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Home , Baruch Epstein, Rosh Hashanah

& Kippur 5781

Rosh Hashanah

& 5781

"Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are that ask us how we have lived thus far. Have we drifted? Have we been travelling to the wrong destination? Does the way we live give us a sense of purpose, meaning and fulfilment? is the satellite navigation system of the soul, and on these days we stop and see whether we need to change direction". - Sacks

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are a time that we are given to reflect on the year that was and look ahead to the year to come. This year in particular we have a lot to reflect on - we can think back to our times of success, pride and triumph but also times of hardship, struggle and challenges that the year has presented. We can ask ourselves - What have we learnt? What have we gained? What have we given?

This booklet is a collection of thoughts, ideas and artwork from the Scopus community on a range of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur themes. Though we will miss our normal celebrations of the yamim noraim, we hope this booklet helps to make this year’s unique experience more meaningful.

Wishing everyone a Shana Tova, The Student Development Team

Front Cover Artwork by Romy Walys, Year 11

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Contents

4 Ellie Golvan – If someone blows on their own, and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?

6 Eve Fidgor – The Shofar – Kind of a Big Deal

8 Joel Chester – What happens when two worlds collide?

11 Matti Borowski – Teshuva

13 Rabbi Shamir Caplan – Seeking the Sun

14 Amanda Castelan-Starr – Rosh Hashanah This Year

16 Nadav Simovitz – A Deeper Understanding of and

’ תוּ בוּשְׁ ָ ה תוּ פְ ִ ָ לּ ה צוּ ְ קָ ד ָ ה ןיִריִבֲﬠַמ תֶא ַﬠוֹֽר ָרֵזְגַּה ה ‘ Leah Jones – The true meaning behind 18

20 Rami Maserow – Day 1: Bezos or Bereishit?

22 Avivit Gafni – Aseret Yemei Teshuva and Personal Development

24 Holly Feldman – Holding a Mirror to Ourselves

26 Josh Feldman – Elul - Personal Growth and Development

28 Leonie Balbin – ‘Finding Happiness’ by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

31 Sammy Brygel – Today is Your Birthday!

33 Ashlea Gild – Chana’s Prayer

35 Cohava Rubenstein Sturgess – What the Readings Tell us About Rosh Hashana?

37 Rabbi James Kennard – Yonah

39 Jaimee White –

41 Ashlee Glasser – Thoughts on Unetaneh Tokef

43 Abby Slonim – Looking Beyond the Despair of Unetaneh Tokef

45 Sasha Fink – Sprints and Marathons

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Ellie Golvan is the Community Service and Achshav Coordinator and a teacher at Mount Scopus

If someone blows Shofar on their own, and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?

Before you read this article, I would like you to consider or discuss the following questions: • What has been a challenge that you have had to overcome? • What did you learn from that experience and how did it impact your future behaviour? • What have been challenges that the Jewish people have overcome? • What have you learnt from the experiences of previous generations and how has it impacted your behaviour as a Jew today?

You may be familiar with the saying, "If a you need to have a group of people. tree falls in a forest and no one is around Interestingly, the concept of a corum of 10 to hear it, does it make a sound?”, that is men, comes from 12 Spies who were sent to say, if something happens, and you are to give a report on Eretz , the 10 who the only one to experience it does it count. gave the false negative report were or the Evil ֵע ָ֤דה ָ ֽה ָר ָע ֙ה ,This made me think about how we will be called experiencing the Yamim Noraim this year. Congregation (Bamidbar 14:27). It was these 10 people who were able to form We all know This year’s Yamim Noraim the opinion Bnei Israel, even though they will look different. Very different. There will were telling lies. It teaches us that there is be no communal singing of the familiar great power in the concept of a group. tunes. No children gathering in awe to hear the sound of the Shofar. There will Jewish ritual is not meant to be done be way too many leftovers, because we alone or even in a small group. There still have not yet figured out how to cater needs to be at least ten people present to Yom Tov meals for just our immediate celebrate and to mourn. Where possible families. throughout history have gathered. We are taught that being Jewish is about When so much of these Yamim are about being part of the Jewish people, not just coming together and doing things in being a Jewish individual. The aspects of groups, will they still have that same our religion that require a Minyan allow us sense of awe if we are celebrating in small to create tight communities But now, a groups, or for some even on their own. I sneaky Minyan could leave you with a would like to explore the question, can we serious fine. find new meaning when celebrating these Days of Awe with our immediate families? So what can we do in a year where really the only way we know how to do our One of the central tenets of Jewish Judaism is not allowed? How will this practise is the Minyan. In order to impact how we do Judaism in the future? complete most ritual aspects of Judaism,

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Well we do know that this is not the first looking at ways we can adapt to the new set of Yamim Noraim that took place normal. So, how are we supposed to during pandemics, epidemics or times of celebrate days that are so deeply illness. Bnei Israel even withstood the Ten associated with communal gathering? Plagues in Egypt and managed to survive and turn adversity into a nation building While you may not be able to blow the exercise. So what have those who have Shofar or carry a tune like the Chazan at come before us said with regards to how your Shul, there are ways to find meaning; we should behave in a time like this? • Find someone who can blow the Shofar for you or learn to do it I will share one source and one historical yourself. This may result in forming anecdote on what the suggest we new connections with people in the would do in these times community that you would not have known otherwise. 1. Bava Kamma 60b states: • You might like to go through the The Sages taught: If there is plague in the with people at your house city, gather your feet, i.e., limit the time and delve into the most important you spend out of the house, as it is stated Tefilot in the verse: “And none of you shall go out • Find a way to do Tashlich with the of the opening of his house until the people in your house morning.” And it says in another verse: • Have all meals over Rosh “Come, my people, enter into your Hashana together, and perhaps chambers, and shut your doors behind make sure there is something new you; hide yourself for a little moment, until and different to eat at each meal the anger has passed by” (Isaiah 26:20). • During Yizkor on Yom Kippur tell And it says: “Outside the sword will stories of loved ones who have bereave, and in the chambers terror” passed away (Deuteronomy 32:25). Jews are a resilient people, and as the םע רבע נ ו תא There is the famous story of Rabbi Israeli singer, Meir Ariel wrote .2 If we have overcome הערפ , נ בע ו ר םג תא הז Israel Salanter (1809-1883), the founder of the modern Musar movement who Pharoh, we can overcome this as well. We made in synagogue on Yom will overcome this pandemic, and one of Kippur during a cholera epidemic (the the ways we will do that is by staying at story is recounted in Baruch Epstein, home and creating new family traditions Mekor Baruch 2:11). There is some doubt for this time. as to whether he actually made Kiddush at his synagogue, but that he ate in public to If a tree falls and no one hears it, it can encourage his constituents to do the same have an impact on its surroundings, and is widely acknowledged. But this so if someone blows to the Shofar, you reasoning is certainly not applicable to the are are the only person so hear it, the current situation of quarantine. sound is just as meaningful as if it was being heard by an entire congregation. The Rabbis were spreading the “stay at Over these Yamim Noraim, find something home” mantra long before we even heard new and meaningful to do with the people of it. Additionally, we are not in you live with. I challenge you to then keep circumstances where is on doing that thing for the next three years dangerous, but we can see from the - and create a new family tradition to second anecdote that in unprecedented celebrate these Yamim which will carry. times, there is scope for change and

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Eve Figdor is a Jewish Studies teacher in the secondary school.

The Shofar – Kind of a Big Deal

Below is an excerpt from an article by he ascended, the expression on my face Harry Rothenberg, American Lawyer and must have shown some disappointment. It Lecturer followed by Eve’s comments. was enough to cause one of the old-timers in the shul to whisper: “Hey, don’t “Many years ago, I visited a Shul on Rosh complain, he is a concentration camp Hashanah for the first time. The prayers survivor.” At that point I felt guilty, but at were appropriate and uneventful and at least I had my answer as to what must the time of the blowing of the shofar, I have been going on. The rabbi must have noticed an elderly gentleman gingerly been asking the shofar blower each year making his way up to the bimah. I thought: to consider relinquishing his role to please don’t tell me he’s going to blow the someone younger and stronger. The shofar. Sure enough, he ascended the top shofar blower must have resisted, and the step and picked up the shofar. What Rabbi must have felt that he could not happened next I suppose, constituted the take the job away from someone who had minimum subsistence level for shofar survived the camps. How could I blame blowing. Through a series of effort-filled the Rabbi? huffs and puffs, he managed to barely make it through the entire series of blasts. I wasn’t happy about the situation, but at I went home feeling cheated. least now I understood it. That assumption of mine lasted until fifteen years later The situation only got worse when later on when I attended a Rosh Hashanah lecture I ran into two friends who had prayed at delivered by a Rabbi. He pointed out that different shuls. They were discussing how people have a common misconception, each of their respective shofar blowers namely that God judges the shofar had belted out mammoth blasts. I had to blowing based on how loud and powerful it listen to their conversation while is. remembering the petite toots of the shofar blower in my shul. I thought to myself- He doesn’t? How else could he judge? And I even had support Fast forward a year and I found myself for that thesis because our Rabbis tells us back in the same shul. When it came time that the shofar blasts are supposed to for the shofar I looked up, and sure awaken us from our spiritual slumber. enough the same gentleman was making How could a modest toot like I had heard his way towards the bimah, with even from the elderly man compete with a greater difficulty than in the past year. As BOOM? The rabbi explained that in fact

