Coming to the Holy Days

In the beginning, G-d created. . . teshuva (repentance or return).  Ancient sources speak of teshuva preceding the world’s creation. Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer goes so far to state that teshuva was part of the blueprint for the world.  In other words, the world could not exist without it.

Rashi adds that justice and mercy are two sides of the same coin.  Remove one of them and you no longer have a whole coin.  The universe requires both. This is such a critical idea is because this is the season of “letting go.”  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are workbenches for us; they are opportunities to reshape our lives.  

How do we do this? 

1.    Confession.  Come to G-d with a mind full of breaches of faith, failures of action, and harsh criticisms of others.  Know them. State them.  Bring them the Sanctuary of G-d.

If, when preparing to daven, you own and acknowledge personal flaws by specifically naming them (speaking them aloud to G-d) there can be personal forgiveness.  This is part of the liturgy “(For the sin we have committed by….”) except we are supposed to pronounce  our personal warts, not other’s.

2.    Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua became ill. Rav Pappa went up to inquire about him, and saw that Rav Huna was on the brink of death. Rav Pappa told people around him, “Supply him with provisions for his journey (i.e. prepare burial shrouds).”  Ultimately, however, Rav Huna recovered.

“What did you see?” they asked Rav Huna.  He said, “I was about to die, but at the last moment, the Holy One, Blessed is He, said to the Heavenly Tribunal, ‘Since he does not stand on his principle, we cannot be strict against him.’ As it is stated, He pardons transgression and overlooks sin. Whose transgression does He pardon? One who overlooks sins committed against himself.” –Talmud

Forgive others. Let go of past hurts.  As the story indicates holding past grudges affects us, not them.

L’Shana Tova Tikateyvu, May you be inscribed for a good year.

Rivke and Rabbi Jonathan Case

On Choice

“I dwell in possibility.” Emily Dickinson

In our imaginations anything is possible.  Sometimes our night dreams are an extension of those imaginings.  We conjure up images of vacations, vast wealth, great fortune, friends surrounding us with nods of approval and so much more.  That is why we embrace external changes with such gusto.  Buying the new I-watch will bring us closer to what we know we can become. The same can be said for any acquisition, experience or discovery.   The downside to innovations is becoming overwhelmed by their pace.

Let’s face it, life is challenging.  It takes a strong swimmer to keep up with the currents of change.  From watches to cars, innovation comes at a breathless pace.  Some of it we welcome.  Some we do not.

In the classic Marx Brothers movie, “Horse Feathers,” Groucho loudly sings, “Whatever it is, I’m against it!”  Frankly there are some times when we want to declare, “Enough already!  I’d like a little stability. Enough change!”

We live between these polar extremes of stability and change.  We want both.  At the same time.

We therefore attempt to navigate life between change and predictability.  For example is it true, “No one likes surprises?”  Sometimes.  I bet everyone has been guilty of saying both, “I love surprises!” and “I hate to be surprised!”

I heard an interview with Avatar producer, James Cameron. He noted that NASA’s motto is “Failure is not an option.” Cameron takes the opposite view.  He says that failure is an option. What is not an option is lack of imagination. Cameron distills the argument down to its basic idea: We must find our place in the world of change.  While retaining our imagination, our dreams of what can be, we need not jettison our personal life’s choices.

An illustration: A sales manager assembled his team for a pep talk.  On the screen was a big white spot with a single black dot in the middle.

He asked, “What do you see?”  All replied, “A big black dot.”  The manager said, “That is a poor outlook.  Look at all the white space surrounding it.  Those are all possibilities which are far greater than the dot.”

As sales manager he was correct.  The job of the sales force is to make sales, see more potential customers.  But that does not have to be our outlook.  We can choose our own path in life. 

I hope you take time this summer to mull over the life you choose, your soul’s path.  All things are possible but the choice is always in your hands.

On Summer

        Grappling with the answer to ‘knowing why we are alive’ occupies so much of our time and energy.  There are times when we fully grasp the answer and we are exultant.  Other times we float in the void of not-knowing and are in despair.  During those moments of full self-disclosure life is utterly meaningful.  The largest question of life is how to live within that mind set...

Midrash: One of the young acolytes of Rabbi Akiva became ill.  Tilting toward death, the Master heard of his disciple’s danger. [Mind: this was one of thousands of aspiring students.]  Rabbi Akiva went to visit the ailing man.  Seeing that the room was drab and dark he opened the shutters, swept the room clear and brought him some hot broth.

