U'vchen - and so

Erev Rosh Hashana Sermon, 5768

by Rabbi Aaron Goldstein

Paint-balling, assault courses and mind-games are often used by organisations intent on team-building and helping individuals within and as part of that team understand themselves. The Rabbinic equivalent might be the exercise that I set our A2J (Access to Judaism) group last week. They were given a shuffled pack of cards, each one with an aspect of the HHD liturgy that was unique to the particular services, written on the back. The group were wonderfully successful. I hope that apart from giving an appreciation of the HHD liturgy that is of benefit through this season it did indeed strengthen the relationships in this superb group.

The exercise itself reflects what we try to do at this season, during the Yamim Noraim. We take the shuffled pack of cards that represent our lives and try to create some order in them. We have the time to analyse the different cards and their importance to us. The exercise challenges us to get deeper and deeper into questioning what is important in our lives. As Rabbi Jack Reimer suggested, “The Days of Awe are not just a time in which we come before God and tell God what we need. God already knows what we need, perhaps better than we do. These days are a time for listening to God’s needs and for sharing in God’s dreams.”

For those of you whose minds work pictorially, the image is of the stone dropping into water, of concentric circles, that one might focus on. Concentric circles are those that share the same centre but have different radii. At the beginning of Elul, the month preceding the Yamim Noraim, we stand on the outside circle of our lives. If we are lucky we may get some way toward the stone at our core.

A by-product of the exercise with the A2J group was the realisation of the paucity of liturgy specific to tonight, the Erev Rosh Hashanah service. It allowed me to look at liturgy that I had taken for granted because it appeared in every service through the Yamim Noraim. They were the additions to the third berakhah - blessing - of the Amidah that is included in every HHD Amidah. They are a trilogy of tefillot (prayers) that all begin with the word, u’vchen. (They are on page 65 – 66 if you wanted to see them.). They represent our concentric circles and within them there is something for everyone: those who love the esoteric and those who prefer the concrete and tangible.

The u’vchen prayers mirror the format of Rosh Hashanah’s musaf service - the additional service. The Musaf service is dominated by the three sections of Malchuyyot, Zichronot and Shofarot. Both sets of prayers are extremely old, dating back at least to the Mishnah, the code of oral traditions that was complied by 200CE and in which contained much of the structure of the liturgy and some of our most important prayers are first mentioned in the Mishnah. I also wonder whether they took as their root even more ancient precedence. They remind me of the inner journey that our Torah star of Rosh Hashanah, Abraham, was motivated to go on when he first asked himself what God wanted of him. As the Torah reports, God says to Abraham that he should go from his homeland, from his home town and the final step from his father’s home. Each movement is from the universal, to the particular and then to the individual.

The first u’vchen prayer spans all time and all nations of the world. It calls for the hope that, one day, there may be a real United Nations, when all peoples unite to serve God in peace and harmony. This prayer is so ahead of its time. The author had probably never travelled further than here to Birmingham in his life, yet dared to dream that one day all nations of the world would unite. What incredible strength of thought. It is a prayer that is still far beyond our dreams and I am sure many lifetimes ahead of our ancestors who recited these words through the generations. The institution, the United Nations, has been tarnished beyond repair as far as many are concerned. Despite this, we express each year the belief that nations can unite, because our belief is older and more eternal than any institution. Therefore, the first u’vchen is a way of telling God that we still believe in the Divine universal dream.

But do we? It seems that every year we come to the High Holydays and as we review the year just gone, we are dismayed that we do not seem to be much nearer to our United Nations dream. Our world view may be gloomy. Terrorism has once more blighted our world. The UK is looking for redirection after losing its way in Iraq and knowing that we will be in Afghanistan for many years to come. Russia seems to rather like the Cold War and we are no nearer to any understanding of the future health of our environment and the planet we all share.

However, perhaps there is a chink of light this year that offers us the real hope of u’vchen. The miracle of UN resolution 1769 which was unanimously adopted on the 31 July authorising the first serious intervention in what I see as a touchstone of humanity right no, Darfur. Sometimes our role in the United Nations can seem insignificant. U’ vchen says to me that we must pick our issues to work on. To feel small as a human being does not absolve us from trying to work towards a United Nations in some small way. How did we do it last year? Was it effective? Might we do something else or something differently this year?

The second u’vchen expresses the hope that we, the remnants of Am Yisrael, the People, Israel, might finally gain some respite from the troubles that have befallen us. In historical terms, we now live as Jews more comfortably in nearly every corner of the world, than our ancestors would ever have believed possible. I wonder if our age will in time be called a ‘Golden Age?’ It is true that anti-semitic attacks are increasing year on year but if we are to believe that there were none in the ‘Golden Age of Spain and Portugal,’ we would be deluding ourselves.

Whatever it is that causes anti-semitism, we know that it is not going to just disappear in our lifetime. Yet we have the opportunity to as the Jews of NPLS to support our fellow Jews with relative ease, so much so, that we sometimes forget our own. In this Shul we have done so much to remind ourselves of our duty to our fellow Jews. Nearly all the Judaica behind me is evidence of that. Just through our Shul you can support Jewry in the Former Soviet states that still suffers anti-semitism and poverty as I hope none of us every will. You can support the development of a Progressive Judaism in Israel that insures equal rights for all Jews. Right here in our community, you can support Jews who are in need at times of their lives through our unique care structure. U’ vchen says to me that we must pick our issues to work on. To feel small as a Jew does not absolve us from trying to work towards an Am Yisrael, a People, Israel that is free from anti-semtism or strife. How did we do it last year? Was it effective? Might we do something else or something differently this year?

The third and final u’vchen allows us to dream that one day righteousness will triumph over evil in this world. There is a very subtle development in the nouns of this tefillah. It begins in the plural: may the tzadikim, chasidim, yisharim – the righteous, those who are pious and upright of heart – celebrate and rejoice. Then the second half moves to the singular. May, olatah, rishah, and zadon – violence, evil and tyranny vanish. We do not pray for the destruction of evil people but of the evilness within them. In this tefillah we do not cry for vengeance but for others to act as we hope we will be able to do now, to acknowledge what is good about us and that which is not.

We do not want others to just define us by being a Jew, by being male or female, young or old, liberal or conservative as we try to not to define others by one characteristic. We acknowledge that we are complex beings and just as others find us difficult to comprehend at times, so we find ourselves a mystery. U’ vchen says to me that we must pick our issues to work on. To feel small as a human being, as a Jew, as I, does not absolve us from trying to work towards an improved self. How did we do it last year? Was it effective? Might we do something else or something differently this year?

U’ vchen – and so. As I went on the journey of thinking about these prayers I became more and more focussed – there was the concrete, the active physical journey that I could see myself on.

U’ vchen – and so. As I thought more and more about that word, in the pause after it left my mouth or entered my mind, there was space. In that space was everything that was possible in my year ahead. In that space I felt that I could write my name in the Book of Life.

Perhaps the Days of Awe are not just a time in which we come before God and tell God what we need. God already knows what we need, perhaps better than we do. Perhaps these days are a time for listening to God’s needs and for sharing in God’s dreams.

Just like Abraham, just like the Rabbis of the Mishnah, just like every Jew in every generation and in every corner of the world now, let us enter that space together.

U’ vchen – and so.

Rabbi Aaron Goldstein

Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue

Erev Rosh Ha-Shanah 5768 – 12th September 2007