ROSH HASHANAH I

5770

How do we see ourselves when we look in the mirror?  The purpose of the High Holy Days is to be concerned with how we look on the inside.  When Billy Crystal said that what is important is not whether we feel marvelous but that we look marvelous, he was not necessarily teaching Torah.

During this season, especially, we are to engage in what is called in Hebrew, heshbon hanefesh.  This means taking a detailed account, as an accountant would, of our lives.  Heshbon hanefesh is a prerequisite for fulfilling the mitzvah of teshuvah— taking ownership of our behavior and determining what we need to do to improve ourselves and contribute  more significantly to making our world a better place.  This is not complicated to understand in principle.  Doing it is another matter; heshbon hanefesh and teshuvah require clear consciousness and serious work. Perhaps this is why there are so few who actually do it.

Philo, an ancient Jewish philosopher, taught that we must never close our inner eye.  Recently a bat mitzvah parent quoted from the Little Prince reminding us that: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly and that what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  When we look only at the surface of life, we are not seeing.  If there is no inner vision, we will perish spiritually.  When we train ourselves to see beneath the surface and go deep, we become wiser.  Some people feel badly when they see their physical selves in the mirror.  Rosh HaShanah instructs us to be concerned if our moral-ethical appearances are shabby.  Our rabbis encourage us to know that we not only must get in shape but that we actually can.

On this Rosh HaShanah, how honest are we going to be?  How self-critical are we able to be of ourselves, our people, Israel, America?  We are obligated to see clearly and honestly what there is to see when we look in the mirror.  Will we do this and thereby not miss the opportunity to grow, improve and become better?  Being critical like this requires truthfulness, perseverance and courage but also understanding, confidence and patience.

Studies show that many of us are incapable of self-criticism, we cannot evaluate ourselves, our behavior or our opinions in context of different views and values.  Some of us see the need to be open minded, others do not.  Nicholas Kristof writes of the importance to read and expose ourselves to different ideas and positions.  He references studies that address the issue of the psychology of bias.  What we open our minds to is what we open our eyes and ears to.  If our hearts are closed to difference and change, then our minds, eyes and ears are as well.  These studies show that this bias is present in self-identified liberals and conservatives.

Seeing and considering other viewpoints may result in change for us just as seeing ourselves honestly will demand change as well.  Many of us will not change how we see anything because if we change one view, one position, one opinion, we fear everything may come unraveled.  The special psalm for this season, Psalm 27, concludes by telling us that we must be strong, courageous and have hope.  Personal growth and Rosh HaShanah demand a great deal of us.  This is anything but child’s play? 

There are Israelis and Jews throughout the world who love Israel and want Israel to be the best possible country living by the highest social, political and ethical standards.  Yet for some Jews, especially many American Jews, any criticism of Israel by a Jew brings forth the accusation of being a self-hating Jew.  Such Jews accusing other Jews as such are not seeing clearly.  Nor are those who criticize Israel without love, sympathy and understanding seeing clearly.  For many American Jews Israel is not a concern or interest.  They do not visit Israel or encourage their children and grandchildren to.  These Jews certainly are not seeing what there is to see.

Do we see ourselves as different but equal to all others in G-d’s universe or, better than others?  Rosh HaShanah commemorates the sixth day of creation when human beings were created.  Our tradition teaches that all people are created equally as children of G-d, each person in the divine image.  On Rosh HaShanah we pray for the entire world, not just for us and the Jewish people.  These rabbinic teachings challenge us to look into the mirror to see how we regard other human beings, especially those different from ourselves. 

Too many of us think about and talk about African-Americans, gay people, immigrants and many others in dehumanizing and degrading language.  Some of us are not even aware of doing this.  Our own yiddishisms— shiksa, sheigetz, shvartza, goyim—are pejorative, discriminatory and racist.  Too many of us deny our racism, homophobia and chauvinism.  We can never work on ourselves when we refuse to see what is in the mirror.

What about parents whose children have serious problems but will not acknowledge them, yet alone do anything about them?  Parents who do not see how significant they are as role models for our children in everything from how to behave in synagogue or at school, how to treat others and talk about others, how to be charitable and honest, compassionate and modest.  Can helicopter parents see themselves and what they are doing?  Can parents see the harm in over-programming our children in regard to their schedules, the pressure and stress, the driving them to always have to be the best and succeed?  Are parents communicating the message that real success has to do with living mentshlikh, honest, giving and caring lives and not with being rich and famous.  What messages are we giving them about the importance of family and friendships, of synagogue and religious school, the importance of Shabbat and holidays, the importance of prayer and spirituality, the importance of Yom HaShoah and Yom HaAtzmaut, the importance of the JCC and of being involved in our Jewish community?  Parents are the messengers and these are the real and essential Jewish parental messages.  Will we allow ourselves to see this?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks tells us that the sin of Adam and Eve was that they did not see what they needed to see.  They did not see that they are responsible.  Adam did not see that Eve did not make him eat of the tree and Eve did not see that the snake did not make her.  When we blame, we blind.  When we accept responsibility, we illumine.  When we see that our decisions, priorities and life styles significantly determine our lives and destinies and not some divine intervention or mere happenstance, we are seeing clearly.