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God judges the shofar blasts based on the outside of Shul each year on Rosh personal merits of the person blowing the Hashanah - and no matter where we are shofar. That person is representing the on site everyone stops and listens to the congregation. God wants to know what shofar blasts. Each year I see mothers mitzvot and sterling character traits make bringing their young children to shul for up that person, the aggregate of which the first time just so that they can mix with his essence as he blows. That’s experience the sound of the Shofar. They what matters to God when he judges a hush them quiet, point to the shofar shofar blast. blower as they listen to the piercing sounds that have always given me At that moment, I remembered the modest goosebumps. However, this year the shuls shofar “blasts” that I had heard so many will be silent, no huge crowds and no years before. Those shofar blasts that I piercing sounds of the shofar. These holy thought had barely fulfilled my halachic places within our midst will remain silent obligation had in fact been the most and shut. powerful and important ones that I had ever heard. They were blown by someone So recently my husband bought a shofar. who had endured the worst inhumanity in He had never owned one before and even history, yet never did his faith falter. Never though he is a chazan, he is not a shofar did he feel that God had abandoned him blower. But he will be this year! He is even in moments so dark that it is difficult doing an online course so that he can for us to imagine them. learn the skills and he will do the best he can. We have decided that if we can’t be The conversation that I had envisaged in shul for this important event, we will between the rabbi and the elderly man have to make it happen in our own home! must have been the exact opposite of We will have to find the inner strength to what I had guessed. This old man was pray as if we were in Shul and when, probably begging the Rabbi to find a seated in my lounge room, I close my replacement year after year. Instead the eyes and listen to the shofar blows I will rabbi must have been telling him: “As long think of my great grandparents who were as you can walk up the stairs to the bimah amongst those who perished in and raise the shofar to your lips, you are Auschwitz, I will remember that survivor going to blow the shofar in our Shul. You who struggled to blow his shofar in the are going to show God and each of us that American Shul, and I will appreciate the our enemies can take our bodies, but they health of my family and all that I have. I can never take our faith. You’re going to will especially think of those Jews who take that merit and you’re going to blow it won’t merit to hear the shofar at all this into and through the shofar, and by doing year. But most of all, when the Tekiah so you will lift up the entire congregation Gedolah - the final blast sounds, I will pray straight to the gates of Heaven.” that by next year we will have overcome this difficult situation and we'll be able to celebrate Rosh Hashanah the way we Eve’s comments: always have - with the hundreds of people of shul, with the many children attending And then I thought: this year there will be services, with the resounding blasts of the no Shul- there will be no public shofar shofar and a renewed feeling of Achdut- blowing. We won’t have that sense of unity amongst our people. community that is felt so strongly when hundreds of us congregate inside and Yes, the shofar is a big deal!

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Joel Chester works in the Student Development and Informal Team at Mount Scopus

What Happens When Two Worlds Collide? Psalm 27

Below is an excerpt from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks followed by Joel’s thoughts.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks that the chazzan on Atzeret began saying LeDavid Hashem Ori From the start of Elul through Rosh Veyishi. The warden said, “Sha!” The Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and into , chazzan kept going. The warden said, the custom is to say Psalm 27 LeDavid “You don't say LeDavid Hashem Ori Hashem Ori Veyishi, a psalm of David: Veyishi on .” The chazzan “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” said, “You do.” The warden said, “You And the traditional explanation that's given don't!” The chazzan said, “But I'm the is that there is a sort of coded reference to chazzan.” And the warden then said, “But Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot I'm the warden. You're fired.” And he in the psalm itself. The rabbi said in sacked him on the spot. Vayikrah Rabbah, “The Lord is my light on Rosh Hashanah, my salvation on Yom When Yom Tov was over, the chazzan Kippur,” and “ki yitzpeneini besukko”: “He took his case to an English civil court on will shelter me or hide me in His sukkah” grounds of unfair dismissal. The case refers to Sukkot. came before a non-Jewish judge, obviously. And he had to rule whether the However, there was a difference of chazzan had been dismissed with cause customs. Some people did not say it or without cause, which in turn depended during Sukkot. Some people only said it on the question, “Do you or don't you say up to and including Yom Kippur. And there LeDavid Hashem Ori Veyishi on Shemini is, in particular, a disagreement as to Atzeret?” whether you say or you don't say it on Shemini Atzeret. Do you stop on Hoshana How was the judge supposed to know? Rabbah or do you say it on Shemini How is he supposed to rule on something Atzeret and stop then? that is in fact an argument in Jewish law? The judge did something absolutely This led to an extraordinary case, one of brilliant. He had the psalm read out, in full, the most remarkable in Anglo-Jewish in English, in court. And then he turned to history, decades ago before I was born. It the litigants and said, “That psalm is so happened in one synagogue in London beautiful that I think it should be said

8 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 every day.” The chazzan got his job back, accordingly in representing the synagogue and peace and order was restored. It's a and skipped over it on this occasion. lovely story. And of course, if you read the psalm in its entirety, you'll see exactly why What is perhaps more important than a it should be said every day. Because no technical interpretation of whether the other psalm breathes so beautifully the warden or chazzan was ‘right’ in these quiet confidence of faith. circumstances is an assessment of how one best responds to diversity. Exposing And that perhaps is why we say it at these oneself to differing opinions and avoiding times of judgement. Listen to how it confirmation bias are crucial steps begins. “The Lord is my light and my towards developing a well-rounded, salvation, whom then shall I fear? The nuanced character and, in turn, allows one Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom to build open, honest relationships with then shall I be afraid?” And it ends with others. While acknowledgement of these words: “Hope in the Lord be strong, tradition is important, I view the pursuit of and of good courage in hope in the Lord.” empathy, tolerance and acceptance in And that I think is what it's all about. On creating a diverse environment as more these difficult days, in which our lives pass significant. Therefore, the warden’s in judgement on Rosh Hashanah and Yom overreaction to the chazzan’s ‘alternative Kippur, in which we leave the security of opinion’ does not seem to align with this our homes and sit exposed to the approach and, in my opinion, is an elements on Sukkot, Psalm 27 perfectly example of a failed response in light of the expresses our faith that God is sheltering collision of two worlds. us from harm and that nothing can make us afraid. The second instance of an overlap of multiple worlds is reflected through the chazzan’s decision to take his case to an What happens when two worlds English court on grounds of unfair collide? dismissal. A question centred around Jewish law was to be ruled upon by a non- Joel’s Thoughts Jewish judge. This, to me, is a microcosmic example of the tension Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ above passage associated with a Modern Orthodox highlighted this question for me in multiple existence. ways. To what degree do we emphasise our First, Rabbi Sacks’ recounting of a ‘Modern’ tendencies over our ‘Orthodox’ disagreement at a London shule regarding beliefs? To what extent are we willing to when we do and don’t say LeDavid compromise our Western values for the Hashem Ori Veyishi illustrates how a sake of our expression of Judaism? How difference in opinion can lead to hostility can we truly live a Modern Orthodox life and conflict. The warden’s decision to ‘fire’ without the two worlds encroaching upon the chazzan after he insisted on saying one another? Psalm 27 on Shemini Atzeret appears disproportionate, especially considering The judge’s ability to apply his own the varying customs surrounding the ‘Modern’ lens to an ‘Orthodox’ issue is recitation of the prayer. However, one perhaps a lesson for us all. While there could alternatively argue that assuming may be ongoing tensions between the the shule’s accepted practice was to two, we should constantly be trying to refrain from saying LeDavid on Shemini base our behaviour around the Atzeret, the chazzan should have acted development of modern society, whilst simultaneously being guided by our core

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Jewish teachings and principles in an within our day-to-day lives and throughout attempt to mould the two worlds into one. the Yomim Noraim, we should also recognise that He “will shelter” us as we The final contrast I want to address is move to new and unfamiliar territories, found within LeDavid itself. The specifically when we inhabit our Sukkot. juxtapositions of “light and…salvation” with “fear”, as well as “stronghold” with No matter which environment we find “afraid”, encourages us to have ourselves in, Judaism remains a constant. confidence in God within all contexts. So even though these chaggim may be Even when our worlds of ‘light’ and ‘fear’ spent and expressed a little differently, we collide, we should try to remain positive should appreciate the fact that we will and work towards minimising that ‘fear’ always have Judaism at the centre of our and maintaining the ‘light’. world.

However, I believe this message also Chag Sameach! manifests in another way. Just as we should seek to become closer to God

Artwork by Leila Averbukh, Year 8

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Matti Borowski is the Deputy Principal, Director of Jewish Studies and Ivrit at Mount Scopus

Teshuva

Anyone who watched last year’s AFL the word. When an arrow is shot at a Grand Final could not help but be moved target and misses – that is called by the incredible journey of Marlion ‘lehachti’. So, the better translation of chet Pickett. is ‘missing our target’. We are not ‘sinners’ in a shameful sense – we have let Having grown up in commission housing ourselves and others down and must work and served stints in jail, he had been to rectify that. playing in relative obscurity with South Fremantle. As written about him in The Teshuva thus offers us the opportunity to Age – “For the past three seasons, he has return, to come back, to reorient ourselves been the club’s best player. Yet for all his and resume our intended and truest path. ability, AFL clubs could not see past his We do not need to become someone else past”. entirely. As Rabbi Reuben Brand explains: “As we do teshuva we do not reject our Eventually thrown a life-line to play in the past - we seek to develop more than we Richmond VFL team where he was best seek to change. Change, or “flipping out,” on ground in their premiership, he was means becoming something or someone sensationally selected to play his first AFL else. Development means taking myself to game the following week in the Grand another level, closer to Hashem and Final. He performed incredibly and was closer to my potential. This is why able to achieve the unbelievable feat of Judaism’s term for repentance is teshuva, One Game - One Flag. which literally means a return”. In a story about him, his family reflected "We thought that, because of his This idea is further enhanced by Rabbi baggage, it might be something no AFL Jonathan Sacks’ words on teshuva: club wanted to take a chance with. But we “We don’t need to it right all the time. were all confident that if he got that That’s the point. If God thought we chance, he would go alright." needed to get it right all the time He would never have created human beings in the We all sometimes go astray. We make first place. The stories of the Torah are mistakes and pay the price. But we must about failure after failure. Which is why not be bogged down by the psychological God built teshuvah into the system... It’s baggage that we are unworthy or reminding ourselves where we are unredeemable. The Hebrew word for sin is supposed to be going, checking whether ‘chet’ – but sin does not quite do justice to we are actually going in the right direction,

11 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 and if not, making the appropriate Becoming the best version of ourselves is adjustments. the challenge of Teshuva. Accepting ourselves for who we are while striving to If we listen with the inner ear to the voice develop and refine our character is what of faith, we hear God saying, “I never these Days of Awe are all about. We are asked you not to make mistakes. I only given a chance on our spiritual Grand asked you to acknowledge they are Final day to see past our past and wholly mistakes. I am here to lift you when you actualise ourselves. Let us use the gift fall. I am here to forgive you when you fail. that is these to reflect, I am here to tell you I believe in you. You develop and return. can do great things. Just believe in my belief in you.”

