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On Erev Rosh Hashanah, I laid out a problem before you. The problem was that the abbreviated letters for this new year of 5771, were taf-shin-ayin-alef. We use the abbreviation because Chameishet alafim u’shva mei’ot v’shivim v’echad is a bit of a mouthful! Those who are Hebrew scholars and those who took Hebrew programmes in the Shul last year may see identify a problem of pronouncing these letters together. You see the last two are both silent! So how on earth do we pronounce them glottal stops and voiced pharyngeal fricative creating a velar nasal sound, and all. Well to find out how, you will need to go on line to see that sermon.
However, being a simple, Ashkenazi (it was relevant) chap, I decided that the easiest pronunciation was Tashhhhh.
a unique, New Year gift? The year seeming to encourage us to do two things. The first is to perceive the silence and the second is to ponder our future.
The first we contemplated, in silence bar my voice and the sound of the fans on Erev Rosh Hashanah. I hope that it also brought enhanced meaning to your reading of Un’taneh Tokef Rosh Hashanah morning. Let us consider the second this morning of Shabbat Shuvah - to ponder our future.
As well as create the sound of silence, Tashhhhh, is also a call to action. The final letters of the year seventy-one, ayin-alef, demands of us to define it. What will this year bring?
This year, Shabbat Shuvah falls on 9/11. For many, the date will be a moment of return as it will for every subsequent year. It has become a yahrtzeit of global proportions. 9/11 was the zenith of the new age of sophisticated, high-tech terrorism. Regardless of how simply or ingeniously it is inflicted, terrorism is still a hard, blunt instrument. We think of Gilad Shalit in his fourth year of captivity. 9/11 also ushered in a response that now feels almost as blunt as the instrument of terror it was trying to halt. When will the killing, the dying stop in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Certainly not when the world is so perverse as to allow a bigoted, freak man who masquerades his message under the guise of a pastor to a virtually empty church, to steal every headline, of every newspaper and newsreel - red-topped or supposedly quality. A freak in Gainesville Florida is allowed to communicate to the world, winding up others who have an equally perverted understanding of religion. How I wish to turn off the technology, stop the so-called advancements. Perhaps if we did then…
Well, it isn’t going to happen and nor should we allow our world and its development to be held to ransom by those who wish to view, air and be the stars of a global freak-show, no matter how disgusting it is.
Rather, the silent call to action of Tashhhhh, calls to us to focus on the ourselves. To focus inward just as we began to do through Elul, or more than likely on Rosh Hashanah. We need that stage of thinking, or silence to be in a position to positively work through how we will act in the year ahead.
Tashhhhh… now calls us to write the story of the year. There will be the macro that is beyond our control, there will even be those things so much closer to us that the touch us intimately so as to affect our lives. Yet so much is also in our control. It is of this moment that Rabbi Jack Reimer wrote this poem and through it an opportunity for us to meditate on what we would like to affect more positively this year.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God to end war;
For we know that You have made the world in a way
That we must find our own path to peace
Within ourselves and with our neighbors.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end starvation;
For You have already given us the resources
With which to feed the entire world,
If we would only use them wisely.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to root out prejudice;
For You have already given us eyes
With which to see the good in all,
If we would only use our eyes rightly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end despair;
For You have already given us the power
To clear away slums and to give hope,
If we would use our power justly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end disease;
For You have already given us great minds
With which to search out cures and healings,
If we would only use them constructively.
Therefore, we pray to You instead, O God,
For strength, determination, and willpower,
To do instead of just to pray,
To become instead of merely to wish.
These Yamim Noraim – these Days of Awe – may our prayers help us to meditate on how we can act in our lives for good. Mekor Chayeinu Source of all life, provide us the insight into our souls that we desire, to understand our true selves, if just for a moment. Mekor Chochmeinu, Source of wisdom, enlighten us if only for a second, to direct our year. Mekor Takneinu – Source of renewal, grant us the strength to act and define this year that demands defining, of Tashhhhh… |
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