat the "Jewish Earth Day?" Does it teach us that, as Genesis says, we are stewards of the Earth? Are we to learn from it that we have a responsibility not to pollute and to pass a "clean earth" to succeeding generations? Or is it does this holiday have even more spiritual meaning to us?
What is the spiritual lesson in "a person is like a tree of the field" (Deut. 20:19)? "When fortune has turned for someone, and they have lost all hope and are despairing, then they should ponder a tree in winter. Its leaves have fallen, its moisture has dried up, it is almost a dead stump in the ground. Then suddenly, it begins to revive and to draw moisture from the earth. Slowly it blossoms, then brings forth fruits. People should learn from this not to despair, but to take hope and have courage, for they, too, are like a tree" (Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov).
One of the four Jewish new years, Tu B'Shevat, is the New Year for Trees. It celebrates the rebirthing of trees in the midst of winter. This is the Kabbalistic reawakening of divine energy with God as the tree of life. This holiday is the first Earth Day. The Talmud declares: "If you have a sapling, and someone says that the Messiah has come, complete the planting, and then go welcome the Messiah" (Avot d'Rabbi Natan). The idea of the importance of having faith and moving forward, as well as being stewards of the earth, is as old as Judaism itself.
So now you have learned that each Jewish holiday, including Shabbat, emphasizes one or more aspects of Jewish Spiritual Renewal. If you stay on the spiritual beam with daily prayer, meditation, daily spiritual growth and study with a chesbon ha nefesh katon and mindfully walk with God throughout the day, the holidays, Holy days and Shabbats will reiterate what you have been doing all along, and will make your work stronger and more enjoyable.
Freda walks into Minkoff the Butcher and asks Harry for the freshest chicken he has. So Harry pulls out a chicken for her to inspect. Freda immediately gets to work. She starts by looking it over inside and out. She then sniffs it at both ends and continues to sniff all around it. Finally, she puts her nose inside the body cavity. Then Freda hands the chicken back to Harry and says, "You call this a fresh chicken?"
"Mrs. Cohen," replies Harry, "you could pass such an inspection?"
You have certainly come a long way. We have only one class left in this beginning of your Jewish Spiritual Renewal journey. In the final class, on this topic, I will show you how to synthesize everything you have learned in this class, to make your life happy, joyous and free.
As always a d'var Torah for Shabbat follows. Since we have Rosh ha Shana in a day or so after Shabbat, and we have special Torah readings for this holiday as well, I will have a d'var for this holiday also. Lastly, because of the Holiday craziness, which I try to avoid, but still get sucked into like a black hole, the D'var is a double portion, 'doing' Shabbat 9/20 and 10/5.
L'Shana Tova,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
CHUMASH CANDESCENCE
PARASHAT NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
DEUTERONOMY 29:09-31:30
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
"You Know it Ain't Easy, Its Often Unkind;
But You Better Have to Make up your Mind"
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:
This week we have two short, but important, Torah portions to read. The
first is Nitzavim from the Hebrew word "standing." Moses renews God's
covenant with Israel and warns against idolatry. He tells the Israelites
that, while God will punish them for being sinful, He will eventually
restore them. Moses says that the Torah will always be accessible to the
people, and not hidden in the domain of the priests. He ends by reminding
the Jews that they have free choice.
Parasha Vayeilech tells of the 120th birthday of Moses. He is about to
leave the people of Israel, and presents them with the Book of
Deuteronomy. He says that during the holiday of Sukkoth, this entire book
should be read aloud. God tells Moses that he is about to die and to
write a song for the people. He gives the reign of political command to
Joshua. He gives spiritual command to the Levites and tells them that he
knows that they will stray, sin , and be corrupt.
These parashat tend to correlate on the calendar with the holiday of Selichot. If you wish to learn more about
these parashat and this holiday, please read on.
"I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse, and you
shall choose life" (Deut. 30:19). With only three portions left to
conclude the Chumash, (the Five Books of Moses), some of our leader's
final words to us are to "choose life." We have the choice. It is always
in our control. We had it in the Garden of Eden, and we had it
throughout history. The Torah has shown us time and time again how bad
choices bring about disastrous results. Sometimes these calamitous
sequella show up generations later. The Torah is "a tree of life to those
that cling to it."
