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Worship // From the Rabbi's Study Rabbi's Monthly Message
What Will I be speaking about this High Holidays?
It is so hard to focus. As technology enables us to have constant access to simultaneous streams of information it takes greater effort to focus on one issue for an extended period of time. There is a tab I can click on to check my email…for both accounts. There are blogs that quickly summarize complicated issues giving me the illusion that I am actually metabolizing them. The expectations that we will respond to calls and emails quickly have increased, reducing the likelihood that responses will be thought through and thoughtful. It is not surprising then that when it comes to issues in our family life, communal life, country and world we are tempted to jump to quick conclusions and most problematically, conclusions that comport with our preconceived notions and preferences. It takes time to meditate, reflect, and examine. In this culture of rapid processing we run the risk of not opening our minds and hearts until we are confronted with crisis.(Hint: the answer is at the end of this article!) Todah l’eil- Thank God that there is a time when we come together as an entire community in a three day protest against a culture that benignly conspires to promote surface understandings and interactions. On the holiest days of the Jewish calendar we commit to thinking deeply about our relationships, political and moral issues in our community and country and our responsibilities as a human being to personal honesty and reflection. We spend those days prepared to let go of ways we didn’t even know we had become accustomed to so that we can see the world as it is. So that we can actually see the person in front of us. We see the world as it is in order to then picture how it ought to be and in what ways we can be the bridges between the reality and the dream. Our prayer space at Bet Torah is beautiful and on a Shabbat morning it projects a sense of community and inclusiveness. A sense that it is about the community gathered, not necessarily the person who happens to be on the bimah at any given moment. The High Holiday set up into our wonderful social hall does threaten to incorrectly reorient our senses as all seems projected towards the front. One could easily walk into the room and mistakenly assume that, similar to a movie theater, we are here to be inspired, entertained, moved and convinced to change by what comes at us. In all reality the meditation, reflection and examination I referred to earlier may be occasionally influenced by what happens up front but is ultimately an internal responsibility. It is therefore not possible to walk into shul on the high holidays and expect something to happen without having done some thinking about what one intends to bring into that space. The heart can flutter but it cannot Twitter. We cannot summarize our deepest concerns in one line, nor can we expect to enter the high holidays with little thought. I encourage you before the holidays to talk with your spouse, partner, children, friends or simply consider for yourself answers to the following questions: • What ongoing issues am I personally struggling to resolve? • Who has disappointed me this past year? Who have I disappointed? • What am I grateful for and who have I yet to give thanks to? • What communal and global issues must I think more deeply about? What issues have I too quickly come to conclusions about? • What question have I not asked myself but I know that I need to? This year, assisting our process of teshuvah (repentance), we have a new High Holiday Machzor called Lev Shalom (A Full Heart). It is a publication of the Conservative Movement that has an accessible layout, includes prayer commentary, translation and transliteration and readings, poems and thoughts that allow one to pray, learn and meditate on an idea. We are grateful to Steve and Roberta Kloper for generously donating enough copies for the congregation. Also, as we did last year, on the second day of Rosh Hashana we will remain together until the end of the service at which time I will deliver my sermon. This will allow more of the community to once again experience the signature melodies chanted by Cantor Herman and themes of the Musaf service to which I will call our attention. So what will I be speaking about this High Holidays? Well at press time for the Message I can at least tell you what I plan to talk about on Rosh Hashanah. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah I will address the issues surrounding the Cordoba Islamic Center that is planned for construction near Ground Zero. On the second day of Rosh Hashanah I will discuss the marriage of a local resident- otherwise known as “Chelsea and Marc’s wedding”. I am very much looking forward to seeing you all during the coming holidays. So many of you have actively contributed to my family being able to enter these holidays with a warm feeling that we are sharing them with “our” community. Rabbi Aaron Brusso
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