Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Dvar Torah Now that we are about to start Rosh Hashanah, let’s see how the story of the broken tablets and by Lou Loomis Abraham’s life relates to us, today. George Burns once said, sincerity is Most of us think that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs everything. If you can fake that, you've were always wise and faithful leaders of the Jewish got it made. people, throughout all their lives. But the Torah, But as our religion brings us to these days of self- Commentaries, and stories following the Torah tell assessment, there are things some people can’t another story. We learn that Abraham had to face handle during the High Holy Days, and prefer other many trials, 10 very difficult tests, before he could be ways to better themselves. They strive to stay youthful, called the Patriarch of the children of Israel. In fact, get tattoos, pierce their ears, noses, and other body his final test, the sacrifice of Isaac, is often parts to feel hip, with it, and better than the great considered as the most controversial and significant. unwashed, the crowd of common people. Some seek Why is that? And what are these tests? Why is it so this hipness in other ways. How about astrology? important that we know about the tests? I suggest that Abraham was not born enlightened or Science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke once said, I faithful to the one God, but had to suffer, change, don't believe in astrology. I am a Sagittarius and we're and to grow into the role of Patriarch. One way to very skeptical. But those of us here today have kept to look at it is that he had to grow up. He had to do Judaism and as we approach the new year, we get another chance. what we are about to do this High Holiday season, what the Israelites did after the Golden Calf episode, Today is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and I wish and throughout their 40 years of wandering; and that everyone a happy and healthy 5774. Rosh Hashanah is to examine our faults and overcome, to change our is not just a holiday of wonderful food and being with less wise selves. We all make mistakes. All of us. loved ones, but it begins the formal days of self Honestly, how wise, how patriarchal and mature was assessment in the Jewish calendar. It is highlighted it that Abraham disguised his wife as his sister just to with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. protect himself. Doesn’t that seem just a bit selfish? He did it more than once. In today’s Torah portion, we read about the life of Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jewish people. And When we do teshuva, do we repent and never throughout the book of Bereishit, Genesis, we learn repeat the mistake? Well, sometimes we do. But how the patriarchs and matriarchs struggled, overcame Abraham kept trying to do better. He didn’t just throw problems and difficulties, to found this peoplehood of in the old towel, but never stopped. It was not until the Jews. And, fortunately for us, we can understand after he tried to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and then was the lives and struggles of our founders by reading later stopped, or stopped himself, that he actually became works, in the lives of other leaders, such as Moses, the father of the Jewish people. Abraham chose life, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Sara, Rebecca, Rachael, and or was commanded to chose life. Either way, what Leah. Just to name a few. would have happened if he had succeeded in killing Isaac? He would have become the father of what? Let me jump ahead just a little. In the Hebrew year Nothing! And, at over 100 years old, it is doubtful that 2448 (1312 BCE), Moses carved the second set he would have been able to father another nation. of Tablets out of sapphire, as recorded in Exodus So, when he returned from failing to sacrifice his son, 34:4. After seeing that the Israelites had made the only then did he deserve the title Patriarch. idolatrous Golden Calf, Moses broke the first set of tablets (Exodus 32:19) and God then instructed Moses And, if we read the lives of the other Patriarchs and to carve new tablets. The second set of tablets was Matriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, placed in the Ark of the Covenant, along with the first Rachel, and Leah, they too, had to grow, to do broken set. The Rabbis say that this second set teshuva, to chose life, to overcome their handicaps symbolizes the ability of every person to make amends and immaturity, their mistakes, in order to deserve and rebuild anew. In fact, it was on the day of Yom the titles we give them. And if we go a little further Kippur that Moses came down from Mount Sinai into the Torah, we read how Joseph also had to holding the second set of Tablets, and we are told that grow, overcome many of his personal faults, in order is on every subsequent Yom Kippur day that we have to become the leader and savior of the Jewish a special opportunity to make amends. people. Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Dvar Torah You know, It’s funny, and the Rabbis tell us us that (continued) we can actually change our past by being the people who admit our mistakes, and use those mistakes for So, what is the lesson here? personal betterment. We will be able to say, yes, we did such and such, and it was wrong, but because of Abraham was over 100 years old when he did his last that, we’ve determined never to make that mistake recorded teshuva, the Akeida, the sacrifice of Isaac. again, and have become better people as a result However, even before that, he had built quite a that weakness. reputation as a wise leader, a brilliant military general, and as a successful business man. Even more, These high holy days, holidays, are a great kick-start Abraham was growing his family and followers by his for those of us stuck on problems. I wish everyone a increasingly growing wisdom. He was a man who had successful, healthy, and happy High Holy Day season to overcome adversity, trials and difficulties. As he did and may that lead to a successful and happy new that, he became wiser and greater. With each trial, he year. grew, he matured, and changed, and became more and more the patriarch that we honor in the Torah. Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Dvar Haftorah by Barbara Joan Grubman Today, many of us are again starting the new year with renewed resolutions, to be happier, healthier, better For 15 years, I had the honor and the privilege of people, all around. We want to improve our lives. We’ll being a doula. As such I attended many births and read in the high holiday Machzors the list of Al Chets, hopefully made life at this special time, a bit easier for sins, we want to repent. To stop doing. And if we think the birthing woman. I came to this late in life, in my about our lives, our own daily trials and tests, the list of sixties, because pregnancy and birth have always chets becomes understandable. Yes, we have a lot to fascinated me, and I longed to be present as a new be thankful for, and still, for most of us, the humble life appeared. Finally, I found my way, when someone ones in the room, a long way to go before we are explained to me that doula is a Greek word for ser- satisfied with our selves. Our daily lives are really daily vant, and with training and observing, I could be one. struggles, and they require daily efforts, daily prayers, daily renewals of our vows to be the better people to If I thought I could get away with it, I would have which we aspire. asked every pregnant woman I saw in Ralph’s Market, “Can I be at your baby’s birth?” Abraham was a revolutionary, and developed something very new, very different, than was known Today’s Haftorah portion tells of Chana, one of before. Like Abraham, who had to endure the contrary Elkanah’s two wives. Childless, Chana wished very character of the world, without losing heart--- to much to bear a child, and often silently suffered from stubbornly continue the struggle against adversity, that the many humiliations that child bearing Peninah, was the virtue he most needed to transmit God's new Elkanah’s other wife, heaped upon her. way. That was the way the people of Abraham have kept to the new way and have transmitted it to the next In much distress, Chana goes to see Eli, the High generation. And yes, sometimes, oftentimes, it was Priest, who was the judge of Israel at that time, and unpopular with the rest of the world. asks for him to grant her a son. In return, Chana promises to consecrate her child’s life to God. Her Have we ever known the Jews, throughout our history, wish granted, she gives birth to Samuel and gives him to be honored by the world for our struggles? Except to God when she feels it is the right time, making her for maybe briefly? Like our ancestors, we here today ultimate sacrifice. are locked in a struggle.