Shanah tovah! Happy new year and welcome — welcome home! Tonight we begin our ten-day celebration, our annual ten-day family reunion. We come home to be with each other every year at this time. Just like other families, some of us have been in touch with others regularly throughout this year, others we haven’t seen in a while. Some of us know a lot of people here and others know a few, if any. Some of us have been part of the Shaarey Zedek family for years; for some this is the first time you are joining us in our home – your home. No matter which category you fit into, b’rukhim ha-ba’im – welcome! Welcome home! It’s wonderful to see you!
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, teaches that
The synagogue has always been the home base for the Jews. No matter how religious or how secular, Jews know that the vault that safeguards our values, our community, and our identity is the shul. By returning to the synagogue during the Days of Awe, by affiliating with a congregation, we pledge our renewed loyalty to God, Torah, and to the Jewish people…
[“Already Forgiven,” September 23, 2006 / 1 Tishrei 5767, www.ajula.edu]
Shaarey Zedek is our home. Each of us comes from a different place, a different background, and yet something draws us here tonight as we begin the new year. Jews around the world flock to synagogues at this time of year, each with his or her own reasons for coming. We are drawn here – to our synagogue — to be with our people.
The word “synagogue” is a Greek word meaning “a bringing together, an assembly.” And, indeed, that is one of the three traditional definitions of a Jewish congregation: we are a Beit K’nesset (a house of assembly, a house of gathering); we are also a Beit Tefillah (a house of prayer) and a Beit Midrash (a house of study).
A congregation cannot be just one or two of these; it must be all three: a house of assembly, a house of prayer, and a house of study. No other Jewish institutions, as worthwhile and important as they are, provide all of this. As our president noted in his remarks earlier this evening, this is where it all happens. The synagogue is the mainstay of Jewish life. The synagogue is our home away from home.
What do we do here during these ten days? We use these days to consider what we have done and who we have become this past year. We contemplate the gap between our highest ideals and our actual behavior. We seek to make amends. Rabbi Artson suggests three tools that Judaism offers us in accomplishing our task:
The tool of tefillah, of prayer, to give us the script to call out to the holy one and to let our souls soar on the ancient and time-tested words and melodies.
The tool of kehillah, of community, to strengthen each other and to nurture each other in our unfolding as Jews and as individuals.
The tool of tzedakah, [of righteous giving], building a just world through charitable contributions to the agencies and causes that help repair the brokenness of the world.
First, tefillah (prayer): Some of us struggle with the words of our prayer book. I don’t mean the Reform version versus the Conservative version, but rather the traditional High Holy Days prayers and imagery that evoke God as the shepherd assessing the flock, deciding who will be inscribed in the Book of Life and who in the Book of Death this year. And yet despite these very legitimate difficulties and struggles, which have gone on for centuries, there is still something special about hearing those unique and distinct melodies, praying the words that our ancestors, our families, have prayed for generations and generations and generations.
Second, kehillah (community): We support each other during these Days of Repentance, these Days of Awe, allowing all of us an opportunity to “check-in,” to review our actions, all with the support of a community. By coming together and repeating the ancient prayers of confession — where we say “for the mistakes we have made,” instead of “for the mistakes I have made,” allowing all of us to confess publically, but without embarrassment — we offer ourselves as each other’s kehillah, each other’s community, each other’s support system, each other’s “safe place.”
And finally, tzedakah (usually translated as “charity,” but more correctly translated as “righteous giving”): This, the third of Rabbi Artson’s “tools,” allows us the opportunity as a congregation, as a community, to make the world a bit better by doing our collective best to help others.
The late Conservative rabbi, Rabbi Aaron M. Wise, wrote the following about this time of year:
…There is something more to Rosh Hashana than asking God for favors. This is a time to evaluate our lives… this is a time to recall our achievements and our failures. This is a time to ask: “What is life all about anyway?”
The High Holy Days represent the “spiritual pause that refreshes.” Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur signal us to STOP…LOOK…LISTEN! It is time to stop running, to look at yourself, to listen to your life.
[“How Much Time Do You Have?” in The American Rabbi, December 1979, vol. 12, no. 3, pp.15-16]
And so we come to the synagogue during these Ten Days of Repentance to do just that: to stop…to look…to listen. We stop, just for a little while, to review our lives, to ask ourselves the eternal question: “What is life all about anyway?” We look to our community to provide support, to hold us up when we are down. [And] we listen to the teachings of our tradition, the teachings of our people. These Yamim Nora’im, these Days of Awe, help us to evaluate our lives, to remind ourselves of what is really important in life.
So welcome home, my friends. Welcome home. May this congregation be your home away from home. And may these Days of Awe be for you the “spiritual pause that refreshes.” May they provide you with what you need to make this new year a shanah tovah, a good year, a year filled with sweetness, a year of happiness for you and your loved ones.