The parasha insists that Torah be accessible to all. "It is not hidden
from you and it is not distant. It is not in heaven...it is not across
the sea...the matter is very near to you...in your mouth and in your
heart"(Deut. 30:11-14). In Talmud Tractate Niddah 30B we are taught that
a fetus is taught Torah in the womb and is caused to forget it at
birth. What were the sages teaching?
The instructions in the Torah about
how we are to behave to one another, even when read for the first time,
ring true. The rabbis are saying that when we are born, we have inside us
the intrinsic knowledge to know good and to be good. A small child knows
when he or she is being naughty. As we get older, we learn to rationalize
the things we do that are not good. When we rationalize to ourselves, we
lie to ourselves. Whether the lie is "everyone cheats on their taxes, so
why can't I?" or "one little piece of pie won't ruin my diet," lying to
ourselves seems part of the human condition. But we also truly know that
it is wrong. Moses is telling us to continually stay focused, be
rational, and make choices that promote life, goodness, and harmony. But
Moses knew human nature well. He predicted that the Israelites would
return to sin, and soon after Joshua's death, they did (Judges 2:7).
Knowing that we sin, the Torah gives us a way for growth. The Hebrew word
for sin (chet), means to "miss the mark." It is an archery term. We are
not condemned or damned for eternity when we fall short of our goals. We
can say we are sorry to others and to ourselves and vow to do better. The
Hebrew word for "sorry" is selicha. You'll hear this word in Israel
,maybe, on a crowded bus as someone pushes past you. A week before our
new year, we have a holiday called Selichot named from this very word.
Selichot are penitential prayers. They are traditionally recited before
the morning service during the last week of month of Elul, which is the
current month. They are also said between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
When a sacrifice was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem, it was examined
for four days before to ensure it had no blemishes. The sages felt that
we should feel like sacrificial offerings the week before Rosh Hashanah
and do sincere self-examination to lead us to do teshuvah. Teshuvah is
more than repentance. It is from the Hebrew word "to return." It is not
enough to say we are sorry. We need to fix the bad that we have done, if
possible, and not do it again. We are taught that God has forgiven a sin
when we no longer do that sin.
The traditional service is a collection of liturgical poets who lived
during the millennium following the close of the Talmudic era (circa 500
CE to 1500 CE). Originally, the service had groups of biblical verses,
which emphasized the 13 attributes of God which we are to emulate. As the
years moved on , the service adapted the sound of most other services
with multiple kaddishes. Psalm 145 was added, as was a confessional. In
America, with people used to staying up late on Saturday night, the
custom began to have the service at this time, rather than at dawn on
Sunday morning. It is also traditional to have a study session before the
service, at which some aspect of the meaning and the purpose of the High
Holy Days is discussed.
All of us have struggles. As my dear friend Lisa Segal (no relation, but
a wonderful Cantoress and woman) wrote, "How we respond to our struggles
is what truly matters." As we have discussed many times, the Torah
teaches us that we are to help one another deal with life's hardships.
Sometimes, the way to choose life has unfortunately been to choose death.
The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer lends us some modern insights into Selicoth.
When Great Britain's present Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked, "Which
German figure past or present, do you admire most?" he replied,"Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, who spoke out against the Nazis and died
in a concentration camp." Bonhoeffer was one of the few church leaders
who stood in courageous opposition to Hitler. His experience under Nazism
thrust him into profound conflict with much of his religious tradition.
He raised questions that he was unable to resolve before he was killed in
Flossenburg on April 9, 1945. Like most Christians of his generation, he
believed that God's special destiny for the Jews included their eventual
acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah.
Jewish and Christian scholars evaluate Bonhoeffer's legacy differently.
To Christians, his resistance against the Nazis and his writings offer
new ethics to the Protestant church. Some Jewish scholars contend that
Bonhoeffer acted out of patriotism on behalf of his church and not for
the sake of the Jews.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906 in Breslau, Germany. His
mother was university-educated and his father was a psychiatrist. He
graduated from the Union Seminary of New York. In 1939 he taught theology
in Berlin. His church, German Evangelical Protestantism, was shaped by
obedience to state authority and by nationalism. Most church leaders
welcomed the rise of Nazism as a response to the liberalism and chaos of
the Weimar Republic.
