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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 Who Will Be Tranquil and Who Will Be Troubled: Confronting the Days of Awe by Marc Ashley

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 Who Will Be Tranquil and Who Will Be Troubled: Confronting the Days of Awe by Marc Ashley Congregation A Traditional, Egalitarian, and Participatory Conservative Synagogue ELUL/TISHRI/HESHVANO 5772rZarua NEWSLETTER/VOLUME 24:1 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 Who Will Be Tranquil and Who Will Be Troubled: Confronting the Days of Awe by Marc Ashley he time spanning Rosh Hashanah fixes the backdrop of God as our “judge to the prayer leader and, as the Kedushah and Yom Kippur is a period of and prosecutor and litigant and witness prayer was about to begin, interrupted by inward reflection, contemplation, and author and sealer and recorder and reciting the newly-minted Unetaneh Tokef and repentance. Yet it is also recounter,” willing and able to hold us prayer. Upon its completion, Rabbi Amnon Tintended to force us to see out- fully accountable for our actions. It then was removed by God from the scene, to side and beyond ourselves, to confront enumerates dispassionately the endless reappear three days later to Kalonymus our human condition and our mortality, to perils and torments we face—potential ben Meshullam Kalonymus (eleventh-cen- provoke consideration of issues that demise by fire, water, warfare, wildlife, tury paytan) to teach him to disseminate inevitably frighten most of us. The High hunger, thirst, earthquake, plague, stran- the poem throughout the Jewish world. Holy Days are known in our tradition as gling, and stoning—generating an Though this quintessential martyr’s story is the “Yamim Noraim,” the Days of Awe or, inescapable sense of irrevocable fate. likely largely fictional, its dramatic appeal perhaps more precisely, the awful (or awe- Our plight often seems arbitrary and has helped ensure that Unetaneh Tokef is ful) days. The name is fitting yet provoca- inevitable. Unetaneh Tokef establishes now read throughout the Ashkenazi world tive, difficult to live up to and embrace. To an unsettling, even traumatic, liturgical on three of the most important days of the ensure that we adopt the proper perspec- setting as we commence the Jewish New Jewish year. tive at this pivotal time in the Jewish cal- Year. Serious confrontation with the But Unetaneh Tokef is not merely a endar, certain prayers in the holiday liturgy harrowing substance of the prayer, and dispiriting tribute to our brutish mortality. seem designed to be discomfiting. The the harsh reality it depicts, is not for the Like the troubling but ennobling tale of High Holy Day prayers were assembled to fainthearted. Rabbi Amnon, Unetaneh Tokef is dually compel us to acknowledge God’s provi- resonant, even paradoxical, filled with both dence in the world and the accompanying he brutal legendary history of futility and hope, fear and inspiration. high-level stakes of life and death. Are we the composition of this piyyut After posing the terrifying—and seemingly up to the daunting existential challenge (liturgical poem) mirrors its vis- unanswerable—question of “Who will live that the mahzor presents? ceral content. The widely known and who will die?” it proclaims resound- The Unetaneh Tokef prayer, recited Tstory of its origins derives from ingly that “repentance, prayer, and charity before the Kedushah during the Musaf the thirteenth-century work, Or Zarua, writ- help the hardship of the decree pass.” service on both Rosh Hashanah and Yom ten by Rabbi Isaac of Vienna, though it Although we are “like shattered pottery, Kippur, is a liturgical centerpiece of the may have arisen earlier in time. A famous like withered grass, and like a faded blos- High Holy Days and a theological linchpin Ashkenazi rabbi, Amnon of Mainz, was som, like a passing shadow, and like a of the mood and mindset this holiday asked by the local bishop to convert to vanishing cloud,” God’s forgiveness, in period is meant to cultivate within us. It Christianity and requested three days to turn, is boundless. The stark contrast evocatively embodies the crucial themes consider the invitation. Consumed by guilt continued on page 15 of life’s tenuousness and the tenacity with for even suggesting to the bishop that he which we must face it. Its opening line would contemplate apostasy, Rabbi SAVE THE DATE pointedly announces the blunt reality we Amnon was captured and repented of any confront during this period: “And let us inkling that he might convert. After offer- Or Zarua Gala acknowledge the power of this day’s ing his tongue as sacrifice for his sin, Monday, June 4, 2012 holiness, for it is full of awe and dread.” Rabbi Amnon’s toes and fingers were Later, the prayer boldly stipulates that instead hacked off as punishment for his Special Guest Chancellor Arnold Eisen even “angels will recoil and be gripped by effrontery. At the next Rosh Hashanah, the 