Artwork by Nadav Simovitz, Year 11

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Rabbi Shamir Caplan is the Mount Scopus Chaplain

Seeking the Sun

"The currents of particular and general In this analogy, I believe Kook wants penitence rush along. They are like the us to appreciate the power of repentance - streams of flame on the surface of the that it has an energy, that we can tap in to. sun, which in an uncasing struggle break Something akin to the idea that when we out and ascend, and endow life to do good, we feel energized to do more countless worlds and numberless good. creatures. One is powerless to absorb the multitude of varying colors that emanate Additionally, repentance is life-sustaining - from this great sun that shines on all the it allows us to live in that the ability to go worlds, the sun of penitence." beyond our mistakes enables us to (, Lights of continue living. It gives us hope in the Penitence, in Classics of Western future, despite our mistakes. It inspires us Spirituality) to persist, and to strive for better.

Rav Kook is a radiant figure in Jewish Finally, it has many colours – many thought, a person whose creative different manifestations, and each of us expression matched his deep intellectual has to decide which particular dimension insight. Rav Kook deeply connected with of self-improvement is right for us, at any the concept of penitence, or repentance, given time. and considered it central to Judaism. I hope we can all remember these ideas, In this passage, he compares repentance and bask in the warm glow of repentance. to the sun, in several ways: a) It is powerful Shanah Tova. b) it gives us life and insight c) it has many colours in it and goes everywhere

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Amanda Castelan-Starr is the Judaic Studies Curriculum Director at Mount Scopus

Rosh Hashanah This Year

This year we find ourselves celebrating explained as a returning home, how apt in our cherished chagim in unprecedented these times. circumstances. At home, without shule, without our usual gatherings with loved Elie Wiesel, z”l, wrote once about his ones. It is a challenge to even imagine. understanding of Rosh Hashana in What will this Rosh Hashana be like? connection to what it means to be Jewish: What can we do to make it meaningful? What can we do to make it real? How can I remember: as a child, on the other side I make it real? of oceans and mountains, the Jew in me would anticipate Rosh Ha-Shanah with Technology and Zoom have led us into fear and trembling. He still does. new worlds, connecting globally like never before, perhaps discovering new ways to On that Day of Awe, I believed then, connect and live with a new focus on our nations and individuals, Jewish and non- inner worlds. When we strip back our lives Jewish, are being judged by their common from all of our usual routines, what’s left? creator. What’s most important for us to cherish as individuals and as a collective? That is still my belief.

Once upon a time our Rabbis helped us deal with the destruction of the Beit In spite of all that happened? Because of Hamikdash by compiling our siddurim and all that happened? machzorim enabling us to take our spiritual connection from sacrifice to I still believe that to be Jewish today prayer. They helped us restore and means what it meant yesterday and a recover our identity as Jews in a new age, thousand years ago. It means for the Jew to be able to be Jewish anywhere, even in me to seek fulfilment both as a Jew and without a Beit Hamikdash. Now we find as a human being. For a Jew, Judaism ourselves at another turning point of a and humanity must go together. To be different kind, without shule, forcing us to Jewish today is to recognize that every turn inwards again, into our homes. This person is created in the image of God and Rosh Hashana, we find ourselves truly that our purpose in living is to be a and literally bound to our homes. How can reminder of God. I make this Rosh Hashana kadosh in this new context? Teshuva is sometimes

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Naturally, I claim total kinship with my other countries or in our own cities and people and its destiny. Judaism integrates towns. The mission of the Jewish people particularist aspirations with universal has never been to make the world more values, fervor with rigor, legend with law. Jewish, but to make it more human. Being Jewish to me is to reject all fanaticism anywhere. Questions to reflect on this Rosh To be Jewish is, above all, to safeguard Hashana: memory and open its gates to the celebration of life as well as to the 1. What do you think it means to be a suffering, to the song of ecstasy as well as Jew? to the tears of distress that are our legacy 2. What does Rosh Hashana mean to as Jews. It is to rejoice in the renaissance you? of Jewish sovereignty in Israel and the re- 3. What are the challenges facing us awakening of Jewish life in the former today as a community? Soviet Union. It is to identify with the plight 4. How can I help face these of Jews living under oppressive regimes challenges with strength and and with the challenges facing our clarity? communities in free societies. 5. How can I make this Rosh Hashana more meaningful for myself, my family and my A Jew must be sensitive to the pain of all human beings. A Jew cannot remain community? indifferent to human suffering, whether in

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Nadav Simovitz is a Year 12 student at Mount Scopus

A Deeper Understanding of Elul and Tishrei

Rosh Hashanah is in the seventh month. you shall have” numerically Second, that Rosh Hashanah is a ”-” יהי ה֣ כל ם֔ “ .Judgment day, and it shall for the entire human race, not only Jews - םוי ןידה equals be for us on Rosh Hashanah, as it states However, blowing the Shofar and Vayikrah 23:24), sanctifying the day is a biblical) ”יה֤יה לכ ֙ם שב ֔תון“ .commandment for the Jews to observe אוהו numerically corresponding to read And it is Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah being a festival of - שאר הנשה א But does the creator (God) really sit in a mankind merely means to say that it is the heavenly court, judging our deeds? Not day of which all of God’s work had been exactly. finished in Adam and Chava’s שארב ֖ י ת “ perspective; therefore it states In the beginning created”, which“ -” רב א֣ This time of year is a time of opportunity to [and] - שאר הנשה נ ארב battle all our negative forces created from numerically equals our wrongful acts, careless speech and Rosh Hashanah was created. Which of intolerant behavior. But nevertheless, God course is on the 1st of Tishrei; as spelt out אב ׳ ) when rearranged שארב ֖ י ת still has some judging to do and yet we in the word .( שת ר י say the prayer, ‘ Vekiyemanu Vehigianu-thank God that we are alive, sustained us and brought us to We have entered the holy month of Elul, this great time’. which according to the Hebrew is the six month in sequence from Nissan; But who likes to be judged? Where is the making Rosh Hashanah fall on the first simcha (happiness) coming from? So, day of the seventh month, Tishrei. As the what are we celebrating; what is so Torah writes, “And in the seventh special? We are celebrating the birth of month...a day of horn blowing” (Bamidbar Adam and Chavah, in English Adam and 29:1) you shall have. Interestingly, we Eve; which means to say the don't bless the month of Tishrei as it is commemoration of the birth of mankind. considered already blessed like a chag; ,festival numerically equals 11- גח - The year 5781 counts from Adam and for Chava’s brith, because who else was and there are eleven chagim in the month there to count before them? This tells us of Tishrei: 2R”H+1Y”K+7Succot+1Shmini two things. First, that the lengths of the Atzeret. days of creation were not dictated by 24 hour cycles but rather a much more But hold on a minute, isn't Rosh complex and time consuming process, as Hashanah the beginning of the ?

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Then how come it's on the first of the between each other. We achieve such seventh month and not the first? It states enlightenment by Teshuvah- Repentance, in Seder Rosh Hashanah of the Tefilah-Pray and -Charity. The that there are in fact four new years. Just repentance of an individual should be one another way for Jews to make their lives’ with his fellow friends and family, as well more complicated. The first being the year as personal reflection. Yom Kippur is that festivals (chagim) are calculated by, dedicated to repentance between us and starting from Nissan. The second being God and hence we fast on that day. the year when one’s cattles’ newborns Praying is an act of hope and seeking were recorded, starting from the first of what one truly wants to achieve in their Elul; some sages (Chazal) hold the life, as well as a constant reminder of the opinion that it should start a month later. unconditional love and support God has The third being the year of the sabbatical for us. Charity is an act of actually doing rest from using the land as the Torah something and giving up something physically to help their fellow friends. In נש ֥ ת תבש ֖ ו ן י ה ֥ י ה “ commands us to have a a year of rest shall be for the land” order to become rich, you must give to the“ -”:ל ֽארץ (Vayikrah 25:5); starting from the first of poor; as the Hebrew word for poor (Ani) Tishrei. And the fourth year being the new subtracted from rich (Ashir) equals year for trees and plants, starting from Tu numerically to the word for give (Ten). BeShvat, the 15th of Shvat. So as we see, Remarkably, fasting (Tzom) and using each ‘New’ year is calculated according to your voice to pray (Kol) and helping the its purpose and henceforth it makes sense less fortunate with money (Mamon) all that the Torah should state “a day of horn share the same numerical value as well, blowing” namely, Rosh Hashanah, should which reveals to us that all three have the fall on the first of the seventh month same necessity to be performed and are (Tishrei). And we say to each other, equal to the same degree of Shanah Tovah Umetukah- Have a sweet consequences that it will benefit for you. new year, meaning have a good new start in life; another attempt at your dreams, so Elul and Rosh Hashanah are special and to say. For this reason, the month of Elul unique times that we have in Judaism is dedicated as a month of forgiveness, where we press the reset button in our reflection and love between each other lives. We don't have to agree with each and God, so as to make peace with one other, on the contrary that's what makes another and personally grow in our us unique, but we have to be there for attributes. each other. May you have a Shanah of happiness, Nachat, success, good health The Shulchan Aruch (code of Jewish law) and of good heart. states “one asked to forgive should not be . הנש ט ו הב ו ותמ הק cruel and withhold forgiveness”, revealing to us the importance of common love

