October 4th: Rosh Hashanah
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
A few weeks ago, we read, “My father was a wandering Aramean,” the passage in Deuteronomy (26) with which our ancestors presented themselves and their sacrifices when they appeared before the Lord. Last week, we also read about appearing before the Lord: “Atem nitzavim / You are all standing here this day…before the Lord your God…to enter into God’s Covenant.” (Deuteronomy (29.1). Then, this week, the same message comes again. On Rosh Hashanah—also known as Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment, we stand before God once more. It is what we could call a seasonal theme—a theme reaches it most intense level on Yom Kippur when we stand before God and chant Kol Nidre.
Through Torah portions, prayers, and legends, our Tradition presents us with an exceedingly dramatic setting: we are assembled to stand before the Lord God of the Universe. And yet, the irony is that we are always in God’s Presence. We are always standing—or sitting or living—before God. God is always here, always with us, and always paying attention to us. As the Machzor reminds,
“You (God) know the mysteries of the universe as well as the secrets of every mortal. You search the deepest recesses of the human soul, and probe all our thoughts and motives. Nothing escapes You, nothing is concealed from You.”
The hope is that we can keep this basic fact in mind and maintain our integrity and good behavior. It is as the Psalmist imagines God’s intentions,
“Let me enlighten you and show you which way to go; let me offer counsel; my eye is on you.” (32.8)
When we read the words in our prayer books, we can focus on the intellectual content and have a lively conversation about whether what we read is true. Is there really a Book of Life, big book in which God writes our fates for the coming year? Do our prayers have any effect on them—either for better or for worse? Will God really seal the writing at the end of Yom Kippur—or is there perhaps some more time, after the Gates of Neilah close, for more repentance? There is a lot to think about, and smart people—like you and me—have minds that prompt such intellectual ponderings. However, at a certain level, it might be useful to stop all the chatter and give ourselves over to the spirit of the occasion—to engage the emotional and spiritual effects the dramatic imagery is intended to inspire. If we allow it, the traditional language can stimulate our awareness, our humility, and our serious self-reflection.
The legend of The Book of Life is only about 1400-1500 years old, and even though it is a popular part of the liturgy, its theology and persuasive power have always been up for discussion. One can even see some pushback. About a thousand years ago, the great pietist Bahya ibn Pakuda (Andalusia, 1050-1120) approached the idea of a Book of Life but suggested a slightly different dynamic. Instead of God writing in the Book, Reb Bahya imagined us as the authors. “Days are scrolls; write on them only what you want remembered.” We can even find alternative imagery in Un’taneh Tokef, the great prayer that formalizes the idea of writing our fates in the Book of Life—the prayer that ominously intones,
“Who shall die by fire and who by water, who by strangling and who by stoning…”
While it states directly,
“You write and You seal, You record and recount. You remember deeds long forgotten,”
there is also a kind of theological redirection:
“You open the book of our days, and what is written there proclaims itself, for it bears the signature of every human being.”
While the Tradition is clearly concerned with what God does, the point of our introspection and teshuvah is that we will decide to be better people—that we will write our own good fates. We can help or we can hurt. We can bless or we can curse. We are authors too of the mythical Book of Life, and we need to inspire ourselves to write blessings.
So, when we say “L’shanah Tovah Tikatayvu / May you be written in the Book of Life for a good year,” it is a multi-valent prayer. May God bless you with good things, and may you bless yourselves and everyone else with the goodness you have within.