August 2010

Dear Friends of Temple Beth Shalom: 

Adrianne and I want to wish you and your families a SHANAH TOVAH UM’TUKAH. May this annual  time of renewal be not only a time of joy, but a time of rededication to the important things in life that are so often trampled over by the hurried and hassled pace of our daily lives.   

In a way the Holy Days are counter-intuitive to the pace of our lives. Most of the time we dislike looking into the mirror (except to check our appearance). We dislike taking personal inventory, especially because it may point us toward directions of change—and that is tough. So it is easier (and less time consuming) to look away and blame the other guy. 

In this regard, let me share with you a story from the master story teller of our age, Elie Wiesel. Wiesel points out that in Biblical creation stories, after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden for having eaten the fruit from the forbidden tree, they settled in a land east of Eden. Then Cain killed Abel, and Adam and Eve were seemingly bereft of a progeny.  Then, in a very “matter of fact” way the narrative tells us that Adam and Eve had another son, and they named him SETH. The narrative (Genesis chapter 5) then lists the descendents of Seth, ending with Noah who, after the flood would eventually have three more sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.  SHEM would be the progenitor of the continuing Jewish people (as in “SHEMITES”, i.e. “SEMITES”).

In commenting on this narrative, Wiesel gives a timeless thought.  He says that “the greatest gift that God gives us is NOT the ability to begin, but the ability to begin AGAIN.”  And there you have it—the entire rationality for the Holy Days, with its insistence that we MUST and CAN change ourselves and the world surrounding us—for the better. This is the basis for the idea of TESHUVAH (turning) and for Judaism’s stubborn hope that the future can be an improvement over the past.

As we meet on Rosh Hashanah in Temple, I hope that some of these thoughts will accompany you.

L’Shalom,

Rabbi Frank Sundheim