Jewish New Year message
Rosh Hashanah 2018 begins sunset of Sunday 9 September and ends nightfall of Tuesday 11 September. The Jewish New Year begins on 12 September. The travelling Rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, gives a message of unity for the New Year.
Many years ago, I gleaned from Abba Eban’s history classic text, My People, that every event in the history of the world must be viewed through the filter of historical context.
Why did the sages of Jewish tradition create the Talmud at the same time that early Christians developed their New Testament? Why does Maimonides, perhaps the greatest Jewish scholar and philosopher in Jewish history, write in Arabic and reflect the theology of Aristotle?
The answer to these questions is: “Look at the world and see history in context of what is happening in the world through the filter of our own time.”
A legendary story tells of an interview in which David BenGurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, was asked what the worst problem facing the new state of Israel is. Ben-Gurion smiled and said, “Shalom”.
The interviewer nodded, then responded, “I understand that peace may be a distant dream.” Ben-Gurion shook his head.
“You understand the word ‘Shalom’ as ‘peace’, but I am using it in the sense of both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. The true problem is that we don’t know if we are coming or going!”
The term ‘Shalom’ means more than ‘peace’ or ‘the absence of war’; it means ‘wholeness’, or bringing broken pieces together. Ironically, Judaism holds that the opposite of peace is pieces. In Jewish history, when our People was exiled from our Eternal Homeland, Israel, we came to be called the Diaspora (dia = across, speirein = scatter).
Thus, in history, the opposite of Shalom - being together in our Eternal Homeland - is Diaspora, the forced scattering of Jews across the face of the earth.
Jewish tradition presents a fascinating model of irony in the search for meaning: we grow into a greater self when we connect with other people.
One story of Creation tells us that Adam brought together the animals of the earth, yet he was alone.
God determines (Genesis 2:18): It is not good for man to be alone.
God takes away part of the sleeping Adam and fashions Eve. Adam is diminished; he has lost part of himself.
At the same time, it is now possible for Adam to find Shalom by being together with one who will accompany him through life. Without friends, without family, without a community, our lives cannot find the meaning that life itself has to offer.
We are hardened optimists. We look to the heavens and we see that the sun, the moon and the stars move together in one pattern, reflecting the oneness of God.
The prayers remind us that we must transform the earth to match the heavens if we are to attain the ultimate goal of life: Shalom.
As we begin the New Year, may the Almighty who established harmony - Shalom - in the heavens above, help us to create that same Shalom in our lives, for us, for the people of Israel, and for all the inhabitants of the earth.
Look at the world and see history in context of what is happening in the world through the filter of our own time.