Rosh Ha-Shanah Evening ~ 5774
Rosh Ha-Shanah Evening 5774
September 4, 2013
Shanah tovah! Happy new year and welcome — welcome home! Tonight we begin our ten-day celebration, our annual ten-day family reunion. We come home to be with each other every year at this time. Just like other families, some of us have been in touch with others regularly throughout this year, others we haven’t seen in a while. Some of us know a lot of people here and others know a few, if any. Some of us have been part of the Shaarey Zedek family for years; for some this is the first time you are joining us in our home – your home. No matter which category you fit into, b’rukhim ha-ba’im – welcome! Welcome home! It’s wonderful to see you!
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, teaches that
The synagogue has always been the home base for the Jews. No matter how religious or how secular, Jews know that the vault that safeguards our values, our community, and our identity is the shul. By returning to the synagogue during the Days of Awe, by affiliating with a congregation, we pledge our renewed loyalty to God, Torah, and to the Jewish people…
[“Already Forgiven,” September 23, 2006 / 1 Tishrei 5767, www.ajula.edu]
Shaarey Zedek is our home. Each of us comes from a different place, a different background, and yet something draws us here tonight as we begin the new year. Jews around the world flock to synagogues at this time of year, each with his or her own reasons for coming. We are drawn here – to our synagogue — to be with our people.
The word “synagogue” is a Greek word meaning “a bringing together, an assembly.” And, indeed, that is one of the three traditional definitions of a Jewish congregation: we are a Beit K’nesset (a house of assembly, a house of gathering); we are also a Beit Tefillah (a house of prayer) and a Beit Midrash (a house of study).
A congregation cannot be just one or two of these; it must be all three: a house of assembly, a house of prayer, and a house of study. No other Jewish institutions, as worthwhile and important as they are, provide all of this. As our president noted in his remarks earlier this evening, this is where it all happens. The synagogue is the mainstay of Jewish life. The synagogue is our home away from home.
What do we do here during these ten days? We use these days to consider what we have done and who we have become this past year. We contemplate the gap between our highest ideals and our actual behavior. We seek to make amends. Rabbi Artson suggests three tools that Judaism offers us in accomplishing our task:
First, tefillah (prayer): Some of us struggle with the words of our prayer book. I don’t mean the Reform version versus the Conservative version, but rather the traditional High Holy Days prayers and imagery that evoke God as the shepherd assessing the flock, deciding who will be inscribed in the Book of Life and who in the Book of Death this year. And yet despite these very legitimate difficulties and struggles, which have gone on for centuries, there is still something special about hearing those unique and distinct melodies, praying the words that our ancestors, our families, have prayed for generations and generations and generations.
Second, kehillah (community): We support each other during these Days of Repentance, these Days of Awe, allowing all of us an opportunity to “check-in,” to review our actions, all with the support of a community. By coming together and repeating the ancient prayers of confession — where we say “for the mistakes we have made,” instead of “for the mistakes I have made,” allowing all of us to confess publically, but without embarrassment — we offer ourselves as each other’s kehillah, each other’s community, each other’s support system, each other’s “safe place.”
And finally, tzedakah (usually translated as “charity,” but more correctly translated as “righteous giving”): This, the third of Rabbi Artson’s “tools,” allows us the opportunity as a congregation, as a community, to make the world a bit better by doing our collective best to help others.
The late Conservative rabbi, Rabbi Aaron M. Wise, wrote the following about this time of year:
…There is something more to Rosh Hashana than asking God for favors. This is a time to evaluate our lives… this is a time to recall our achievements and our failures. This is a time to ask: “What is life all about anyway?”
The High Holy Days represent the “spiritual pause that refreshes.” Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur signal us to STOP…LOOK…LISTEN! It is time to stop running, to look at yourself, to listen to your life.
[“How Much Time Do You Have?” in The American Rabbi, December 1979, vol. 12, no. 3, pp.15-16]
And so we come to the synagogue during these Ten Days of Repentance to do just that: to stop…to look…to listen. We stop, just for a little while, to review our lives, to ask ourselves the eternal question: “What is life all about anyway?” We look to our community to provide support, to hold us up when we are down. [And] we listen to the teachings of our tradition, the teachings of our people. These Yamim Nora’im, these Days of Awe, help us to evaluate our lives, to remind ourselves of what is really important in life.
So welcome home, my friends. Welcome home. May this congregation be your home away from home. And may these Days of Awe be for you the “spiritual pause that refreshes.” May they provide you with what you need to make this new year a shanah tovah, a good year, a year filled with sweetness, a year of happiness for you and your loved ones.
Kein y’hi ratzon.
May this be God’s will.