Preparing to Face the Unexpected

Erev Rosh Hashana Service, 5768

by Rabbi Margaret Jacobi

We are gathered here again for Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of another Jewish year.  Some of us have not come together since last year.  All of us are aware that some who were with us last year are absent now.  We miss their presence, perhaps even more acutely at this special time.  We are also all the more aware that we do not know what the next year will bring.  Who knows what will befall us?  Life is uncertain and unpredictable.

No prayer expresses that sense of foreboding, fear even, than the Un’taneh tokef, which we will recite in our service tomorrow morning.  It tells us that on this day, all creation stands arrayed in judgment before God. God records our deeds and judges on them.  We, in our Liberal Machzor, have softened the prayer. The traditional version states: ‘On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, how many shall pass away and how many shall be born; who shall live and who shall die; who by fire and who by water...’  and so it continues.   God makes a ‘decree’. We do not know what the decree is, but it hangs over us for the year to come.

The prayer was written in mediaeval times, when life was even more uncertain than it is for us.  It seems to reflect a real sense of fatalism. There is a heavenly decree which determines our lives.  It startles us from our complacency, making us aware of what may befall us in the year to come.  We are reminded of our mortality.   If someone close to us dies or is struck down by illness, or if we suffer from a serious illness ourselves, we tend to re-evaluate our lives and think about what our priorities really are, realising that we may not have all the time in the world to do what is really important . The Un’taneh tokef, too, helps us to think about our lives before it is too late.

But Judaism is not a fatalistic religion. We are not supposed to accept the world as it is. The image of God sitting in judgement is a powerful metaphor, but we do not believe literally that God determines directly the course of our lives.  Rather,  the things that happen to us are frequently random, or follow the course of nature or are a consequence of our own actions.  But God can help us respond to what befalls us.

If we think further about the U’n’taneh tokef prayer, it, too, is not a final judgement. It continues with the well-known words, ‘But repentance, prayer and good deeds annul the severity of the judgement.’  It has often been pointed out that we are not told that repentance, prayer and good deeds annul the judgement, only that they annul its severity. There are things in life that we cannot avert.  We have to recognise that we must all face death at some time, and we do not know when that time will come. But we can be better prepared to face our own mortality.  Repentance, prayer and penitence, each in its own way,  can help prepare us for what life brings.  Repentance is a call to examine our deeds and our lives.  True repentance involves honesty about whether we are living up to the best of our nature. It calls us to ask questions about our relationships to those closest to us.  It asks of us whether we are using our gifts to the full and for the benefit of others rather than for selfish gains.   It demands of us to work on ourselves so that we may be able to answer more nearly ‘yes’ to those questions in the year to come. 

Prayer is part of that process of scrutiny.  It helps us open ourselves to the mystery of life, which we call God.  As Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg puts it: ‘The purpose of prayer is to humble us in God’s presence, to comfort and include us in a greater life, to nourish and inspire us and to remind our spirit of the flame of which it is a part.’ Prayer can help us to connect to a deeper reality from which we can draw strength. The more we pray by reaching out to God with all our hearts, the more we can find in a God a source of strength in the darkest times.

And finally, good deeds can help us. It is not that they are recorded on some heavenly ledger, to be added up and reckoned. But they do add up in another way. The more we do good to others, the more other people are there for us when we need them.   People have sometimes told me what support they have derived from our congregation at times of need. Often, they are the very people who have given to others and been there for them, without any thought of reward.  The more love and care we give, the more we find that love returned. In doing good deeds, we help to make the world a kinder, gentler place.

Together, repentance, prayer and good deeds can help us be the best that we can.  They can help us to lead richer, more meaningful lives, full of love and kindness.  Then, whatever comes, we can avert the severity of the judgement. The blow can be softened by the love and the lack of regret and bitterness about what has been.  Jonathan Wittenberg tells of the mother of a family he know, who died suddenly and young. During the days of mourning, a close relative said: ‘Her death was untimely and the number of her years incomplete. But she left no unfinished business: we knew that she loved us and she regularly said so; she knew that we loved her and we told her frequently.’

May we, in the year to come, so live that we are prepared to face whatever comes, knowing that we have lived life as best we can, sustaining others and in turn being sustained by them, and by God. So may we be judged for good and for blessing in the year to come.

Rabbi Margaret Jacobi

Birmingham Progressive Synagogue

Erev Rosh Ha-Shanah 5768 – 12th September 2007