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Leah Jones works in the Student Development and Informal Jewish Education Team at Mount Scopus

The true meaning behind ’ תוּ בוּשְׁ ָ ה תוּ פְ ִ ָ לּ ה צוּ ְ קָ ד ָ ה ןיִריִבֲﬠַמ תֶא ַﬠוֹֽר הָרֵזְגַּה ‘

This article was adapted from a shiur given by Dr Elliott Melamet

The line U’Teshuva U’Tefilla U’Tzedakkah words, we should translate this phrase as Ma’avirin Et Roa HaGezeira is almost the Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedakkah will pass tagline of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. this evil decree, or even, these three acts We often discuss the ideas of Teshuva, will help the evil decree pass. Tefilla and Tzedakka in this time and contemplate the ways we can make these This is a very profound difference: from important aspects a bigger part of our change the decree to let the evil decree lives. It is a repeated phrase throughout pass. In this way we are not hoping that the tefilla on Rosh Hashana and Yom Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedakkah will Kippur, and often expressed with much cancel the bad decree that may transpire emphasis and emotion. We say this in the coming year. Rather, we are phrase after the paragraph Unetaneh affirming that these three acts will change Tokef and the very confronting questions the way we see and respond to that we ask of: who will live, and who will die. decree. We cannot change the future and This phrase is supposedly the answer to what the decree will be, but we can those questions; that these three aspects change the way we respond to that can avert any bad decree against us. But decree. what does this line really mean? These three acts Teshuva, Tefilla and We often translate U’Teshuva U’Tefilla Tzedakkah hold great importance within U’Tzedakkah Ma’avirin Et Roa HaGezeira Judaism. Both tefilla and tzedakkah are into English as: redemption, prayer and mitzvot that are encouraged to be a part of Charity will annul, change or avertl the our daily lives. So too, teshuva is a bad decree. Often the word ma’avirin is constant process undertaken by everyone translated as the act of annulling or to better ourselves. Each of these three cancelling; we are asking God to cancel actions offers unique skills and insight to the bad decree that may befall us. be able to deal with and overcome any However, this is a somewhat misleading difficulty presented to us in our lives. translation and does not fully appreciate Teshuva prompts us to become better the true meaning of the word. In Hebrew, people by considering our wrongdoings comes from and steadying ourselves to not make ,( ןיִריִבֲﬠַמ ) the word ma’avirin ,which means to pass. In other those same mistakes again. Therefore ִרבֲﬠ the root

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Teshuva helps us reflect and consider Through Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedakkah how to respond when something goes we develop profound skills of wrong. Tefilla is the consistent action of introspection, reflection, empathy and self- introspection and reflection: we assess correction. These important values aid us ourselves and our lives and express our in gaining clarity and perspective in our gratitude, faith and desires. Tzedakkah lives, helping us overcome difficulties that encourages us to look further than may present in the coming year. ourselves; to give parts of ourselves to others. It inculcates sympathy, kindness I hope we can all use the lessons of to תוּ בוּשְׁ ָ ה תוּ פְ ִ ָ לּ ה צוּ ְ קָ ד ָ ה ןיִריִבֲﬠַמ תֶא ַﬠוֹֽר הָרֵזְגַּה .and compassion Elul, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur ask overcome any difficulty in our lives and us to work on these three traits not as a become better people. way to change God’s decree, but to change our attitudes to adversity and Shana Tova challenge.

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Rami Maserow graduated from Mount Scopus in 2014

Day 1: Bezos or Bereishit?

It has always frustrated me as to why we “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. don’t read Berieshit (Genesis) on Rosh Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Hashana. If Rosh Hashana is meant to be Followed by death. And that is why it is the marking of a new cycle, of a new always Day 1.” calendar year, it seems so sensible, so logical to begin with Bereishit. Rather we In Bereishit we learn about the creation of wait anxiously during the 10 penitential the world, a biblical Day 1. On Rosh days before Yom Kippur, we sit shivering Hashana we begin a new chapter and a in Sukkot pondering whether our meals new year, a personal Day 1. will be eaten indoors, and only then are we blessed with the festive joys of This year we will have to wait almost an and the reading of entire month between starting our year Bereishit. Why the wait? I understand the and waiting for the new, refreshing rerun logistics, but I want to understand the of the Torah. Here is a Kabbalistic logic. analysis of the days between Rosh Hashana and Simchat Torah: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and 1. From Rosh Hashana to Yom one of the wealthiest people on the planet Kippur we discover what we must attributes some of his success to his correct mantra and obsession with remaining at 2. Yom Kippur is when we ask for the Day 1. The Day 1 attitude gravitates strength to help us correct around humility and forces one away from 3. On Sukkot we receive the power to complacency. Amazon headquarters are make the correction labelled Day 1, ensuring that all staff 4. On Simchat Tora we gladly members are reminded, daily, of the complete the reuniting of Adam’s significance of this mentality. In a 2016 pieces, the correction. letter to shareholders, Bezos elaborated on his Day 1 philosophy: Rosh Hashana is a time for reflection and introspection. We are mandated to pause “Staying in Day 1 requires you to our lives and contemplate our most recent experiment patiently, accept failures, plant lap around the sun. To do this, we are seeds, protect saplings, and double down even commanded to listen, to hear the when you see customer delight.” sound of the Shofar, a tool used to gauge attention and force us to focus.

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The Kabbalistic rollercoaster from Rosh the journey does not end when chag dies Hashana to Simchat Torah perfectly out, rather it only begins as we anticipate underscores Bezos’ mantra. It describes Yom Kippur, and then as we sit in our the mindset we have on Rosh Hashana to sukkot and later when we dance on not be some ephemeral way of thinking, Simchat Torah. no singular exercise of reflection, no quick dip or mindfulness exercise but rather a Hopefully, in the new year, when Parshat true adoption of a frame of mind. Bereishit comes around, we will be reminded of our exploration of our Day 1 We are reminded through the sounds of attitude. Making us strive to complete our the Shofar to enter into a mind frame goals, missions and achievements set out where we ‘experiment patiently [with on Rosh Hashana and not fail to the ourselves], accept [our] failures, plant complacency and atrophy that Day 2 seeds [for our upcoming year]’. However, brings.

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Avivit Gafni is a Hebrew Coordinator and Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher in the primary school

Aseret Yemei Teshuva and Personal Development

When I was a young girl, I was often often don't pay attention to how we fall confused with the concept of Aseret into the same patterns again and again. Yemei Teshuva. The literal meaning in Secondly, we need tools. What served us Hebrew of the word Teshuva is answer. in the past doesn’t necessarily serves us So, if we have 10 days of answers, what now. We need new tools to manage the was the question? everchanging demands in our lives. Every year we must ask ourselves new Only when I grew up, I realised that the questions to see where we are at and to word Teshuva isn’t meant literally. It expand our tool kit. This way we can means to come back or return - La'shuv. strive to return to who we can potentially That raised other questions: come back to be - a better version of ourselves. where or to what? Where did we go and what do we need in Here are 10 questions that may give you order to come back? some direction - one question for each day: We need to ask questions, so that the answers will allow us to make Teshuva. 1. What is your superpower? What do you It doesn't have to be Teshuva in the feel you good at? What are you proud of religious sense. It can also be Teshuva in the most in your life? What do you hear the sense of returning to our true selves in often from people that you’re doing well? an authentic, spiritual and emotional way. 2. When was the last time you showed Every year we have this amazing vulnerability? To who? opportunity of 10 ‘forced’ days to reflect on the passing year and make new year 3. If you could do something without fear resolutions. We think about what kind of a of failing, what would it be? person we want to be and even more important, how to narrow the gap between 4. What kind of emotions would you like to what we are now and what we want to be? show without the fear of rejection?

Teshuva is a super intense and focused 5. Who would you like to forgive? What action that aims at 2 goals: awareness for? What would you like to forget? and tools. 6. What is the biggest lie you tell yourself We need awareness as most of our about you? actions and behaviours are automatic. We

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7. What are 5 things in your life that you are truly grateful for?

8. What is your greatest regret in your life? Why? What would you do differently today?

9. What or who makes you feel good about yourself?

10. What is your paradigm about money, relationships, work ethics success? What paradigm would you like replace it with?

Artwork by Livia Alford

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Holly Feldman is a Year 12 student at Mount Scopus

Holding a Mirror to Ourselves

Reading is my favourite pastime, so while society, and entered on what men of the other freedoms have been temporarily world call “life,” — that labyrinth of evil, shelved over the last few months, my that scheme of mutual torture. To live, bookshelf has been my retreat; it is an according to this sense of the word, we escape from the torrent of speculation and must not only observe and learn, we must sensationalism. Especially during the also feel; we must not be mere spectators month of Elul, when we are encouraged to of action, we must act; we must not reflect, reading can hold a mirror to our describe, but be subjects of description… actions. I was excited when I discovered sickening doubt and false hope must have The Last Man- a dystopian novel written chequered our days… Who that knows by Mary Shelley. Although it was written what “life” is, would pine for this feverish almost 200 years ago, it is set in the species of existence? I have lived. I have twenty-first century and is a story of spent days and nights of festivity; I have humankind ravaged by a pandemic which joined in ambitious hopes…: now — shut rapidly sweeps across the world. It sounds the door on the world, and build high the familiar, doesn’t it? wall that is to separate me from the troubled scene enacted within its Shelley comes close to painting a precincts… Let us… seek peace… near psychological self-portrait through the the inland murmur of streams, and the narrator, Lionel Verney- an idealist who is gracious waving of trees, the beauteous porous to both the deepest pain of living vesture of earth, and sublime pageantry of and the most transcendent beauty of life. the skies. Let us leave “life,” that we may As the pandemic ravages the world and live. he must learn to live with the loss of family and freedom, Shelley’s protagonist must The protagonist concludes that life’s return home to seek safety “as the storm- meaning can be found, “not in the human driven bird does [to] the nest in which it world’s simulacra of living but in the may fold its wings in tranqui simple creaturely presence with nature’s llity.” When sitting at home, in the strange ongoing symphony of life” (Maria Popova). serenity, deprived of, yet liberated from When contemplating what constitutes a the habitual distractions of social meaningful life, even in a world existence, he finds himself reflecting the fragmented by the pandemic, Shelley true essence of life: reveres nature as a lifeline to sanity, and self-reflection as fundamental to our “How unwise had the wanderers been, spiritual growth. who had deserted [the nest’s] shelter, entangled themselves in the web of