Immediately, the young man began to sit up and recover his waning strength,

Rabbi Akiva then entered the Academy and pronounced, “Whoever does not visit the sick, it is as if they have snatched their life away.” 

            No act is ever committed in a vacuum.  There are ripple effects to every action we will have ever taken/ will ever take.  What is most disturbing is that we will never be aware of the full extent of our deeds.  All we have is the view in front of our eyes.  If we knew, for example, that our erratic driving caused someone to go home angry and start a fight with their family, we would seriously re-think our actions.  On the other hand, if we were aware of the full extent of the surprise phone call we made to a friend experiencing problems, we might call more often.  The fact is- we can not know these things.

            Riddle: what do you call someone sitting shiva alone? Answer: unrequited pain.  A death that had no response.

            One thing that we all share in common is loss.  No one gets through this world without the awful pain of death.  The typical Jewish response to death is shiva, bringing over meals for the bereft, showing up at minyans for the survivors, coming the funeral, following up with letters and calls...  All these responses to death ameliorate the pain.  The same is true of hospital stays, divorces and so much more.  Every visitor takes away a fragment of the pain when they leave.  Their presence and words gives meaning to life. 

            As once-upon-a-time you needed help and cried out, so it is with others.  What if we were created just for this specific purpose?  What if our lives had meaning only because of an event yet to unfold where our comfort was needed?

            I wish for all family members (that's you) a summer of opportunities to do both good deeds and mitzvot.  May our light dispel the darkness and through that light come meaning.

Just Justice

An ancient source states: “When the mountains bear grain, people enjoy peace.”

Want increases anxiety; it produces jealousy and desire.  When people have work, when they have income, when dependents look to them for sustenance – they generally act with care and deliberation.  On the other hand, when a society is fearful, when they look for food and find none, when work is sporadic or non-existent – people become suspicious and potentially hateful. 

A just society is one that has both expectations of the individual with attendant responsibilities along with the possibility of being lifted out of poverty when life becomes too oppressive.  We are our brother’s keeper and as such need to learn morality in our religious institutions and schools.  There is a right and wrong.

A great Jewish thinker once suggested that a ‘just society is determined by the way it treats its poor.’  Few people would ever doubt that the privileged are denied justice.  What we need to be concerned with is that the underprivileged receive the same treatment.

I therefore make two suggestions:

1. We need to constantly learn and teach not just mathematics and science but morality as well.

2. Everyone deserves the opportunity to work and learn and eat.  There are times in a person’s life when they are impoverished of spirit.  At such times, it is the responsibility of the larger community to help them reestablish their ability to be self-sufficient and a contributing member of society.

Monkey See

I don’t defend God.  Generally speaking, I am not on the payroll.    Still, people have expectations.  What I respond when asked about bad things and evolution is only what makes sense to me.

A friend in college said that some mathematician said that if you put enough monkeys in a room with typewriters, sooner or later they will come up with Shakespeare.  It turns out that it was Thomas Huxley who once stated in a debate that enough monkeys would produce Psalm 23. Huxley, after reading Darwin’s “Origin of the Species”, was so taken with the idea that he was Darwin’s staunchest ally against the anti-evolutionists.  Telling Darwin that he would “sharpen his claws” to flay the nonsensical advocates of religion, Huxley was dubbed “Darwin’s Bulldog.”

Mathematically, Huxley may have been correct.  Yet, somehow I doubt it.

Thomas Huxley made that remark to prove that life was random and that there was no Supreme Being.  I have seen coincidences in my life; life not being one of them.

Not long ago Plymouth University did a study of monkeys.  They placed six macaque monkeys in a room with a computer for four weeks.  What happened?  They pretty much ignored it.  Preferring to play with one another and generally frolic, one animal was noted to have hit the “s” key several times.  During the study the monkeys smashed the computer along with using it as a toilet. 

Frankly speaking, I see room for honest doubt.  In other words, agnosticism.  Yet, atheism seems as much a religion as Catholicism.  Or Hinduism.  Or Conservatism.  When I hear them speak of their absolute belief in nothing it sounds to me like dogma.

Professor Robert Jastrow, formerly head of NASA’s Goddard Space Center is an agnostic.  In his book “God and the Astronomers” Jastrow indicates that many of his colleagues refuse to accept the Big Bang theory of the universe.  Many of the fiercest opponents of the Big Bank oppose it because the theory implies a beginning.  A beginning implies a Prime Mover, something they cannot accept.  For some reason, many scientists –seemingly people who are shaped by empiricism, cannot bring themselves to confront the idea of God.  Who knows? Given enough scientists and a typewriter perhaps one of them would write a Psalm?  Naw.