Is God angry with us?
This is a time of reckoning. Savage Storms. Fires. Floods. Pestilence. Wars. Massive Displacement. Hunger. Homelessness. Gun Violence. Hate Crimes. Systemic Racism. Anti-Semitism. Cruelty. Injustice.
The list is long. Add to it: smashing the guardrails of democracy, undermining civil liberties, and elevating autocrats.
It’s Rosh Hashanah.
On Rosh Hashanah we are inscribed, and on Yom Kippur we are sealed. In the words of the prayer book: how many shall die, how many shall be born; who shall live and who shall die; who shall perish by water, by fire, by wild beast, by hunger, by thirst, by earthquake, by pestilence ... who shall be poor and who shall be rich; who shall be humbled and who shall be exalted.
Rosh Hashanah is a time of reckoning.
Often referred to as the Jewish New Year, it’s one of four new years on the Jewish calendar. But unlike the other three new years and unlike other Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah — literally translated “head of the year” — is not tied to the particular experience of the Jewish people. It is a new year of universal significance.
Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of creation. The Yamim Noraim, the 10 Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are about God’s judgment upon the entire world, upon all humankind, not just the Jewish people. On this day, we are judged for our actions. And on this day, that which will transpire in the year ahead is recorded.
On Rosh Hashanah it is written. On Yom Kippur it is sealed.
“Is God angry with us,” asked a participant in a Zoom learning session led by Pam Ehrenkranz, CEO of UJA-JCC Greenwich, that I attended Wednesday morning.
The question invoked the fires, floods, and storms we have been experiencing, and the pandemic — the pestilence of our time — in which we have all been living for the past six months, with no end in sight.
It was a discussion on the book of Jonah, which is read during the Yom Kippur afternoon service. God commanded the prophet Jonah to go to the Assyrian city of Nineveh (in modern-day Iraq) to warn the inhabitants that they faced destruction because of their wickedness: “Arise, go to the great city of Nineveh, and admonish it; for their wickedness has come before Me.”
After an unsuccessful attempt to escape from God and to evade the task required of him, Jonah finally does as he’s been commanded.
“In another forty days, Nineveh will be overturned!” Jonah called out, whereupon the people of Nineveh turned to God and repented of their evil ways. God reconsidered and did not destroy the city, much to Jonah’s distress since Jonah never wanted to risk making this public prediction because he never believed it would come to pass.
“I therefore hastened to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and ready to renounce the thought of bringing retribution,” he told God.
Despite the decree, the inhabitants of Nineveh had the power to change their behavior, and thereby the power to change the end of the story and create a new narrative.
It is with this power to change our behavior that we engage throughout the 10 Days of Awe, repeatedly reciting from the prayer book: “But repentance, prayer, and charity avert the severity of the decree.”
Is God angry with us? Indeed, God has every reason to be angry with us for the way in which we have been abusing our planet, for the social and racial injustices we perpetrate, for the way we treat one another.
It is we who have brought so much evil upon ourselves. It is we who must take collective responsibility for our deeds. And it is we who have the power to change the narrative. In this time of reckoning, we have the opportunity to repent, to return to God — the Hebrew word for repentance, teshuva, literally means return — and change our ways.
This is serious. Our country’s future, our planet’s future, the world’s future is in the balance. But change is hard. Do we have the will to truly repent, or do we, like our president, believe there’s no need for this?