Sermon for 1st morning of Rosh Hashanah 5783
September 26, 2022
As I explained in my Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon last night, I have decided to use the four added paragraphs in the High Holiday kedushah as my “chomer lidrosh” – that is to say, as the texts I’ll try to sermonize about – for my four High Holiday sermons. These are the four paragraphs that we find in the High Holiday machzor that are added to the third blessing of the Amidah. These are among the first major liturgical changes that distinguish our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers from the prayers we recite the rest of the year. And historians of Judaism tell us that these were among the earliest such additions to our standard liturgy.
Three of these paragraphs begin with the word “Uvechen” meaning “Therefore”. And the last of the four added paragraphs begins with the word “Vetimlokh” meaning “and You shall rule”.
In this morning’s Amidah we can find this material on pages 143-146. Let’s open our machzorim to p. 143 to refresh our memories.
That Hebrew section on the bottom of p. 143 is what I focused on last night --- especially the references to “Kawl haberu’im” --- all created beings forming “agudah achat” --- one collective fellowship -- so that God’s awesome presence might be felt “al kol mah shebarata” (over all that God has created.).
I suggested last night that that is a similar sentiment to what we find in the finale of Beethoven’s 9th symphony where the chorus sings about offering a kiss to all the world because all humanity are brothers and sisters. And that we are all under the providence of one heavenly parent – or as we might say in the language of Judaism – we are all under the loving care of --- Avinu Shebashamayim --- Hakadosh Barukh Hu.
Today, I’d like to focus on the second of the “Uvechen”/”And therefore” additions to the liturgy. On page 144 we read [PRESENT TENSE] as follows: (and like last night, I’m going to translate this line by line literally rather than relying on the somewhat interpretive translation in our Machzor):
וּבְכֵן תֵּן כָּבוֹד ה' לְעַמֶּֽךָ
And, therefore, grant honor, Adonai, to your people.
תְּהִלָּה לִירֵאֶֽיךָ
Praise to those who stand in awe of You.
וְתִקְוָה טוֹבָה לְדוֹרְשֶֽׁיךָ
And good hope to those who seek You.
וּפִתְחוֹן פֶּה לַמְיַחֲלִים לָךְ.
And confident speech to those who wait for you.
שִׂמְחָה לְאַרְצֶֽךָ וְשָׂשׂוֹן לְעִירֶֽךָ
Joy to your Land, and gladness to your City
וּצְמִיחַת קֶֽרֶן לְדָוִד עַבְדֶּֽךָ
A flourishing of pride to David your servant
וַעֲרִיכַת נֵר לְבֶן־יִשַׁי מְשִׁיחֶֽךָ
And an array of light to the son of Jesse, your anointed one
בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵֽינוּ
Speedily in our days.
The Reform and Reconstructionist movements long ago backed away from the traditional idea of an individual descendant of King David arising as a Messiah, so it’s no surprise that our machzor (and most Liberal machzors) either remove that language entirely or translate it metaphorically.
For example, our “On Wings of Awe” machzor, instead of translating those messianic expressions
וּצְמִיחַת קֶֽרֶן לְדָוִד עַבְדֶּֽךָ
וַעֲרִיכַת נֵר לְבֶן־יִשַׁי מְשִׁיחֶֽךָ
בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵֽינוּ
Instead of translating those messianic expressions literally --- our machzor speaks of “Glowing with the lights of a peaceful future realized at long last.”
And the new Reform machzor “Mishkan Hanefesh” offers -- “May the sparks of David, your servant, soon grow bright enough for us to see a beam of light in the darkness, a promise of perfection.”
In any event, whether you personally believe in the coming of an individual GO’EL (Redeemer) or rather in the hope for a general time of GE’ULAH (Redemption) --- it still behooves us to think about what such a world could be like – and what we could do to help bring it about.
The machzor’s prescription is that classic triad of “uteshuvah, utefillah, utzedakah” ---- repentance, prayer and charity. And our sages teach that it all depends AL HATORAH, V’AL HA-AVODAH, VE’AL GEMILUT CHASADIM “on the Torah, on Service and on Deeds of Lovingkindness.”
