Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5780
September 29, 2019
Happy New Year!
I’m so glad that everyone is here this evening to celebrate the Jewish New Year.
However, and I hesitate to tell you this, but if you search carefully through every single word of the Torah, you will not find a single mention of the 1st day of Tishri being Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
But please don’t rush off! I can still assure you we didn’t all get the date mixed up!
Let me try to clarify this confusion:
It is true that the first mention in the Torah of what we now observe as Rosh Hashanah does not characterize it as a new year festival at all.
Rather, what the Torah says at Leviticus 23:23-24 is this:
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃
“Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:
דַּבֵּ֛ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י בְּאֶחָ֣ד לַחֹ֗דֶשׁ יִהְיֶ֤ה לָכֶם֙ שַׁבָּת֔וֹן זִכְר֥וֹן תְּרוּעָ֖ה
מִקְרָא־קֹֽדֶשׁ׃
“Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with ‘TERU’AH’”
The word “teru’ah” is translated there in the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh as “loud blasts”.
And a similar reference in Numbers 29, which is our maftir reading for both mornings of Rosh Hashanah, describes this day as being
מִֽקְרָא־קֹ֙דֶש...י֥וֹם תְּרוּעָ֖ה
“a sacred occasion… a day of TERUAH”
which the Jewish Publication Society translates there as “a day when the horn is sounded.”
But no mention of these loud blasts --- or of this sounding of the horn --- as being connected with any sort of New Year festival.
Indeed, you may recall that the very first mitzvah in the Torah that is applicable to the Jewish people as a people is the mitzvah that God proclaims to Moses and Aaron just before that first Passover when we leave Egypt. And what is that mitzvah? As it says in Exodus 12:2 –
הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחָדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃
This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.
And, of course they are talking there about Nisan – the month at the start of spring when we celebrate Passover. That’s the month that the Torah consistently identifies as the first month of the year.
Admittedly, elsewhere in the Torah, the beginning of every month, Rosh Chodesh, is designated as a semi-holiday. But, that still leaves us with the question: Why then is the “Rosh Chodesh” of this seventh month of the Hebrew calendar – the month later known by its Babylonian name “Tishri” – why is the beginning of this seventh month considered a full-scale festival?
Later commentary in the Talmud identified this first day of the seventh month as being the anniversary of the creation of the world. Actually, even that is an oversimplification since there is an argument in the Talmud that the world was created on the 25th of Elul and that this 1st day of Tishri is not the birthday of the world, but rather the birthday of humanity (i.e., the sixth day as described in the Creation story of Genesis chapter 1).
But, long story short, ultimately, it became the normative Jewish tradition to treat this seventh month of the Biblical calendar as the start of the year for purposes of counting the number of years since the creation of the world.
Of course, I am assuming that none of us in this room take any of that chronology literally. It is way more than 5780 years since our world was created, at least in the way we define “years.” But I am also assuming that I don’t have to convince you that the profound lessons which scripture teaches need not lead us to reject our modern understandings of science.
We praise God as the author of Creation in our standard prayers every day of the year. And on this day when we celebrate the anniversary of Creation itself --- however many billions of years ago that might have actually been --- how much more so are we inspired to pause to reflect on the awesomeness of it all.
The Talmud says that this is the day on which humanity is judged and on which our fates are determined for the year to come. And, the traditional teaching goes on, since none of us are wholly good or wholly evil, we have another ten days until Yom Kippur to tip the balance --- through our efforts to atone for our misdeeds and to make things right between ourselves and our fellow creatures and between ourselves and God.
But all that is later gloss on what is actually written in the Torah.
Going back to the Torah’s portrayal of this day as being “zichron teruah” (“commemorated with loud blasts”) or “Yom teruah” (“a day when the horn is sounded”) – descriptions that do not identify this day with the New Year --- why are we making a big deal out of this day?
Or to put it in other words, if Tishrei is the seventh month and not the first month, what’s with all the shofar blasts?
If we go back to the Torah, in its own terms, at the time of its own writing, the horn blasts of the first day of the seventh month --- and the purification rituals of Yom Kippur --- all of these are just preliminary steps leading up to the big day – the full moon of the seventh month --- The holiday known as Chag Hasukkot – The Festival of Booths. Indeed, later on in the Talmud, Sukkot is simply called “He-Chag” – “The Festival” par excellence.