A group of German Christians, called Deutsche Christen, was the voice of
Nazi ideology within the Protestant Church, and removed the Old Testament
from the Bible as it was "too Jewish." When, in 1933 the Nuremberg laws
prevented non-Aryans from being in civil service, they also forbade
non-Aryans from being ministers or religious teachers. For example, a
Protestant, with one Jewish grandparent , could not teach or preach in
their "pure Aryan" German church. But they went further. Repudiating
Gospel teachings, they said that the non-Aryan Jews were banned from
converting to Christianity.
Bonhoeffer's opposition to this Aryan anti-Semitic Deutsche Christen was
not based upon disagreement with the Nazi's racial policies, but upon the
group's repudiating Church policy as defined in the Gospel. It was a
battle of Church independence from Nazism. The church avoided the deeper
issue of the rights of German Jews. Many of the church leaders who were
against the Deutsche Christen were in favor of the Nazi Aryan policies.
Bonhoeffer opposed the Deutsche Christen, saying that they surrendered
Christian precepts to Nazi ideology. He said if non-Aryan Christians
could not be in the German Protestant church, he would start a new
church, called the "Confessing Church." This church would be free of Nazi
influence. This was a minority view. Most German bishops wanted to avoid
antagonizing the Nazi regime. As the Nazis became stronger, Bonhoeffer's
"Confessing Church" became paralyzed.
In his essay "The Church and the Jewish Question,"published in 1933,
Bonhoeffer called upon the church to defend the Jews. He did so not
because of moral or humanitarian concerns, but because the church needed
the Jews to accept Jesus. He says the homecoming of Jesus happens "in the
conversion of Israel to Christ." But he also broke new ground in saying
that the church must fight political injustice and to help victims of
injustice whether they were members of his church or not. His essay
became an explicit ethical commitment to all those persecuted by the
Nazis. He even drafted a message to rabbi Stephen Wise, head of the
Reform Jewish Movement in the United States.
Theologically, Bonhoeffer still felt the Jewish question would be
resolved if all the Jews converted and Judaism no longer existed. This
was against the Nazi and Deutsche German view of exterminating anyone
with Jewish blood and not accepting their conversion or their
grandparents' conversion. Bonhoeffer's struggle became more with his own
church than with the Nazis. He enlisted help from churches outside of
Germany. He attended the World Alliance Christian ecumenical meeting in
Sofia, Bulgaria, and convinced the delegates to pass the following
resolution in April 1933. "We especially deplore the fact that the State
measures against the Jews in Germany had such an effect on public opinion
that, in some circles, Jewish race is considered a race of inferior
status."
However, when Bonhoeffer's sister asked him to conduct a Christian
funeral for her husband's brother who, like her husband, were converted
Jews, Bonhoeffer succumbed to pressure from his church superintendent
and refused. By November 1933, he regretted this decision and apologized
to his sister. He turned down a parish post in Berlin and moved to
London. His church in London became a haven for both Christian and Jewish
refugees. In April 1935, he returned to Germany to help his "Confessing
Church." One of his members, deaconess Marga Meusel, no longer just
denounced the church and the Nazis for their treatment of Jews who
converted to Christianity. She denounced the Nazis and the church for
their treatment against all Jews. Some leaders of Bonhoeffer's own church
wanted to dispute Meusel's beliefs and only defend Jews who converted.
They actually wanted to go so far as to agree that the Nazis could do
what they wished with non-Christian Jews. This would have given sanction
to the Nuremberg laws by Bonhoeffer's church. His church's synod met and
dismissed Meusel's view and avoided discussions about the Nazi regime.
They simply decided to support the baptism of Jews and support non-Aryan
Christians.
For the next two years, Bonhoeffer taught quietly at the seminary of his
Confessing Church at Finkenwalde. In 1937, the Gestapo declared his
school illegal, as it opposed their Jewish blood laws. Twenty-seven of
Bonhoeffer's students were arrested. During the next two years,
Bonhoeffer traveled around Germany in secret supervising his students,
who were all working illegally in small rural parishes. In 1938, the
Gestapo banned him from Berlin and in 1940 forbade him from speaking
publicly.
During the period from 1938 to 1940, Bonhoeffer's philosophy changed.
For the first time he described Judaism using the same terminology as he
used for Christianity. He said that in God's eyes the "church and
synagogue" were equal. He said that Jews were the "brothers of
Christians." He said that Jews were the "children of the covenant." These
were radical statements. The regular Protestant movement in Germany just
culminated their 1939 conference on "Researching the Removal of Jewish
Influence on the Religious Life of the German People."
