Download Rosh Hashanah -- Connections

Rosh Hashanah Evening
September 16, 2012 / 1 Tishre 5773
Rabbi Helen Cohn / Congregation M’kor Hayim
“Connections”
Perhaps you have noticed that our service tonight was rather short, in contrast (you may
be thinking) to the rest of the High Holy Day services! Except for Aveinu Malkeinu
which we just sang, tonight’s service is similar to one on a regular Shabbat evening.
But don’t be misled by appearances. Tonight we engage with the Days of Awe in
earnest. After a month of preparation, the time has come. It is time to confront the hard
questions: what mistakes have I made in the past year and how can I make amends for
them? How have I disappointed others, and myself? What do I regret, and how can I
move on? And also: how have I become a better person since the last High Holy Days
and how can I continue to build on my strengths?
We are wrestling with some of the most basic issues of a purposeful life, what we would
call “a good life.” And lurking in the background, sometime seen and sometimes only
hinted at, is the awareness of our own death, and the awareness that we don’t know when
that will be. Perkei Avot teaches: “Repent one day before your death.” [PA 2:15]
Which is understood to mean repent, repair, live as fully and as cleanly as we can each
day, for we never know which day will be the day before our last.
The central prayer of these Days of Awe, the Unatana Tokef, asks “Who shall live and
who shall die?” A sobering thought, one I know each of us has considered. The Jewish
response is: We cannot know the future, but we can make choices about right now. And
so tonight let us reframe the question. We ask: “Who shall live…a meaningful life?”
I know, because you are here tonight, that this question is important to you; it is a
question you no doubt ask yourself, perhaps more urgently as the years pass. Long
before the Hubble telescope gave us a hint of the vastness of the universe, our sages knew
that our lives were infinitesimal. We are, in the words of the Kabbalah, “a mustard seed
in the middle of the sphere of the moon, which itself is a mustard seed within the next
sphere…[and] So it is with all the spheres…all of them are a mustard seed within the
further expanses.” (The Essential Kabbalah, p 22) And yet, here we are: made in the
divine image, wanting our lives to matter, wanting to make the most of our brief span of
years. Wanting to live a life of goodness and meaning. How, how do we do this?
I believe that an essential element of a meaningful life is connection.
So let’s go on a journey together tonight and explore the many ways we are, or might
desire to be, connected. We can start with the obvious: our connection with other
people. Let’s take a moment and picture our personal web of connection with others.
As you visualize the strands, most likely family and closest friends come to mind, but
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look further and see who else you feel connected to. Take a few silent moments to
recognize and appreciate your connections with other people. [pause]
Any surprises? How far out do your connections go? I have a friend who makes a point
of speaking to grocery store cashiers by name, which she knows thanks to the person’s
nametag. A moment of connection, a moment of sincere human contact. Who knows
what difference that moment makes in a long day of checking and bagging groceries.
We widen the circle of connection when we give our time and our resources to help other
people, whether it’s a dish for a shiva minyan, or helping at a food pantry, visiting
someone who is sick, rejoicing in a simcha, or just showing up. What else are we here
for, if not to help others during a time of need, and to share in their joy during a time of
celebration? Does it really matter if they are friends or strangers? We are all in this
together, and what lifts us up is the depth and sincerity of our connections with others.
In addition to connecting with individuals, we also have meaningful connections with
groups or organizations. Let’s now take a few moments as we each consider the groups
we feel connected to and supported by: groups that add meaning to our lives. [pause]
I wish I could ask each of you what comes to your mind! Here is what I imagine you
would say: You are part of a group that studies together, or does some form of exercise
together. You have a group of friends who have known one another for years. You
volunteer regularly with people you would otherwise not have known. Some of you
belong to professional organizations that help you feel connected to and supported by
others doing the same sort of work in the world. I hope this exercise helps you appreciate
in a new way how these groups give meaning to your lives.
Each of you is here tonight because you have some sort of connection with Judaism. But
I’m not here to proselytize! We each find religious connection and meaning in our own
way. I would, however, like to suggest some of the ways that Judaism (and perhaps any
spiritual practice) can be a connection to a life of meaning.
First of all Judaism gives us ways to think about God. That is, Judaism challenges us to
examine what is true for us, and what we reject. Some of us feel a personal connection to
God, to the Source of Life, to some divine force outside of ourselves. Others wrestle
with this idea of God, or reject conventional ideas, or find their beliefs changing over
time. As Jews, our conclusions are less important than the questions. The connection is
with the questions about God. That’s what we mean when we say we are commanded
“la’a’sok b’divrei Torah,” to wrestle and engage with words of Torah.
One of the most profound ways Judaism gives us a way to connect is through the Jewish
calendar. Our individual lives have a rhythm as we age and move through the different
stages of human life. And if we are open to it, the Jewish calendar roots us in time, and
gives us a framework on which to hang the days and nights and cycles of our lives. For
example, twice a year--at the High Holy Days and Passover--I say to myself with
fondness “The Jews are on the move!” as I picture families and friends traveling and
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coming together for the two major holidays of the Jewish year. Our connection to the
calendar leads us to connections with loved ones, even to those who are no longer with us
physically.
Eleven of the twelve Hebrew months contain a holiday. When we connect with the
festival calendar, we have a framework for together expressing basic human emotions,
each tied to a Jewish holiday. For example, Sukkot teaches us gratitude, Hanukah gives
us hope, we delight in nature on Tu b’Shevat, get joyful and silly on Purim, learn
compassion at Passover. And at this time of year we support one another in our personal
soul searching, repentance and renewal. But that’s not all: each week contains a holiday,
one that offers rest and peace from the demands of ordinary life. I’m speaking, of course,
of Shabbat.
Living by the Jewish calendar, we are connected to the cycle of the seasons and the
emotions of the holidays, and we link our separate lives to our community and to Jews
around the world.
I suspect that many of us ask ourselves the existential question of: “Who am I and what
is my place in the universe?” We yearn to belong to something larger than ourselves, to
be more than a mustard seed in the vastness of space. Meaning comes in a variety of
ways. As Jews, we have a clear and significant place in the march of human history. We
are part of something much larger than our individual selves, and yet our individual
selves are so important. Each of us is a link in the chain of human history, and more
personally, the chain of Jewish history. What we are doing tonight is a part of Jewish life
in the early 21st century in the United States of America. This is our connection to time
and place. Before us was over three thousand years of history, and who we are now, how
we live Jewish lives now, someday becomes history as the future unfolds. Meanwhile
this is our place. This is our connection to the Jewish people across time and space, and
to all other people who in turn connect with us.
Tonight I am inviting us to be aware of the many connections--in the most positive sense-that give meaning to our lives: our connections to other people, to groups, to that which
we call God, and to the gifts of Judaism. We celebrate these connections because they
give meaning and fulfillment and satisfaction to our days. “Who will live…a meaningful
life?” Those who make a difference in the lives of others; those who open themselves to
the deep satisfaction of having a place in the world, of being connected.
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