Now, I know you’re all here tonight because it’s Rosh Hashanah, not because we’re anticipating Sukkot which starts two weeks from tonight.
But, even as we recite the traditional prayers of Rosh Hashanah tonight and tomorrow and the day after, and even as we recite the traditional penitential prayers of Yom Kippur ten days from now --- and even as we recite our prayers throughout every day of the year --- the image of the sukkah is never far from our consciences.
During the entire month of Elul and throughout the High Holidays, it is traditional to recite Psalm 27.
And in Psalm 27, verse 5 we have this poignant image:
כִּ֤י יִצְפְּנֵ֨נִי ׀ בְּסֻכֹּה֮ בְּי֪וֹם רָ֫עָ֥ה יַ֭סְתִּרֵנִי בְּסֵ֣תֶר אָהֳל֑וֹ בְּ֝צ֗וּר יְרוֹמְמֵֽנִי׃
“For God’s sukkah will shelter me in days of evil; God’s tent will conceal me, raising me high upon a rock.[1]”
And every evening of the year, in the Hashkivenu blessing, our prayer that we be safe from any and all dangers that may lurk in the night, we ask:
וּפְרוֹשׂ עָלֵינוּ סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמֶךָ
(“ufros aleynu sukkat shelomekha”)
“Spread over us the sukkah of Your peace.”
What is a sukkah – it’s a flimsy shelter at best. Susceptible to wind and rain, open to the elements. A couple of weeks from now many of us will spend some time in the sukkah, even if just for the few moments of reciting a couple of blessings and sampling some wine or grape juice and challah. The ones among us more ambitious in their piety may eat some meals in a sukkah or even sleep in it.
Tradition invites us to think of it as our temporary home.
But thinking of this precarious structure as a home sensitizes us to the fact that many people are without sturdy homes.
One such poor individual here in Duluth tried to warm himself on a cold night just a few weeks ago by dwelling in the sukkah belonging to Adas Israel Congregation and starting a fire. It appears that this homeless man was also suffering from mental illness that clouded his judgment. Supposedly, when the fire got out of control he tried to put it out by spitting on it; then walked away --- in panic, in confusion, in despair – it’s hard to say. Admittedly, it’s hard to know definitively what may or may not have been going through his mind.
The incident has left all of us shaken. We live in a particular period in history when hate crimes have been on the rise, including hate crimes against religious and racial minorities --- we saw this happen in the past year to synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway, to Mosques in Christchurch, and – not long before that – to an African-American church in Charleston.
When Adas Israel burnt down many of us first thought (dare I say “hoped”) that it was an electrical fire. Then, when we heard that a suspect had been arrested and charged with arson, we feared the worst. If it was a hate crime, then that would fit in with the scary picture that we may have in our heads if we spend too much time obsessing on social media and tabloid news.
Yes, there are real security issues for synagogues – and for society in general – to address in this age when there is too much hatred in the air and too many guns on the street. And I know that your Temple Israel Board of Trustees is focused on addressing those concerns.
But still, that is BY NO MEANS the whole story. The bigger story, the more important story --- is that love conquers hate and I’ll be damned if I ever would believe that there isn’t more love than hate in this room, in this city, in this state, in this country, and in this world.
As for the case at hand, our hearts go out to our friends and neighbors at Adas Israel Congregation.
And we pray that as we mark this holy day of Rosh Hashanah 5780, and as we live out each day of our lives, that we remember those who are homeless, that we remember those who are in need, and that we open our hearts to God and one another.
That is ultimately what Rosh Hashanah is all about. That is ultimately what Yom Kippur is all about. That is ultimately what Sukkot is all about.
That, my friends, is ultimately what life is all about.
Lshanah tovah tikatevu
May all of us be inscribed in the book of life and may it be a shanah tovah umetukah, a new year of goodness and sweetness, for all of us, for all Israel, and for all the world.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (2019/5780)
[1] Translation by Rabbi Ron Aigen
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