What kind of world do we live in where children are prohibited from hugging other children in school but in dozens of states paddling and other such punishments are still permitted?  What kind of world are we living in where people are more concerned with the right to carry guns in parks and at political rallies than they are with the frightening amount of violence in our society?  Where too many are concerned with being able to drive our gas guzzling cars—usually with only the driver in it—than with supporting the development of cleaner mass transit.  Where people are more concerned with their rights being violated by prohibiting smoking in public places, requiring seat belts or legislating environmental laws than they are with the health and safety of themselves and others and with the air we breathe and the water we drink.  Where people are more concerned with their own life styles and taxes than with finding ways to provide quality health care for everyone and quality education for every child.  When we see these and other issues through our pockets, we are unable to see at all.  It is right in the mirror.  Straight up, right in front of us.

As Jews, we are to see that there is a purpose to life and to our being here.   Rephrasing a line from the movie Blazing Saddles: “Are we here for a purpose or are we just goofing off.”  We Jews have always seen ourselves as being tracked down by history to serve.  In a beautiful song by Dar Williams, she sings: “The world is not falling apart because of me.”  That very well may be true.  However, the Jewish song is: “Even though the world may not be falling apart because of me, I am responsible to do my best to heal and fix the world.”  When we see this, we are seeing clearly; when we sing this song we are singing in harmony.

Do we have in our hearts tikkun Olam and not just talk it?  Olam is the entire world; not just our families, not just Israel and the United States— it is the entire world and us!  It is Darfur and the Rain Forests, it is all the victims of human trafficking and the melting polar ice caps; it is hunger and homelessness in Cincinnati and sickness and disease in Africa.  Tikkun Olam is the entire world and yes, you and I, and all the Jewish people are part of and responsible for this world.  When we see this, we are seeing clearly.

Do I see myself as part of something much, much bigger than “me?”  Do you?  What are we teaching and telling our children about life, why we are here and what it means to be a Jew and a human being?  These are the questions to be asking on Rosh HaShanah.  These are the issues for which we should be taking an account of our souls, doing a heshbon hanefesh, on Rosh HaShanah.  Do we see ourselves at the center of the world or, do we see the well-being of the world at the center of our lives?  Are we concerned with having a good life or being good to life? 

What do fundamentalist evangelical Christians and secular environmentalists see that has brought them together?  They see clearly what are rabbis saw thousands of years ago that there is only one world and if we destroy this world there will no other.  Environmentalism, education, health care, programs for the hungry and homeless have nothing to do with politics.  They have everything to do with mitzvahs.  How can any one not see this?  It is so perfectly clear.     

The Baal Shem Tov taught that every person has a part of the universe for which he or she is responsible.  This is a four cubit area around every person that is considered by Jewish law an extension of oneself, thus is every person at any time wherever one may be responsible for these four cubits on all sides.    Whether it is a plant or a person, a piece of litter or a crying child, an injured animal or an injured soul, we are responsible.  How different would our world be, our own lives be, if we all lovingly and dedicatedly took care of these four cubits?  If we could just see them and our responsibility for them.  Dylan nails this when he sings: “Everybody will say when comes the big fire storm, I’m not to blame, I did not ask to be born.”  Just four cubits, all overlapping, connecting the entire world.  Can we see this?  Can we see that this has nothing to do with blame and it has everything to do with why we were born?

Do we see the need to recite—traditionally or in our own special and personal ways—blessings everyday?  Do we see how blessings make us aware of all that we have and consume, and sharpen the focus on our responsibility?  Are our children being taught to look at things this way or just to see the world being here for them to use and enjoy?  Are we able on Rosh HaShanah to be honest about our own over indulgence and our children’s sense of entitlement and how spoiled and indulged they are?  Can we see this?  It is hard, it is very hard for us.  Will we permit ourselves to see this?

Are we radically amazed with life.  When I miss a beautiful sunset, a harvest moon, a rainbow or a shooting star because I am preoccupied, distracted or not interested, I not only miss the sensory pleasure and experience, but I miss a moment of consciousness as to the majesty and mystery of this Universe, the miracle of life and the fact that as small as I may be, I am part of this infinite and eternal creation.  When I see this clearly, I feel responsible.  Do we see that if we do not fill ourselves with the present moment—if we are always thinking of what is coming next, what we don’t have and want, where we want to be which of course is too rarely where we are—then we will always be running on empty.  To fill ourselves up we have to see what is nourishing and nurturing and that will truly fuel our lives. 

We know that Jewish law requires witnesses in many situations.  Witnesses testify to what they know, what they see.  What do we see?  What do our lives bear witness to for an objective observer, for G-d?  When the accounting is done, what will the bottom line say?  By doing our own heshbon hanefesh, our own soul searching and self-examination, our own critiquing of our lives, we are able to determine for ourselves what our bottom line will be.

When we look in the mirror, let us see our G-d given potential, strengths and  goodness so that we will deservingly and justifiably feel marvelous.  So that we will not only see with clear vision but what we will see will bring a sense of well being and fulfillment to ourselves and others, to our people and to the world and bring much nachus to G-d.  When G-d looks at us, what does G-d see?  When we look into the mirror, what do we see?

SHANAH TOVAH.