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I believe that Shelley’s prophetic words be our school community, the wider are not only reminiscent of the ways this Jewish community, or the Australian year has given us a window of opportunity community, the eagerness to ensure that to bask in nature’s wonder, but also invite we transcend the physical barriers put up reflection on some of the lessons we can by this pandemic, to maintain and even draw from the year that has been, enhance our ‘togetherness’, has especially this unique and often illuminated just how strong we are. So challenging year, as we enter into Elul and many of us have developed our prepare to welcome in the new Jewish understanding of the importance of year. checking in on friends and family. The powerful flame of community spirit has One lesson is the importance of continued to burn brightly. dedicating time to the things we enjoy. Although it is difficult while coping with the This Elul, more than ever, reflection is a demands of school and work, the degree powerful tool we all possess, to hold a to which creativity and imagination can mirror to ourselves, in order to ensure that enrich our lives has been reinforced in the we can carry the lessons we cherish most last few months. into the year 5781.

And, perhaps the most significant lesson is the value of the community. Whether it

Artwork by Sophia Efron, Year 7

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Josh Feldman graduated from Mount Scopus in 2017

Elul - Personal Growth and Development

Berl Katznelson, one of the intellectual genuine reflection and critique of our past founders of Labor Zionism, stated that actions. It demands honest - and when he sees “a person walking among sometimes unsettling - questions and us who has answered all his questions answers about ourselves. To move and contradictions… I wonder whether he forward, we need to own up not only to is living on another planet”. The weeks our past mistakes, but to erase any leading up to the Yamim Noraim - fantasies that we may hold. Whilst the it’ll be“ - ” היהי רדסב “ beginning on Rosh Hashanah and classic Israeli phrase culminating with Yom Kippur - provide us alright” is comforting, it is the exact with the opportunity to ensure that we are opposite of the attitude required from us not on this planet that Katznelson during this period in the Jewish calendar. imagined. But what exactly is this planet, and how can we avoid it? The Jewish people too, are no different. Our capacity for change was at the heart Katznelson is describing someone who is of our survival and thriving during the so sure of themselves that their mind is millenia in exile. Following the destruction “silent about the truths it holds dear”. of the Second Beit HaMikdash in 70 CE, Someone who is so content with the path the future of the Jewish people was they are taking in life that they fail to grow unknown, with the religious leaders as a person. undertaking drastic action and change to ensure continuity. We can find myriad The month of Elul, which began on the examples throughout our history of of August 20 and concludes on persecution and displacement, with the September 18, is the precursor for the most recent example in the building of the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom State of Israel from scratch. Kippur. During this month and the Yamim Noraim, it is incumbent on us - both as Just as our ability to grow was vital to our individuals and as a community - to draw survival as a people, so too is it the secret a map for our future selves. It is not the to our individual success. Personal time for flimsy new year resolutions, rather stagnation may help us avoid it is the time for genuine consideration of uncomfortable issues in our lives, but in how we can grow and improve. the long run it will only prevent us from improving ourselves. This is rarely a comfortable process. Genuine personal development requires

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You, and no one else, will make the the spotlight is on us. G-d wants to see decisions to direct your life. Yes G-d may that we genuinely want to break our bad have a plan for us, but it’s up to you to traits. decide how to approach those challenges. It’s up to you to acknowledge where So let’s all take on the challenge. Ask change is needed, no matter how yourself the hard questions. Answer them unsettling it is. honestly. Confront your flaws so that you can work towards improving yourself and The Vilna Gaon - an 18th century Rabbi those around you. and one of the most influential rabbinic figures in recent history - said that “the prime purpose of [our] life is to constantly strive to break [our] bad traits. Otherwise, what is life for?” Over the next few weeks,

Artwork by Mark Hofman, Year 7

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Leonie Balbin is the Head of Year 10 and a maths teacher at Mount Scopus.

‘Finding Happiness’ by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Below is an annotated excerpt from ‘Letters to the Next Generation - Reflections on Jewish Life’ by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. It features a letter written to the author’s fictional children, Sara and David. The annotations in bold are Leonie’s words.

Part 1: Letter 6 there is one thing not even the greatest Finding Happiness Nobel prize-winning scientist knows: What will tomorrow bring? SARA, DAVID, not everything in the coming year will be under our control. It We live with uncertainty. That is the never is. human condition and always will be. [It’s OK to be vulnerable.. It is not a This is a lesson that we have definitely sign of weakness. It is a measure of learned this year. We have had no courage and growth.. There are many control over the pandemic but we have benefits to opening up. As a crab had control over how we reacted to the grows bigger, it’s shell becomes too lockdowns and how we reacted to the small for its body. All of a sudden the changes of our everyday lives. We crab discards its shell and is left have had much time to contemplate without protection. It knows to stay out and muse. Going into Rosh Hashanah of danger as the new shell grows to fit and Yom Kippur, we must take a step its new body. In order to develop, we back and think, how is this new year have to shed our skin and show who going to be different after the we really are in order to mature. Being experience we have had over the past 6 OK with failing will lead us to finding - 7 months. new solutions to old problems and to be creative. “On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on “Show up, be seen, answer the call to Yom Kippur it is sealed…” courage … cause you are worth it. The book is being written now but we You’re worth being brave.” Brene don’t get to read it in advance. Brown

Even in the twenty-first century, when But what matters will be under our human beings have decoded the genome control. and photographed the birth of galaxies,

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1. How will we act and react? sense of proportion about the rest. It’s 2. Will we behave honourably, better than shopping – and cheaper too. graciously, generously? 3. Will we help others? Will we make 2. Praise. Catch someone doing sacrifices for the sake of our something right and say so. Take a ideals? Will we live for something positive, proactive approach and catch bigger than the self? people out doing good things and tell 4. Will we honour, praise, respect, them how amazing they are. Most admire? people, most of the time, are 5. Will we give hospitality to the unappreciated. Being recognised, thanked lonely, comfort to the bereaved, and congratulated by someone else is one and support to those in need? of the most empowering things that can 6. Will we give our family time? happen to us. So don’t wait for someone 7. Will we give our soul the space to to do it for you: do it for someone else. breathe? You will make their day, and that will help 8. Will we love and thank God? Will make yours. leshabeach means, we enhance other people’s lives? “It’s our duty to praise”.

These are the questions we should ask ourselves on Yom Kippur. 3. Spend time with your family. Keep , so that there is at least one time For it is not what happens to us on which a week when you sit down to have a meal our happiness depends. It depends on together with no distractions – no how we respond to what happens to us. television, no phone, no email, just being together, talking together, celebrating one So in this, my last letter to you before Yom another’s company. Happy marriages and Kippur, let me share with you ten secrets families need dedicated time. Each I’ve learned from Judaism. They will bring month, take upon yourself to keep one you happiness whatever fate has in store extra mitzvah of Shabbat. Whether it’s for you in the coming year. lighting candles, not using your phone for 24 hours etc. See what a difference 1. Give thanks. Think about taking the it makes to your lives. two minutes of davening that we do every morning seriously. Modeh Ani - 4. Discover meaning. Take time, once in a Thank Hashem for waking up, for while, to ask the Yom Kippur questions, having food, for having all the material “Why am I here? What do I hope to things you need, for all the wonderful achieve? How best can I use my gifts? opportunities you have. As well, thank What would I wish to be said about me him for the obstacles that he puts in when I am no longer here?” Finding your way. He does that to extend your meaning is essential to a fulfilled life – and growth and for you to face who you how will you find it if you never look? If really are and rise to the challenge. you don’t know where you want to be, you Once a day, at the beginning of the will never get there however fast you run. morning prayers, thank God for all He has given you. This alone will bring you 5. Live your values. Most of us believe in halfway to happiness. We already have high ideals, but we act on them only most of the ingredients of a happy life. It’s sporadically. The best thing to do is to just that we tend to take these for granted establish habits that get us to enact those and concentrate instead on our unfulfilled ideals daily. That is what mitzvot are: desires. Giving thanks in prayer focuses ideals in action, constantly rehearsed. attention on the good and helps us keep a

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6. Forgive. This is the emotional equivalent of losing excess weight. Life is 10. Transform suffering. When bad things too short to bear a grudge or seek happen to you, use them to sensitise you revenge. Forgiving someone is good for to the pain of others. The people who them but even better for you. The bad has survived tragedy and became stronger as happened. It won’t be made better by your a result did not ask, “Who did this to me?” dwelling on it. Let it go. Move on. If you They asked, “What does this allow me to have not had a good relationship with do that I could not have done before?” someone, either at school or outside of They didn’t curse the darkness; instead the school environment, make an they lit a candle. They refused to become exerted effort to “get over IT”, whatever victims of circumstance. They became, IT is and say you know what, the instead, agents of hope. Look up and energy to hate or be upset with read about Yosef Mendelevitch. someone is not worth it. Say sorry and “Unbroken Spirit”. Yosef Mendelevitch move on. That inner turmoil can ruin (or Mendelovitch), born 1947 in Riga, the experiences you have and it’s not was a refusenik from the former Soviet worth the angst that one lives with as a Union, also known as a "Prisoner of result. Zion" and now a politically unaffiliated rabbi living in who gained 7. Keep growing. Don’t stand still, fame for his adherence to Judaism and especially in the life of the spirit. The public attempts to emigrate to Israel at Jewish way to change the world is to start a time when it was against the law in with yourself. Anne Frank once wrote: the USSR. He was imprisoned in “How wonderful it is that nobody needs to Russia for 11 years. wait a single moment before starting to improve the world”. Life’s too full of blessings to waste time and attention on artificial substitutes. 8. Learn to listen. Often in conversation we spend half our time thinking of what we Live, give, forgive, celebrate and praise: want to say next instead of paying these are still the best ways of making a attention to what the other person is blessing over life, thereby turning life into saying. Listening is one of the greatest a blessing. gifts we can give to someone else. It means that we are open to them, that we Sara, David, our beloved children: you will take them seriously, that we accept never know how many blessings you have graciously their gift of words. The keyword given your mother and me. The best we in Judaism is Shema, which simply means can give you is to pray that God will help “Listen”. you to be a blessing to others.