After the November 9, 1938 Kristallnacht, Bonhoeffer protested the Church
leaders who said that this pogrom was "the curse which has haunted Jews
since Jesus' death on the cross." Bonhoeffer rejected this vehemently and
said it was "sheer violence" and revealed Nazism's "godless face."
Bonhoeffer then organized his members. Pastor Heinrich Gruber helped
2000 Jews escape Germany. Confessing Christians who were expelled from
Germany worked with their German colleagues. One was Adolf Fruedenberg,
who helped from Switzerland. Another was Henry Leiper, from the USA,
who was an outspoken critic of Nazism and urged a boycott of the 1936
Berlin Olympics. He worked with Jewish groups to spread the word about
what was really happening in Germany.
In 1939, Bonhoeffer's other brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyl, became a
high-ranking member of the German Military Intelligence under Admiral
Wilheim Canaris. Secretly, Dohnanyl was a member of the resistance.
Dohnanyl told Bonhoeffer that war was imminent. Bonhoeffer left for New
York to teach at the Union Seminary in 1939. By the time he arrived in
America, he realized he belonged in Germany to fight the Nazis and help
the Jews. He returned to the belly of the beast one month later in July
1939. Reverand Dietrich Bonhoeffer made an important, crucial decision.
He joined the resistance.
Bonhoeffer became a double agent for the resistance by working for his
brother-in-law at German military intelligence. The Nazis thought
Bonhoeffer would use his church connections to help the Reich. Instead,
he helped the resistance gain support as he traveled in Italy,
Switzerland, and Scandinavia in 1941 and 1942. However, the Allies
treated him with distrust, because the German generals against Hitler
wanted guarantees of German territorial integrity and their own positions
in power after the war. In 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt said that only
unconditional surrender of the Nazis would end the war and did not wish
to help the German resistance movement of the anti-Hitler Army officers.
When Jewish deportation started on October 15, 1941, Bonhoeffer wrote
detailed memos about it that were smuggled out of Germany on October
18th. Dohnanyl and Canaris ,while running the German intelligence
office, ran "Operation Seven." This secret project smuggled 11 converted
Jews and 3 Jews to Switzerland. Using Jews in the Intelligence under the
Nazis was not unusual. Hitler himself ordered Canaris to use Jews as
spies and send them to America. Canaris was happy to oblige. The only
orders he gave the Jewish "spies" was to escape as soon as they got out
of Germany. The Gestapo discovered this operation by a trail of money
leaving Germany to help the refugees. They arrested Dohnanyl and
Bonhoeffer in 1943 on charges of corruption. Later they realized they
were smuggling Jews.
In July 1944, an attempt by Canaris' group to kill Hitler failed. It was
only after the arrests of the conspirators that the Nazis learned of
Bonhoeffer's true involvement. He was hung at Flossenburg concentration
camp in April 1945, together with his brother Klaus, Canaris, his
brother-in-law Dohnanyl, and others.
In his essay,"Who Stands Firm," Bonhoeffer writes, "Only the one for who
the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his
freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in
faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and
responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing
but an answer to God's question and call." Our parasha this week says
that all of us are "standing today"(Deut. 29:9). Our covenant with God
was sealed not just with those standing with Moses circa 3500 years ago,
but "with whoever is not here with us today"(Deut. 29:14). Our covenant
is binding upon unborn generations. We have a choice whether to accept
Torah's ethical teachings or not. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an example of a
man who, after some starts and stops, decided to choose life. He gave up
his own life for the greater good.
As this Selichot holiday approaches, let us determine to do our best to
choose life-affirming actions. Let us work toward tsadakah (justice) and
chesed (kindness). As the prophet Isaiah says in this week's Haftorah,
"For Zion's sake, I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not be still, until her righteousness shall go forth like a bright
light"(Is. 62:01). Let us begin, or continue, by doing good within our
homes, workplaces and synagogues. Let us "beat down the highway, clear it
of stone, and raise a banner over all the peoples" (Is. 62:10) that will
bring about Tikun Olam (repair of the world) speedily in our days.
Amen!
Shabbat Shalom.
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Savannah, Ga
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:CHUMASH CANDESCENCE: ROSH HASHANAH PARASHAT
CHUMASH CANDESCENCE
ROSH HASHANAH
SPECIAL READINGS:
GENESIS 21:1-34
1 SAMUEL 1:1-2:10
NUMBERS 29:1-6
GENESIS 22:1-24
JEREMIAH 31:1-19
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Savannah, Ga
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! LA SHANA TOVA !!!!!
