Welcome back to Torah Thoughts from Adas Israel, the Jewish Congregation of Northern Iowa, based in Mason City. First up a reminder that Kol Nidre services will start at 7:00PM on Wednesday the 15th with Yom Kippur services starting at 10:00AM on the 16th all at the shul. Morning services will be roughly two hours including the Memorial Service and then a break. We will resume at 5:30PM with a Torah Reading so please be with us. Break Fast will be at roughly 7:45PM.
Holy Days or Holidays
Rabbi Yitzchak Zweig has an interesting comment about words. The ten-day period that begins with the two days of Rosh Hashanah and ends with Yom Kippur (Sept. 16) are known as Aseres Yemei Teshuvah or the “Ten Days of Repentance.” These days are also known as Yomim Noraim or the “Days of Awe.” In the United States, these days are commonly referred to as the “High Holy Days.”
It's interesting to note that the term High Holy Days rather markedly points to the connection between the words “holy day” and “holiday”; the word holiday actually comes from the Old English hāligdæg, from hālig (holy) + dæg (day). Literally speaking, a “holiday” is supposed to be a “holy day.”
This concept dates back to the time when the vast majority of humanity worked very hard just to provide themselves with food and shelter. Holidays were primarily a religious day of rest and reflection that revolved around attending religious services. These were days set aside for spending time with our families and friends and communing with the Almighty.
Not coincidentally, the Hebrew word “shabbat” also means to rest, and for observant Jews the Sabbath day revolves around disconnecting from their very busy work week lives. For 25 hours every week they go “off the grid” and refocus their energies; attending synagogue, studying Torah, celebrating festive meals with family and friends, and meditating on the meaningful elements of their lives.
Yom Kippur
The Holy Day of Yom Kippur begins at sundown with a short service known as Kol Nidre. It is, put simply, a prescribed method of releasing us of vows made to G-d that we have not met. Those vows we have made to humans we must keep. But, G-d knowing that we often stumble gives us this "way out" if you will. For example. If we made a religious vow to not eat a cheeseburger but we relapse and order one... Or we vow to put on Tefillin each morning but fail to do that. Again...Kol Nidre. But if we promise to mow somebody's lawn and fail that is between the two people.
If you are familiar with the liturgy of Yom Kippur you know that much of the service contains a very heavy dose of demonstrative remorse in the form of breast beating accompanied by a litany of words of confession and regret. Naturally, this leads to an incredibly somber mood and synagogue atmosphere. Refraining from all food and drink for 25 hours compounds the misery.
Repentance...Repentance!
Channeling our best Tevye and rather than saying, "Tradition...Tradition" we might think "Repentance...Repentance". We spend the entire time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur considering repentance. Then on Yom Kippur we get really serious about it all. Yet, and this is interesting, repentance can happen at any time.
Regarding the obligation to repent we find the verse, “This commandment that you are charged (to obey) isn’t hidden nor far off from you” Deut. 30:11) The brilliant medieval Spanish scholar and philosopher known as Nachmanides concludes that this verse is referring to the mitzvah of repentance. Nachmanides continues; “this mitzvah is, in fact, not hard to do and it can be done at all times and in all places.”
How can that be? Shouldn't we spend hours in shul praying and begging for...forgiveness?
This is what Nachmanides means when he says that real repentance is easy. Merely trying not to sin by resolving to control one’s behavior is like trying to solve the symptoms of an illness without addressing the root cause. Not only is it supremely difficult to try and manage – it is simply ineffective.
Our mission on Yom Kippur is to explore who we really want to be and commit to being that type of person. Just like a person who has committed to keeping kosher isn’t really tempted by a cheeseburger because it doesn’t exist in his universe, so too committing oneself to a new definition of what kind of person you want to be will result in more control over how you behave. That is, once we define what we want our essence to be then we can naturally align our behavior to meet that new reality.
Parsha Vayelech - Deut. 31
This week we read of the last days of Moses, our teacher. The parsha begins with Moses passing the torch of leadership to Joshua. Moses then gives Joshua a command/blessing, which applies to every Jewish leader: “Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid or feel insecure before them. G-d your Lord is the One who is going with you, and He will not fail you nor forsake you.”
Moses writes the entire Torah and gives it to the Cohanim and Elders. He then commands that in the future at the end of the Shmita (Sabbatical Year) the king should gather all the people during the Succot festival and read to them the Torah so “[…] that they will hear and learn and fear the Lord your God and be careful to perform all the words of the Torah.”
The Almighty describes in a short paragraph the course of Jewish history. If you wish to read this please go to Deut. 31:16 is where it starts. Lastly, before Moses goes to “sleep with his forefathers,” he assembles the people to teach them the song of Ha'azinu, the next weekly Torah portion, to remind them of the consequences of turning against the Almighty.
See you in Shul!