9. Create moments of silence in the soul. Be the best you can, be an ambassador Liberate yourself, if only five minutes daily, for Judaism and the Jewish people, use from the tyranny of technology, the mobile each day to do something demanding, phone, the laptop and all the other and never be afraid to learn and grow. electronic intruders. Remember that God We love you. May God write you and your is in every breath we breathe. Inhale the children in the . heady air of existence, and feel the joy of being. Shana Tova

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Sammy Brygel graduated from Mount Scopus in 2014 and is now a Jewish Studies teacher at Mount Scopus

Today is Your Birthday!

The month of Elul presents the perfect guarantee, even in the times of the opportunity to begin our meditations on Temple). the various tefillot of Rosh Hashanah. I 2. No one should experience poverty. would like to share the following idea Everyone should have their own adapted from a shiur delivered by Rabbi livelihood. YY Jacobson. 3. Eretz Yisrael should experience rain. Remember, winter is coming In the times of the Beit Hamikdash soon after Yom Kippur and rainfall (Temple) - the pinnacle of Yom Kippur and was essential for food and water. indeed the entire year was the moment 4. No woman should have a that the Gadol (High Priest) would miscarraige. enter the Holy of Holies. As he is departing the Holy of Holies and this literal All four aspects of this tefillah are awesome experience, wanting to make important. However, the first three prayers sure that his first words were appropriate, are all within a national context for the he quickly utters a four-part prayer. It is Jewish people. The fourth prayer - that no important to remember that the Kohen woman should have a miscarriage - is Gadol is asking Hashem for forgiveness different and less obvious than the others. on behalf of Bnei Yisrael. If Bnei Yisrael The Kohen Gadol doesn't ask for no one had sinned greatly that year, there was a to get sick, or pray for everyone to be chance that the Kohen Gadol would not healthy. Why does he specifically mention emerge alive so he wanted to make sure a miscarraige? his prayers were as brief as possible, lest people worry that something has I want to pause here and take you to a happened to him! tefillah that we say over and over on Rosh Hashanah during the Musaf section. The This was the four-part tefillah of the Kohen tefillah begins, “hayom harat olam”. When Gadol: you look at your machzor translation, hayom harat olam is 1. The leadership of Eretz Yisrael translated as “today is the Birthday of the should not leave the tribe of World.” Yehudah. This means that Bnei Yisrael should remain in However, when we are introduced to the government and continue ruling in word harat in the Tanach, we see that that Eretz Yisrael (not always a harat does not actually translate to

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“birthday.” Harat means pregnant. The in an age where we are capable of phrase “harat olam” is used by Jeremiah achieving anything. We live in an era where he is cursing the Jewish where there are far less societal people. He says that he wishes he was expectations than ever before. Largely, we never born - that his mother remained are not told what to do, nor are we limited eternally pregnant. (Jeremiah 20:17) Olam in our potential. We can do anything here does not mean “world”, but rather Our dreams really can be fulfilled. eternal. Therefore, we must ask, what is this verse, hayom harat olam really telling Therefore, when on Rosh Hashanah we us? say “hayom harat olam”, we are not simply saying today is the birthday of the world. Unfortunately, some people are We are saying that today is MY birthday in symbolically “pregnant” - pregnant with the world. Today is the day that my ideas that are going to change the world, potential will not remain symbolically pregnant with potential. It might be an idea pregnant. Today is the day I begin to fulfil for the latest business that is going to MY potential. Today is the day I begin MY make millions, the latest app. They are shlichut (mission). burning with desires, burning with potential. However, as a result of various My hope and tefillah for all of us this Rosh factors, they remain “eternally pregnant” - Hashanah is that we can all be “born” in their ideas and dreams fade. the fullest sense of the word. That we all continue to fulfil our potential in this world. While it may not feel this way at present, all of us are incredibly fortunate to be born

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Ashlea Gild works in the Student Development and Informal Jewish Education Team at Mount Scopus

Chana’s Prayer

הָנַּחְו איִה תֶרֶבַּדְמ הָּבִּל־לַﬠ קַר ָהיֶתָפְשׂ תוֹעָנּ הָּלוֹקְו אֹל ַﬠֵמָשִּׁי “Now Hannah was praying in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard.” 1 Samuel 1:13

The Haftorah read on the first day of Rosh was not drunk and that she has “been Hashanah is the story of Chana, found in pouring out my heart to the Lord” and has the first chapter of the book of Shmuel “only been speaking all this time out of my Aleph. We are first introduced to Chana’s great anguish and distress” (1 Samuel husband Elkanah, who led the pilgrimages 1:15-16). Convinced by her sincerity, Eli to Shiloh each year for the Shalosh blesses her that G-d may grant her a son, Regalim, the festivals of Pesach, certain such a prayer must have been and Sukkot, accompanied by his two accepted. Chana later gives birth to her wives, Chana and Peninah. Whilst son and names him Shmuel, meaning ‘G- Peninah had many children, Chana was d heard’. barren, though she desired deeply to have a child. The story recounts the humiliation When we stand in shule, silently reciting Chana suffers at the hands of Peninah, the to ourselves, around us a mocking her childlessness and fuelling her whole congregation of people following grief, frustration and yearning for the one suit or when we witness a person thing she wanted more than anything in engaged in deeply emotional prayer the world. standing alone at the Kotel, we may be moved by it, but we are not shocked. We One year, Chana makes the pilgrimage to do not assume them to be drunk. Chana is Shiloh and overwhelmed with emotion, the woman who introduced us to this form stands in the Sanctuary and pours out her of prayer, her agency in creating her own heart to G-d. Silently she prays, swaying style of tefilla groundbreaking for her time. slightly, crying as she beseeches G-d to Her grief-stricken prayer for a child set the give her a son. Eli, the High Priest, spots benchmark for true emotional expression, her, and seeing that “only her lips moved, for a type of tefilla that transcended social but her voice could not be heard” (1 norms to reach the heart of the matter. Samuel 1:13), confronts her. Rabbi Sacks explains that Chana Unaccustomed to silent prayer, he cultivated silence as a spiritual discipline. assumes her to be drunk, rebukes her for Rather than shouting out loud in anger entering the Sanctuary in such a state. and frustration, she retreated inwards to a Dignified, Chana responds that no, she

33 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 place of deep yearning and silent cries. power of silence, of the quieter voices that Despite her silence, her prayer was heard. may be less frequently heard. Often it is the loudest, most outspoken voices that From Chana’s prayer we glean many dominate a conversation or debate, halachot (laws) of tefilla. It is written that relegating the more softly spoken to the Chana was “praying with her heart” (1 periphery of the discussion. We learn from Samuel 1:13) and from this we learn to Chana that it is not the loudest shout nor pray with focus and , with the most forceful assertion that is intention and purpose. Further, when necessarily the most effective, that often Chana prayed her lips moved, but no there is great merit to the quieter voices. words came out and from this comes our Just as Eli discovered Chana’s deepest obligation to articulate each word of our emotions and desires when he questioned prayer, to pronounce each word clearly her silence, so too we can learn from the albeit quietly. Apart from the halachot more softly spoken voices when we give derived from Chana’s tefilla, perhaps there them space to be heard. is something to be learned here about the

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Cohava Rubenstein Sturgess works in the Student Development and Informal Jewish Education Team at Mount Scopus

What the Torah Readings tell us about Rosh Hashana?