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. shaking and trembling.” It painstakingly mutilated Rabbi Amnon was placed next Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers 1 CONGREGATION OR ZARUA SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 President’s Message Congregation by Diane Okrent few weeks ago, I Amichai in the 200+ seat Reading Room. OrZarua Aheard a cell phone We will all be together in the auditorium A CONSERVATIVE SYNAGOGUE ringtone that sounded for Ne’ilah at the end of Yom Kippur. FOUNDED 1989 like a shofar. At first, I In addition, for those for whom travel thought it would be cool to 103rd Street may be a challenge, we will 127 East 82nd Street to have that ringtone. hold services on both mornings of Rosh New York, NY 10028 (It is called “Sherwood Hashanah, Kol Nidre, and Yom Kippur in our phone: 212-452-2310 fax: 212-452-2103 Forest” and it is actually building on 82nd Street. These services will www.orzarua.org available on my iPhone.) But the more I be led by Or Zarua members. thought about it, the less appealing it Members are welcome at either loca- DR. HARLAN J. WECHSLER, Rabbi became because I wouldn’t want the tion and at any services throughout the DIANE OKRENT, President sound of the shofar to become mundane. High Holy Days. HENRY GLANTERNIK, Treasurer The sound of the shofar should only be Please remember that the evening HARVEY M. BRENNER, FTA, Executive Director heard on important occasions. The Torah services for Rosh Hashanah will be in our ILANA BURGESS, Youth Education Director reserves the sounding of the shofar for building on East 82nd Street. CHARLES SPIELHOLZ, Newsletter Editor Rosh Hashanah. While the customs of The wonderful holiday season will sounding the shofar have expanded some, continue at the Or Zarua building through we still reserve it for special occasions. the month of October with Sukkot That is why we only hear the shofar during services—and wonderful meals in our OZ Committee Chairs Elul, on Rosh Hashanah, and at the end of roof-top Sukkah—through very festive Yom Kippur. In the words of Maimonides, Simhat Torah services. ADMINISTRATION Sara Stone the message of shofar is, “Awake you I have always thought that the rest of AESTHETICS Aaron Shelden sleepers from your sleep, and you that are the world really follows the Jewish calen- in slumber, rouse yourselves. Consider dar because so many things begin in the ART GALLERY Bobbi Coller your ways, remember God, turn unto Him.” fall along with the Jewish New Year. The BOOK DISCUSSION Reed Schneider As we listen to the shofar during Elul school year starts, as do cultural seasons BUILDING Benjamin Marcus (August 31 to September 28) and put our like the opera and the symphony. After CEMETERY Aliza Kaplan personal spiritual houses in order, so Simhat Torah, Or Zarua’s programming Mort Schwartz must we put our congregational house in season picks up with a very special lec- CRAFTS CLUB Terry Edelstein order. I urge you to renew your member- ture in early November, Shabbat dinners, DEVELOPMENT Andrew Plevin ship in the next week or two so you can and meetings of our various clubs. receive your High Holy Days tickets and The high quality and wide range of our HESED Richard Stadin delight in the mitzvah of hearing the shofar. programs depends on your participation HEVRA KADISHA Vera Silver This year, we will be davening for the and generous support. Please let me know Gerry Solomon first time at The New York Academy of if you would like to sponsor a program. ISRAEL Aliza Kaplan Medicine on Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street. Please join us often throughout the LIBRARY Barry Feldman This is a spacious and gracious venue new year—at services, lectures, dinners, MEMBERSHIP Michael Schwartz that will enhance our High Holy Days expe- and meetings. We may not blow the shofar MINYAN Sheldon Adler riences. The two parallel services will be all the time, but every occasion at Or inspiring and fulfilling. One service will be Zarua is special. PROGRAMMING Karen Kaplan led by Rabbi Wechsler and Congregants I look forward to greeting you at our PUBLIC RELATIONS Aaron Shelden in the 500-seat auditorium. The other High Holy Day services. PURIM SPIEL Arthur Rosenbloom service will be led by Rabbi Ezra Micah L’Shana Tova U’metuka! Bonnie Maslin Tibor Feldman Barbara Sassoon SCHOOL Betsy Dizengoff WELCOMING GUESTS TORAH/HAFTARAH Henry Glanternik It is important for us as a community to make guests and new members at our WEBMASTER Jay Palmer services and kiddushim feel comfortable and welcome. If you are seated next to someone whom you do not know, please reach out and introduce yourself. Making If you are interested in serving on a synagogue this effort is consistent with our culture and will repay dividends. committee, please contact the office for the committee chair’s email address. 2 WWW.ORZARUA.ORG SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 Natan Sharansky to Speak at Or Zarua Thursday, November 10, 7:00 p.m.
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