Rabbi's Messages

Dear Friends,

The High Holidays, it has been noted, are late this year. True, Rosh Hashanah falls at the very end of September this year and it will be October by the time Yom Kippur comes around. Other years, it is universally accepted that the holidays are early, especially when Rosh Hashanah arrives sooner than the middle of September. There does not appear, in fact, to be such a thing as the holidays falling right on time.

I used to think that this was simply a matter of us not being ready for the holidays, and the serious introspection and self-examination that they demand. Of late, I have come to a somewhat different conclusion: it is not simply a matter of our readiness for the holidays, and for all that they demand of us. Rather, being Jewish has become so countercultural that Jewish time, and even Jewish sensibilities no longer determine the rhythm of our lives, as they did for Jews thousands of years before us. Jewish time has become something of an intrusion; concomitantly, Jewish observance, and, unconsciously, Jewish values have often become additive, rather than foundational, in our lives.

Until recently in human history, and particularly in Western civilization, individuals sought to place their own individual narratives in the context of a master narrative; recently the dynamic has shifted entirely, so that we seek to place the master narrative in the context of our individual narratives. This is not unique to Judaism and the Jewish community, but it does have a profound impact on who we are and who we are becoming. Rather than seeing ourselves as part of the Jewish people, whether born Jews, Jews by choice, or fellow travelers who have cast our lot with Jews and the Jewish people, many see ourselves as citizens of the world who live in the United States, and who happen to be connected with a synagogue and perhaps a larger Jewish community with which we have chosen to identify and affiliate. The practices, observances, and yes, demands of Jewish life have become part of an array of choices from which we pick and ultimately create a personal and familial identity. Absent, thank God, meaningful external pressure that forces us to confront what it means to be Jewish and maintain a Jewish identity, we are left with the challenge of determining what it means, for each of us, to be Jewish, to live a Jewish life, and what it means to be part of a Jewish people.

And yet … save for the Passover Seder, which for many is a one night, several hour experience, more of us participate in the ritual celebration of the High Holidays than any other Jewish activity. Clearly, convenient or not, intrusive or not, we respond to the impulse to take seriously the mandate will to mark this time of year, and to do so by examining ourselves, we are, and who we are becoming.

The High Holidays have never been more important than they are for us right now.