The Torah readings on Rosh Hashana are life. A single life, said the sages, is like a somewhat of a peculiar choice. With the universe (Mishna, 37a). If you main themes of the day being that of seek to understand the meaning of judgement- ‘Yom Hadin’, inner reflection creation, think about the birth of a child. prompted by the sound of the shofar ‘Yom Faith in Judaism is not a form of science. Teruah’- and the beginning of the new It is a form of love. To understand the year “Hayom Harat Olam, it would make universe as God’s creation, we do not sense for the Torah readings to be in line need advanced degrees in cosmology... with these ideas. However, they are on (we need to understand) the selfless, face value, not connected to this idea at sacrificing, unconditional love of a parent all. On the first day, we read of the birth of for a child.” Yitzchak- to a childless Avraham and Sarah (and the Haftorah we read about But there is another mystery that this pair the birth of Shmuel to Channa) and on the of Torah readings addresses. Avraham is second day we read of Akeidat Yitzchak - promised to become the father of a great the . nation - “I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could Seeing as Torah readings are not chosen count the dust of the earth, then could at random, but rather reflect the character your offspring be counted.” (Genesis and nature of the day, there must be a 13:16) - yet remains childless for most of deeper meaning as to why these particular his life. He is finally blessed with a child sections were chosen. ( on the first day of Rosh Hashana) and then is asked to sacrifice Every year, on Rosh Hashana, when the this only child of his (Torah Reading on time comes for the Torah reading in shule, the second day of Rosh Hashana) - only there is a footnote in the Koren that at the last moment does HaShem spare I always read and that I find profoundly Yitzchak. powerful every time I read it. It addresses the question as to why it is we read these This is a question that frames Rosh sections in the first place.: Hashana and on this question, I was once again saved by the footnotes of my “Both of the readings are about the birth of siddur. a child to an infertile woman... This counterintuitive choice tells us much about “The enigma is almost overpowering. On the human vision at the heart of Jewish the one hand the promises, on the other, the years of childlessness- the child who

35 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 could not be born, then the trial most memorable siddur footnotes that I countermanded at the last moment. What think I have ever read. But I always find is the Torah telling us, not for that time but they answer those perennial questions for all time? The story of Jewish continuity that gnaw at my brain every year - why is a mystery. According to the Torah, had these Torah readings out of any? But nature not take its course, Sarah would more than that, they bring the message of not have had a child and there would be Rosh Hashana from the global to the no Jewish people... If Isaac had been born local. What better way to understand the but the word from heaven telling Abraham precarious nature of our existence than to stay his hand had been delayed, there thinking of the story of Yitzchak and his would have been no Jewish people. On almost non- existence. What better way to such slender avoidance of the probable understand G-d’s relationship with us, on does Jewish continuity rest. It is as if from this day of mighty judgement, than the beginning a message was woven into comparing it to a relationship between a our being. To move from one generation parent and a child. And what better way to to the next requires a series of miracles. think about the creation of the world than At every stage in the transition from to envision it as the birth of a child. On this Abraham and Isaac to Issac, continuity Rosh Hashana, we won’t be sitting in seemed impossible. Nature was against it. shule and listening to the beautiful, Predictions ruled otherwise. At times even comforting tune of the Torah trope as we Heaven itself seemed to decree it. We are read the footnotes in a rare break of Jews today by virtue of miracles. How concentration. However, while sitting at then do we survive?” home, reading these stories to ourselves, their significance rings true. These powerful and profound snippets of commentary from the Koren siddur are the

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Rabbi James Kennard is the Principal of Mount Scopus.

Yonah

Yonah is the man who pops up in the my own country? This is why I fled most surprising of places – in a beforehand to Tarshish; for I knew that Babylonian city, in the stomach of a fish You are a gracious God, and and on Yom Kippur afternoon. Just when compassionate, long-suffering, and our concentration is fading, and perhaps abundant in mercy”(4:2). the pangs of hunger seem overwhelming, our attention turns to the oft-discussed That’s the answer?! Yonah fled from G-d story of the prophet who tried to run away because he knew that G-d was gracious from his prophecy. and compassionate! What sort of reason is that? The commentators all ask the obvious question; why did Yonah flee? Why did he Perhaps more significant than what Yonah not simply do as he was told, as prophets said, was what he did not say. The phrase are supposed to, and deliver G-d’s “gracious and compassionate” has echoes message to the people of Nineveh, that of a similar phrase used by Moshe when their time was up unless they changed pleading with G-d not to destroy the their ways? Jewish people after their sin with the Golden Calf (and invoked repeatedly at And various answers are offered, the beginning and end of Yom Kippur): including the suggestion that he feared ridicule if his prophecy were to be ignored, “G-d, merciful and gracious, long- or, on the contrary, he feared that his own suffering, and abundant in goodness and people, the Jews, would be shown in a truth” ( 34:6). Yonah used almost bad light by the eagerness with which the exactly the same description as Moshe, Babylonians heeded his words and but stopped one word earlier. repented. Moshe praised G-d as an upholder of But oddly enough, no-one thought of “truth”. Yonah could not. asking Yonah himself? And it’s Yonah who gives the clearest answer. After he Repentance and forgiveness did not fit did, finally deliver the message to into Yonah’s worldview since he saw them Nineveh, where it was accepted with as a denial of justice. In what he believed alacrity, and G-d, impressed with their to be the “world of truth” – you do the change of behaviour, did not destroy the crime, you do the time. Punishment must city, Yonah then cried out in anger: automatically follow wrongdoing and if it “Is this not what I said, when I was still in does not, then “truth” has not been

37 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 upheld. Therefore he had a complaint their motivations, their priorities, and against G-d – that G-d, accepting the ultimately their deeds – and hence cease repentance of Nineveh, had failed to to be deserving of punishment. punish them as they deserved. G-d may have been compassionate, but when such This is the message of Yom Kippur compassion contradicted “truth” then it afternoon, and indeed of the whole had to be opposed, and escaped from. season of Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur. In the world of truth as seen by G- Moshe praised G-d as the G-d of d, one’s past deeds constitute one “truth”, compassion and of truth. He understood but one which can be eclipsed by another that crime followed by punishment does “truth” - genuine regret, and a sincere will not have to be the whole story of our to improve and change. existence. He knew that in G-d’s way of running the world people can change –

Artwork by Shaynie Lewin, Year 7

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Jaimee White is a Year 12 student at Mount Scopus

Avinu Malkeinu

I have a , one that I am sure is find ourselves in today, this year this a little bit more relatable than most prayer more pertinent than ever. confessions, but nevertheless, I have a “Malkeinu” (our King), on the other hand, confession. Sometimes in shule, can be less about judgment and more especially when I am hungry on Yom about total surrender of control to a power Kippur, I find myself zoning in and out of against which there is no recourse. the service. However, one particular Malkeinu is everything that profoundly moment always captures me, holds me, affects our lives over which we have no envelopes me, that moment is when the power, all the circumstances that we must congregation begins to sing “Avinu comply with, whether or not we like it. And Malkeinu”. No matter the age, no matter then this extraordinary combination of the frailty, no matter the devotion, the boundless compassion and absolute belief or connection, something about this power becomes the recipient of our tune has a firm grasp on the very soul of deepest yearnings: Please, let this be a each individual. The song isn’t just sung, it good year. Let our needs be taken care of. is felt. I don’t know why this song captures Let there be less suffering. Something I everyone in this collective moment of am sure every single person means more communal prayer and openness, but it than ever before. Let these things happen does. And I look forward to seeing in realms over which we have no control. mothers hold their daughters, fathers hold And let them happen even though we their sons, brothers and brothers, sisters have done so little to deserve them. and sisters clasp hands every year, and I always will. “Avinu Malkeinu'' is an extremely interesting prayer as the 43 requests are “Avinu” (our Father) is about much more boldly exclaimed, however, the last one, than forgiveness. It is shorthand for the “our Father our King..we have no perfect parent, the one we all wish we accomplishments; deal with us charitably could be. Avinu absolutely believes in us, and kindly”, is said differently. The Dubno loves us unconditionally, knows what we explains this through a story. A need and can always provide loving wealthy Merchant came every year to this guidance. Avinu is endlessly patient, certain wholesaler, every time he needed encouraging, and overflowing with merchandise, he would make it his compassion for our attempts to live the business to go there before anywhere best we can in an often confusing and else. He would walk proudly throughout difficult world, especially in the world we the warehouse commanding that “I want a

39 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 hundred skids of this and a gross of that is utterly destitute and in need of Chesed and a ton of some of those over there” and kindness. and the workers would scramble to fill his large orders and load his truck up with the How much time in the year do we spend goods he was purchasing. Season after asking for possessions? For holidays? For season, year after year, this would be his good grades? Is all of what we ask for ritual. However, this year was different, his fair? Do we sometimes ask for the sake of business had struggled, he went to this asking? This year I think we have really wholesaler only to realise he had no learnt that all that is important is means for his usual orders. So, he quietly happiness and health, for our friends, for approached the owner of the business our family, for not only our Jewish and humbly admitted, “I have no means community but our global human with which to pay now. Is it possible that community. Perhaps what is so special you can extend me a little credit?”. Every about “Avinu Malkenu”, and what really year we open our mouths with an almost speaks to me, is the climax of this brazen familiarity, like a child who calls on beautiful prayer - a song to our Father and their parents to take them to their friends, our King, merely asking for chesed, for for shoes, haircuts, holidays. However, kindness, for safety, health and joy. So I once the child realizes the extent to which ask of you all, in this coming year, what is goodness is being extended to them, their really important to you? What makes heart overflows with gratitude and humility “Avinu Malkeinu” so powerful for you? Is it and so he surrenders himself, weeping powerful to you? What are you going to quietly in an undertone as one absolutely wish for? dependent upon and completely subservient to a king, much like we find May we all be sealed for blessings of ourselves doing every year, silently compassion and joy and connection, in praying to Hashem with real feeling. He this New Year. begs for credit and admits privately that he

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Ashlee Glasser graduated from Mount Scopus in 2018

Thoughts on Unetaneh Tokef

Throughout the Yamim Noraim, the take place. However, this poem pinnacle of atonement in the Jewish emphasises that irrespective of what we Calendar, the capstone of the davening may think or plan, this time next year, throughout the days of Rosh Hashana to something will have happened, whether Yom Kippur is reached as we prepare for for good, for bad or neither. Each of us is the recital of the Unetaneh Tokef. This living a story whose plot we do not know. prayer is one of the most poignant, Our choices and actions are part of that emotional and powerful liturgies recounted plot, but we are not the omniscient authors during this period. Whilst we have of the future. completed most of the morning’s davening, the haunting tune of Unetaneh The poem ends with an inspiring final line, , הבושתו" הלפתו הקדצו יריבעמ ן תא ער "הרזגה Tokef sets the mood for the remainder of the day, and the stark words highlight the “But repentance, prayer and charity, fragility of life. It begins with a direct remove the evil of the decree!” the way in address to HaShem, who is imagined as which we can engage in becoming better sitting on His throne. The power that we people is through the core ideas of are called to experience on this holy day is repentance, prayer and charity. As human a power that somehow encompasses both beings, we are pure but in the course of It is evident that whilst living our lives we can wander from that . סח ד and , תמא HaShem may be the One who remembers point of purity; we can take paths that and transcribes, I am the author of my diminish ourselves or that cause us to repentance, is the , שת ו ב ה .actions and therefore I am held diminish others accountable for those actions. opportunity to return, to remember and reclaim that point of goodness within. The poem follows on to epitomise the is about connecting to something שת ו ב ה High Holidays, and in this particular line, If the message of the New Year can be deep within ourselves, then perhaps we prayer, as , פת ל ה can understand שארב" הנשה ובתכי ן , יבו םו םוצ רופיכ .extracted On Rosh Hashanah this is written, connecting to something beyond” ומתחי ן " מח contains the challenge to פת ל ה .and on the Fast of Yom Kippur this is ourselves sealed.” Throughout Unetaneh Tokef, we realise that we are not the beginning and are reminded that our future is unclear, the end, that there is power beyond every passing moment can be viewed as ourselves that calls to us, that waits for us, one which we will never get back. We can that is there to hold and comfort us. we are encouraged to look פת ל ה look towards the coming year but lack the Through certainty of the events, which are going to

