High Holy Days

Wish or Hope ?

Rabbi Moshe Pitchon

As I ready myself to wish you and yours a happy and healthy new year, I ponder the powerlessness of our wishes. Shouldn’t it be more authentic to say that we “hope” rather than we wish? Anyway, our feelings, as much as the words we use to express them, point to the ultimate reality. Unavoidably we all face an ultimate reality that is in control of our destiny and one over which we have no control nor influence.

What we should have is acceptance that whatever happens is what should be and that our task is to do the best we can while we can. That, I think, is the message of the holiday season we are now starting.

There is a time, a season, for everything, says our foundational literature, and this is the season to acknowledge that we are temporarily in possession of our time.

This is the opportunity we have not to run away and hide but to touch the lives of others, the world in which we live. That, I believe, is the meaning of being Jewish: to fulfill the task of touching others for good.

Theologically I believe it is the time when God withdraws, when He doesn’t interfere with our lives—so to speak. It is a time when the excuse that we are not in control is precluded. That’s why the mitzvot for these holidays are not ritual but ethical: tzedakah (charity and justice), maasim tovim , )good deeds), gemilut hasadim (deeds of lovingkindness), teshuvah and slihah, )repentance and forgiveness).

Which other people celebrate its holidays this way? So, the appropriate hope for these holidays is tizku le-shanim rabot. May you and all Israel deserve to enjoy many more years to have the opportunity to bring tzedakah, maasey tovim, teshuvah, and slihah to the world.

On this day, the world came into being; On this day, He makes stand in judgment— all the creatures of the worlds

Today the World was Created

After each set of shofar blasts during the Rosh Hashanah morning service in the synagogue, the prayer “Ha-Yom harat ha-olam” is recited.

The proper translation of the name of this prayer is “On this day, the world became pregnant.” Jewish liturgy brings the metaphorical idea that the new year recalls the world’s gestation