HA'AZINU SUCCOT 5777
TO AND FROM HEAVEN AND EARTH
October 13, 2016
11 Tishri 5777
Give ear O heavens, let me speak; let the earth hear the words I utter… [Deuteronomy 32:1]
With the exception of the years in which Yom Kippur occurs on a Shabbat, Ha'azinu is the Torah portion read on the Shabbat before Succot. Utilizing a poetic form Moses reminds his " flock " of the love between God and the Children of Israel, and of the importance of being faithful to the eternal covenant between. God and His people. Then, and only then, will the People deserve the blessing of Eretz Yisrael.
Moses in the song's opening words calls upon heaven and earth to be the timeless witnesses of this unique and ongoing relationship between God and Israel. By selecting these two, witnesses Moses reaffirms the connection between God and humanity.
The High Holiday liturgy is replete with metaphors of our relationship with God. He is the Father, immanent, present and accessible; He is also our King, transcendent and distant. He is both a compassionate parent and a demanding regent. As the former He sits on His throne of justice; as the latter, He has moved to the throne of compassion. By structuring our lives and our societies to meet the highest possible standards of justice and righteousness, we will have successfully joined heaven and earth. We have built a bridge between us and God.
The Festival of Succot is a coda to Yom Kippur. The essence of the succah is its roof or the schak that must meet two requirements. The first is that we can only use schak made of materials that grow in the ground i.e. natural products such as tree branches or slats of wood or bamboo This excludes plastic or cloth or any man made material The second requirement is that the schak must have small openings thereby enabling us to see the heaven..Thus the succah by joining earth and heaven hopefully strengthen our commitment to add to the spiritual quality of our lives.
Hence the wonderful tradition of making our succah a venue in which we welcome others to share our food and our shelter with others. As we do this we meet the challenge of Isaiah whose words, chanted on Yom Kippur in the haftarah, remind us that God is best served when we "deal our bread to the hungry and bring the homeless into our homes." While we may not actually perform these mitzvot on Succot, it is a reminder that we are expected to respond to this call as best we can and as often we can.
In a broader sense, Judaism calls upon us to make God a real presence in our lives that can inspire us to found social orders that are just and compassionate. The glimpses of heaven through our schak will hopefully inspire a commitment to simultaneously serve God and all with whom we share this earth.
Most of Ha'azinu, is a redux of Moses' many harsh reminders of the fatal consequences of not grasping the privilege accorded us to join heaven and earth, and forging a relationship with our God who while transcendent is also, immanent. Thus he exhorted, "For this is not a trifling thing for you. It is your very life. Through it you shall long endure on the land that you ae to possess upon crossing the Jordan." (Deuteronomy 32:42).
In our march through life we cross many Jordans as we add to our accomplishments and acquisitions May Succot sensitize us to the presence of the hand of God in the blessings we enjoy.
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From the holy city of Jerusalem, Rae joins me in wishing you a Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach– a Shabbat of peace and blessing and a joyful and spiritually rewarding Succot celebration.
Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman
VAYELECH SHABBAT SHUVA YOM KIPUR 5777
TO RULE OVER SIN
October 6, 2016
4 Tishri 5777
And the Lord said to Cain, "Why are so distressed …. Surely if you do right , there is uplift, but if you do not do right sin couches at the door , its urge is toward you yet you can (may? must?) rule over it [Genesis 4:6].
Cain and Abel, the first naturally conceived and born children, were also the first to bring sacrifices to God. Abel, the shepherd, offered his finest lamb, in contrast to his brother .Cain whose basket contained only middling produce. God happily accepted Abel's sacrifice but spurned Cain's.
God then turned to Cain and chided him. Why are you so downcast? Know if you do well, you will benefit, but be aware that sin crouches at the door, v'ata timshol bah, translated as either you will or you may rule over it. Is God commanding Cain to rule over his penchant for sin or is He merely giving him the option?
The Malbin (Rabbi Meir ben Yechiel Michael), a 19th century Biblical commentator, interpreted timshol as God saying, the power of choice to rule over your sinful urgings, is in your hands. The Malbin's teaching is consistent with our Tradition's observation that as we traverse along the path of life we are blessed with the capacity to make moral choices. The perennial challenge before us is to overcome the natural desire to reach for and to taste forbidden fruits.
The Talmud underscores our responsibility for our actions in the perceptive teaching that we are only led on the road in which we desire to walk. The path of our lives, of every life, inevitably leads us to crossroad after crossroad, where the Bible reminds us we will find sin and temptation ay our feet. It is then our choice to make the effort to overcome the immediate gratification of sinful behavior and direct ourselves on the path of virtue.
On Yom Kippur we repeatedly recite the Al Chet litany, This traditional list of transgressions challenges us to face up to the reality that we have indeed sinned.. Perhaps, thankfully, we may not be guilty of every transgression on the list, but in all honesty we know that we have succumbed to temptation more than once. On Yom Kippur we are urged to confront our failure to rule over sin.
Yet the ultimate purpose of the day is not to leave us with a sense of hopelessness and despair. Our tradition is clear that there is always the open option to "purify" ourselves through teshuvah (repentance).
Teshuvah to work, however, must be preceded by confronting the many occasions. It was our choice to pursue the pleasure of immediate gratification over the more difficult alternative of acting virtuously.
Following this articulation of our moral breakdown, teshuvah then requires that we resolve to abstain from the sinful behavior. The ultimate test of the effectiveness of our teshuvah occurs when we are at a crossroad and despite the "sin lying on our way, we set forth on the path of virtue.
In Robert Frost's well known poem, The Road Not Taken, the traveler must choose between the two roads before him. As he makes his choice he is acutely aware that he will never know what lay in the path he rejected. He will continue live with the doubt about what he missed in the road not taken.
God reminded Cain, and through him each of us, that we are free to choose one of the paths before us, Unlike the traveler once we embark on the path of virtue we do so with a clear awareness of what is in this road not taken Timshol, how do you read it and how will it inform your life? Is it a Divine command or an option for us to select or reject? The path we choose does make all the difference in the eyes of God, in the eyes of others and most significantly, in our own eyes.
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From the holy city of Jerusalem, Rae and I wish you a Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach, a Shabbat of peace and blessing. May your Yom Kippur be inspiring and may you be blessed with a g'mar chatima tovah – a wonderful year in which we forgive and are forgiven. May it be a year in which we and our dear ones bask in each other's love.
Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman
