Your Choice

Living in the past.  Reflection over words not spoken; things not done; moments not seized, occupy how much of our lives?  It is not possible to accurately gauge how much lost time we have accumulated throughout the years of longing.  In fact, I reckon that many of the times when we could have taken advantage of another moment -that might well be savored in the future- we miss because we are living in the past.

            Reflection is helpful where we analyze history in order to affect a change in our future action, reaction or inaction but where the past becomes a fixed image to be replayed and relived, it carries us away from life.  We miss the movie because we are still watching the commercial.

            Eeyore, the ever-pained donkey of Milne fame, is “stuck again” because he really never got “unstuck.”  Once upon a time Eeyore found himself in a place where he felt helpless.  Now, every new situation produces the same response.  He is stuck in the past.

            So much of Judaism is consumed with meeting the present.  When we eat we are supposed to bensch (bless) the food.  We wake to utter words of appreciation at our own rebirth.  In each of these ways and countless more, the mitzvot seek to wake us from a reverie and project us into the present.

            Eliezer Silver was an American chaplain who was at the infamous death camps at liberation.  He went from prisoner to prisoner consoling the desperate, lonely and emaciated souls.  Rabbi Silver tried to infuse them with hope, renewal.  Surprisingly, most were grateful and deeply thankful.  Few were embittered from their hellish experiences.  One man Rabbi Silver attempted to comfort was too angry to accept any consolation.

“I have no use for you!  I have no use for religion,” he exclaimed.

“Tell me why,” asked Silver.

“I will tell you.  In the camp there was death and continual torture.  But I tell you there was one religious Jew that had a siddur.  Do you know what he did with it?  If someone wanted to pray they had to pay him with bread to use it!  You should have seen all the bread he took for that siddur!  That is why I have no use for religious Jews.”

            Rabbi Silver looked at this man and said, “Why do you focus on this one man?  And not the many other religious yidden who paid such a high price just to hold and use a holy prayer book?”

            We may have no choice over our circumstances but we always control the way we interpret them.  In the same way, we have the ability to listen to the many voices of the present and abandon the vapid sirens summoning us to emptiness.

New Moon

I like to call us “lunar-tics” because we gauge time by the moon.

Once per month we witness and bless the new moon (called Rosh Hodesh).  This is when a tiny sliver of the moon becomes visible in the sky.  It is a big deal.  Here’s the background:

Observers would watch and anticipate when the new moon would come by gazing meticulously at the nighttime sky.  When they spied the familiar shape in the heavens they ran to the great body of seventy scholars sitting in Jerusalem – the Sanhedrin - and would testify about what they had witnessed.  The Sanhedrin would interrogate them to be sure they were accurate.  Even then, their testimony would not be accepted until another witness came to corroborate their word.  Even then, both witnesses had to have an unimpeachable reputation.  If untrustworthy, their description would be discarded.

To this day we announce the approach of Rosh Hodesh in synagogues by embracing the Torah, standing as a congregation, and declaring the date of its arrival.

Why such a big deal over the sighting of the new moon?  If they were wrong the whole calendar would be askew.  Holy days would be celebrated at the wrong time.  Yahrzeits would be remembered on the wrong date. 

Only when the Sanhedrin determined that it was a new month would it be declared.  The month we are in now is called Tevet.  On January 21 the new moon will appear.  This one is called Shvat.

Problems arise however when certain holidays are supposed to be celebrated seasonally.  For example, Sukkot must come in the fall and Pesach in the spring.  Since each Rosh Hodesh comes 29 1/2 days apart there is a difference between the solar and lunar years (A solar year – the time it takes the earth to go around the sun – is 365 1/4 days - long while a lunar year is 355 days long).  What this means is that eventually Sukkot would come in the summer and Hanukka would be observed in the spring!  That is why we have a leap year to keep the lunar year in sync with the seasons.  Seven times every twenty-one years we add an extra month to keep us seasonally adjusted.

Tradition states that Rosh Hodesh is a time for blessing.  When we announce the arrival of the new month in synagogue we ask G-d’s blessings for health, a good life, and prosperity. 

If you take the Hebrew words and make them into an anagram Rosh Hodesh becomes like rechem, womb.  The new moon is supposed to be a time of new beginning, or rebirth.  Some actually celebrate Rosh Hodesh each month by refraining from work and devoting themselves to sacred tasks, such as study.

The ancient mystic rabbis were also aware that the moon sheds no light of its own; it only reflects the sun on the other side of the earth.  In much the same way the Jewish people reflect the light of G-d.  When we act is accord with the Holy One’s wishes we become beacons of light, mirroring the Divine.