"We Can't Return, We Can Only Look, Behind from Where We Came"
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:
On many Jewish holidays there are special sections of parashat read that
help us to remember themes of the holidays. The theme of God's mercy and
kindness is woven throughout these special readings. Genesis 21 tells of
Sarah, a 90-year old woman, giving birth to Isaac. It also tells of Hagar
and Ishmael being expelled by Abraham at his wife's insistence. God
rescues them in the desert. Genesis 22 tells of the binding of Isaac,
Abraham's faith in God, and God's rescue of Isaac. The reading in Samuel
tells of Hannah who is childless, prays to God for intervention, and
gives birth to Samuel. The section of Jeremiah tells of God's rescuing
Israel from her captivity and restoring her greatness. Lastly, the verses
from Numbers tells of the rules for a holy convocation from which our
sages derive the laws and customs of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
If you would like to learn more, we invite you to read on.
Numbers 29:01-05 reads, "In the seventh month, on the first day of this
month, there shall be a holy convocation for you and you shall not do
laborious work. It shall be a day of shofar-sounding for you. You shall
make an elevation offering...one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs in
their first year, unblemished. And their meal offering...one male of the
goats for a sin offering to provide you atonement." There is a similar
law given in Leviticus 23:23-26. Does this sound like our Rosh Hashanah
celebration today?
We are commanded to celebrate an unnamed festival on the first day of the
seventh (!) month. No details are offered. The seventh month is later
called Tishri. The Jewish first month is Nisan, in which we celebrate
Passover. Pesach is our national new year, as we were liberated from
slavery then. We are to refrain from work and to make sacrifices on this
first day of the seventh month. This is no different than any other
holiday. The difference is that we are commanded to blow the ram's horn.
The verse in Leviticus says we are to blow the shofar with "loud
blasts." The verse in Numbers says it is a day when the shofar will be
"sounded." No other explanations are given.
The words "Rosh Hashanah" first appear in the Talmud in Tractate Rosh
Hashanah 1A. The rabbis teach that we have four "new years." The one in
Tishri was designated for calculating the years for foreign kings, as
well as for counting the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. It was also a time
for planting trees and vegetables. We also are told that on this day,
"all who come into the world pass before God like legions of soldiers."
Some translations say, "like a flock of sheep." The rabbis say that this
means that God passes judgment on all humans on this day.
Rosh Hashanah's significance is tied to the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. This
is the day we make expiation for our sins (Lev. 23:28). The rabbis
extended Yom Kippur's reach back to the first day of the month of Elul.
The rabbis decreed in the Talmud that the shofar be sounded a month
before Rosh Hashanah to aid us in our annual process of self-evaluation
and spiritual self-renewal. Eventually, Tishri replaced Nisan as the
first month. This comes out of a debate the sages had that is recorded
on this tractate's folios 10B and 11A. It has to do with the precise time
the world was created. Rabbi Joshua claims that the world was created on
the first of Nisan. Rabbi Eliezer says it was the first of Tishri. The
rabbis agree with rabbi Eliezer. This is why after the three shofar
blasts, we say, "Today the world came into being."
The rabbis made Rosh Hashanah into a time of universal renewal. They want
us to be reminded that we can bring order into our chaotic lives. We can
say good bye to the old and welcome in the new. A traditional blessing
is, "May the year and its curses end, may the year and its blessings
begin." Just as the Sabbath does to weeks, Rosh Hashanah does to years.
We ask that we can be written into God's "Book of Life." We do this
"writing," not God. The scripts of our lives are written by each of us
individually. Rosh Hashanah is a time to take stock of ourselves and put
our bad habits and our old selves into God's "Book of Death." As rabbi
Neil Gilman writes, we say good-bye to our old selves and hello to our
new ones. This is why the Talmudic rabbis took these six verses and
turned them into a large Tractate of the Talmud.