41 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781 deeply within ourselves, to reflect on that no one is self-sufficient, that we are bound which holds ultimate meaning for us, and up in responsibility for one another. also to look beyond ourselves, to realise On Yom Kippur we ” יבו םו םוצ רופיכ ומיתחי ”ן .our place in the bigger scheme of things the ,עש תר י מ י ושת הב are sealed. During the tzedakah is most simply understood 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom , הקדצ as giving financial support to those who Kippur, we live with excruciating are in need, but in this context it has a awareness that our stories will include broader meaning. It speaks of how we suffering, without any promise that we will connect to others, of our responsibilities to be comforted. On Yom Kippur we give .ourselves over completely to this truth הקדצ those around us. The laws of mandate that I recognise that the bounty I And then we close the book. Even when enjoy is not entirely of my own making, we can’t change the course of our story, it and I am obligated to share what I have is the strength of our character that can with those who are in need. I do this out of make our stories rich and strong! Through we are able to write הקדצ and פת ל ה , שת ו ב ה the recognition that I too might one day be in need and will have to receive from the ourselves into a role worth reading. teaches us that הקדצ .abundance of others G’mar Chatimah Tova!

Artwork by Romy Walys, Year 11

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Abby Slonim is a Year 12 student at Mount Scopus

Looking Beyond the Despair of

Unetaneh Tokef

The powerful Unetaneh Tokef, recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur provide both the High Holy Days of Rosh a unique opportunity, not only self- Hashanah and Yom Kippur, epitomises reflection and introspection, but for the very essence of what these days improvement and new beginnings. symbolise. A period of time put aside for Becoming more aware of one’s reflection, introspection and repentance, it shortcomings and striving to make is essential to approach the High Holy incremental, realistic improvements Days and, in particular, the prayer of ensures that we are not defined by our Unetaneh Tokef, with a sense of intention, past actions but by who we choose to purpose and understanding. become.

The dramatic and gruesome details and So how is this relevant to Unetaneh imagery of who shall live and who shall Tokef? die and which way death may strike can seem hopeless and overwhelming when It is important to understand how to one reads the direct English translation. navigate the prayer in its metaphorical However, in order to avoid dismissing the sense, to ensure meaning can be derived significance of this centerpiece prayer and from this mighty and figurative poem. The regard it merely as a liturgical poem, one Unetaneh Tokef prayer, coupled with the must seek the underlying meaning of the High Holy days, remind us of our compelling and troubling notions explored. responsibility and duty to strive to be better. Among the countless demands of The opening line of the prayer - “Unetaneh everyday life, this task may seem Tokef Kedushat Hayom” - is translated by important but, perhaps, not urgent. It is Chaim Stern as “Let us proclaim the easy for life’s constant pressures and sacred power of this day.” Given this demands to overwhelm us and prevent us prayer is recited on both Rosh Hashanah, from finding the precious time and space the start of the Jewish New Year, and required for working on our higher selves. again on Yom Kippur, the Day of However, it is this prayer, chanted in Atonement, the “power” of these days unison during these Holy Days, that should be viewed as indicative of human provides us with the opportunity to self improvement, with an emphasis on reflect - it turns this task into an important betterment and progression, as opposed and urgent duty. As the famous Hillel in to rumination and self destruction based 1:14 questions “If not now, on the past year’s transgressions. when?"

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“On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on improvement will have a flow-on effect into Yom Kippur it is sealed” - every Jew is the world. The places grave judged by G-d with loving-kindness in all emphasis on the importance of doing His glory and might, and determined is the justice and performing acts of fate of every Jew. The emphasis of the righteousness. This is, in its very essence, Unetaneh Tokef prayer is not merely on the responsibility of a Jew. Thus, the the omnipresent and eternal King, with prayer Unetaneh Tokef illuminates the whom we look to in awe, as the power of path for the year ahead. Through our fate dwells in His hands, but the very repentance, prayer and tzedakah, Tikkun answers of how to be better human beings Adam and Tikkun Olam may be achieved and ‘avert the severity of the decree’. - the spiritual transformation and These lie in the concepts of repentance, reparation of oneself and the world. This is prayer and tzedakah. These three why we must approach these significant practices not only elevate us and bring us days with such intention, purpose and closer to God, but also serve to reinforce understanding, and why this prayer and our collective responsibility as Jews, to time of year provides the opportunity to better ourselves and, in turn, the world turn this crucial, but often difficult to around us. prioritise, task into one of urgency and importance. In each moment lies an opportunity for betterment. When we begin with working Shana Tova and have a happy, healthy on ourselves, through repentance and and sweet new year! prayer, we are then able to behave more righteously and morally, which enables us to give tzedakah - more of our time, skills and resources to those in greater need. We need only start small and this self

Artwork by Lily Kranz, Year 7

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Sasha Fink graduated from Mount Scopus in 2017

Sprints and Marathons

The leining we hear on Yom Kippur comes 10th of Tishrei carrying new tablets. from Parsha . This Parsha describes the 2nd Yom Kippur of the These tasks clearly drew all of Moshe’s Jewish people, which was a little different gifts as a leader, in that he was able to to the Yom Kippur rituals that we are used both: encourage the Jewish people to do to. We read about the dramatic and highly teshuva and urge God to forgive the charged ritual where the High Priest Jewish people. This clearly shows there is chooses between 2 goats, one to be no other leader like Moshe. sacrificed and the other sent into the wilderness to die. While this may seem While these events provide us with an like a strange ritual, Rabbi Jonathon immense admiration of Moshe and inspire Sacks points out the immense value in us to be better people, we are faced with comparing the Jewish people’s first Yom an issue. That is, Moshe was able to solve Kippur to the second one described in the crisis because of who he was – a man Acharei Mot. of significant talent and stature. However, what are we meant to do in the absence of The first Yom Kippur of the Jewish people heroic leadership? How do we preserve can be found in Parsha . Here, we this transformative event for generations see the culmination of Moshe’s efforts to to come without the inspiration of Moshe? convince God to forgive the people after the sin of the Golden Calf. Through The Torah provides an answer in the Moshe, we are able to witness leadership description of Yom Kippur 2. In Achrei in its highest form. Moshe had spent 40 Mot, the key figure changes from Moshe days receiving the Torah and returns to the prophet, to Aaron the priest. This see the Jewish people worshipping a provides a structure to preserve the Golden Calf. God tells Moshe that he will inspiration and the transformative destroy the Jewish people for this horrible experience which evolved from Moshe’s sin. Thus, Moshe was faced with a crisis incredible leadership, by turning it into the to say the least. Miraculously, Moshe was ritual of Yom Kippur. It seems this notion able to convince God not to annihilate the of creating ritual from inspiration is Jewish people, destroyed the calf, and prevalent in various rituals within Judaism. persuade the Israelites to do teshuva for Experiencing some sort of inspiration and their actions. He then went back up Har then being able to preserve that feeling by Sinai, prayed and finally come back on the a routine.

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There is a story about 3 Rabbis arguing as to what is the ‘great principle of Torah’. While this is a valuable lesson in One says, “on the day that God created leadership, we can also apply this to man, He made him in the likeness of God. ourselves. Personally after the Yomim The second one says, “listen Israel, the Noraim, usually I feel overwhelmed with Lord our God, the Lord is one”. The third inspiration and spirituality. However, if I one says “love your neighbour as fail to turn these feelings of inspiration into yourself”. The final Rabbi disagrees with action; to think of methods to preserve this everyone and says “ the first sheep shall inspiration, it fades and we continue as we be offered in the morning, and the second were previously. As we learn by looking at sheep in the afternoon” which is where we the contrast between Yom Kippur 1 and 2, get the idea of , and Moshe the prophet and Aaron the priest, . In other words, the daily routine of we learn that we cannot have an effective the Jewish people. Judaism provides routine without the initial inspiration, and space for inspiration and routine; for we cannot preserve that inspiration prophet and the priest. without the routine.

There is a common idea in the business This year’s Yomim Noraim look quite world about the marathon vs the sprint. different to usual. While it may feel that we The best companies know that in order to are lacking the inspiration that usually be successful, they must be consistent accompany this spiritual time, it is up to us and systematic. They are focused on the to seek out an alternative, albeit bigger picture in order to ensure the meaningful routine for ourselves. If that is company is long lasting. They do not rely reading an interesting book, having on heroic leadership and little bursts of discussions with your family or making a inspiration: that is, they act as if they are walk with a friend more meaningful, doing a marathon, not a sprint. This same finding some technique to help preserve thing occurred between Yom Kippur 1 and the unique atmosphere of the Yomim 2. While Moshe gave us lots of power to Noraim in our own homes. do a ‘sprint’, the ritual described in Yom Kippur 2 provides the Jewish people with Wishing everyone in the Scopus the tools and training techniques for a Community a Gmar Chatima Tova and marathon. Shana Tova.

46 Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5781

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