Traditionally, Jews welcome the first of the month with a special prayer
for the new moon. Rosh Hashanah always falls, as per the law in Numbers,
on the new moon of Tishri. Yet no new moon prayer is said. The rabbis say
that this is "in order to confuse Satan." The sages say that Satan is
waiting for Rosh Hashanah in order to speak ill of us before God. The
rabbis decree that if we do not say the new month prayers, Satan may not
know it is Rosh Hashanah and could miss his chance. The day before Rosh
Hashanah the rabbis decree to be "hattarat nederim." This is a release
from all vows that one may have made but has forgotten about. Grave sites
are also visited at this time. It is a time for giving to charities. The
rabbis decree that giving to charity helps absolve one from past sins.
Tractate Rosh Hashanah continues on 16B: "All are judged on Rosh Hashanah
and the verdict is sealed on Yom Kippur." Rabbi Kruspedia says, "Three
books are opened on Rosh Hashanah: one for the utterly wicked, one for
the perfectly righteous, and one for the intermediates. The perfectly
righteous are straightaway inscribed and sealed for life; the wicked are
straightaway inscribed and sealed for death; the intermediates are
suspended and wait from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur. If they merit,
they are inscribed for life; if not--they are inscribed for death." In
Leviticus 16:30, Yom Kippur was the day when "atonement be made for you
to cleanse you, from all of your sins you shall be clean before the
Lord." The rabbis made Rosh Hashanah into a day of reflection,
repentance, and judgment. The Midrash says that "the gates of repentance
are always open," yet the Talmud alludes to certain hopeless evil people
who have no hope of forgiveness.
It also talks of purely righteous
people. The rabbis decide that both categories rarely exist, and that
humans fall into the third, intermediate category. As rabbi Ismar
Schorsch writes, Rosh Hashanah is called Yom Hazikaron, a day of
remembrance. It is a time for us to accurately remember our past year. We
are to judge our own actions and to find a correct direction. It is a
time to right any wrongs that we have not yet corrected. It is a time
for introspection, tephilah (self-judging), repentance, and teshuvah
(returning).
Maimonides, of 12-century Spain, writes, "The merit of penitents is
higher than that of the perfectly righteous, because the former have
struggled harder to subdue their passions." In the Talmud, rabbi Abahu
says that a person who has sinned and stopped is of a higher religious
order than one who has never known sin. He says, "In the spot where
penitents stand, there is no room for the perfectly righteous." Rabbi
Yochanan disagrees, but the sages agree with rabbi Abahu. The sages
write in Tractate Berachot 17A, "It does not matter whether you pray a
lot or a little. What counts is that you direct your heart to Heaven."
They further posit,"Whether we succeed in observing a lot or a little,
what counts is that our heart be solely directed toward God." The Talmud
is clear that it is the purity of intention of how we relate to the world
around us and others in it that is important, and not the mechanical or
obsessive doing of ritual minutia.
As this old year closes and the new one opens, many of us search for
answers. We pray to God to "feel for us, pity us, embrace us with mercy,
restore us, don't forsake us, don't abandon us and to answer us." We read
of Hannah's and Sarah's pleas for children being answered. We see Isaac
being rescued as a sacrifice. We hear the promises of Jeremiah promising
our nation salvation , which may seem trite now to some American Jews,
but provide words of comfort to so many of us that have not been so
abundantly blessed. We also read of Hagar--lost, thirsty and hungry in
the desert, after being expelled from Abraham's camp.
God hears the cries
of her son, Ishmael, and "opens her eyes and she saw a well of
water" (Gen. 21:19). The well had always been there. Hagar just could not
see it. God opened her eyes so she could see the answer. Many of us are
too oblivious to the wells of change and salvation that lie within our
reach. We really can change our lives if we find ourselves in a rut. It
is hard, but it is possible. We have to want to see that we can do it.
Real teshuvah, turning our lives around, does not come from a spring of
divine grace. It comes from pure human effort. As Spiritual Jews, we are not
seeking atonement and forgiveness from God, as we do not have a creed of
divine reward and punishment. Even the Talmud says that the consequences
of our actions can be mitigated, but not erased or reversed.
The rabbis say, "penitence, prayer and good deeds can annul the severity of the
decree," but do no more. We as people must fix the hurt we have caused
others and ourselves. Judaism does not believe we are "captives on a
carrousel of time." We do not have to let ourselves be caught going
"round and round in the circle game" repeating our same destructive
behaviors. We can break free and change. This is how we can assure
ourselves that on Rosh Hashanah we will be inscribed in OUR books of OUR
lives, and on Yom Kippur WE will seal it. Amen!
Shabbat Shalom v' Shana Tova!!
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Savannah,Ga
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
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