To me, that beam of light in the darkness includes working for interracial healing, addressing climate change, pursuing economic justice, and defeating all forces of oppression -- among other tasks that face our species.
There is so much to be done, but as Maimonides famously taught ---
Every person must view oneself the entire year as if one is half meritorious and half guilty, and so too the entire world is half meritorious and half guilty. If one has sinned a single sin, behold one has inclined oneself and the entire world towards guilt and caused its destruction. [But] If one performs a single mitzvah, behold one has inclined oneself and the entire world towards merit, causing its deliverance and salvation. This is as it is stated, ‘And the righteous one [is] the foundation of the world’ (Proverbs 10:25), [meaning], this one who has made oneself righteous has inclined the entire world [to merit] and has saved it.[1]
That teaching is from Hilchot Teshuvah/ The Laws of Repentance in Maimonides’ code of Jewish law, Mishneh Torah.
UVECHEN, and therefore:
What is that one good deed that you will do this year to tip the balance of the world?
***********************************
While we’re focusing this morning on the second “Uvechen” passage on p. 144, I’d also like to dwell on the phrase “Ufitchon peh lamyachalim lakh”.
That’s the last word on the third line, and extending to the fourth line of the Hebrew on page 144 --- “Ufitchon peh lamyachalim lakh”.
They don’t really translate it in the English that we have in our machzor.
It literally means --- “opening of mouth to those who wait for you.”
What is this “pitchon peh?” – this “opening of the mouth”. Clearly it’s some sort of idiom. Generally, I’ve seen it understood as a metaphor for “confident speech” or of “the ability to speak”.
Trying to put this in some sort of contemporary context, my mind turns towards the question of voting rights, of threats to democracy, of the integrity of the electoral process. In this secular American context – that’s the most important way in which we have “pitchon peh” -- the ability to have a voice in society.
We have been in a dangerous place as a country ever since the former president refused to accept his electoral defeat --- and ever since he bullied significant numbers of members of his political party into accepting his lies. Our future as a democracy continues to hang in the balance.
The continuation of the phrase in the machzor says that this pitchon peh (confident speech) is “lameyachalim lakh” – “for those who wait for, or who place their hope in, You” – that is to say, those who place their hope in God.
We pray that God will grant confident speech, the ability to speak, VOICE, to those whose hope rests in God--- but it’s also up to us to help bring this about.
For if there is any basic, fundamental article of faith that Judaism can teach us --- it’s the belief that God- -- however we might understand God – that God works through us, and that God is to be found in how we relate to one another.
(And if you don’t believe in God – that’s fine too --- then we should look to our Jewish tradition to give us an agenda for our brief sojourns in this plain of existence. --- And we’re glad you’re all here with us this morning!)
We live in scary, stressful, divisive times. But that phrase in our High Holiday machzor, in that second “Uvechen” passage that associates this Pitchon Peh/ this empowerment of the voice with MEYACHALIM (those who wait or hope).
That verb – LEYACHEL – meaning to wait or to hope – reminds us of the consolations of faith. As it says in what is probably my favorite Psalm, Psalm 131:
ה' ׀ לֹא־גָבַ֣הּ לִ֭בִּי וְלֹא־רָמ֣וּ עֵינַ֑י וְלֹֽא־הִלַּ֓כְתִּי ׀ בִּגְדֹל֖וֹת וּבְנִפְלָא֣וֹת מִמֶּֽנִּי׃
אִם־לֹ֤א שִׁוִּ֨יתִי ׀ וְדוֹמַ֗מְתִּי נַ֫פְשִׁ֥י כְּ֭גָמֻל עֲלֵ֣י אִמּ֑וֹ כַּגָּמֻ֖ל עָלַ֣י נַפְשִֽׁי׃
יַחֵ֣ל יִ֭שְׂרָאֵל אֶל־ ה' מֵ֝עַתָּ֗ה וְעַד־עוֹלָֽם׃
Adonai, my heart is not proud
nor my look haughty;
I do not aspire to great things
or to what is beyond me;
but I have taught myself to be contented
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child am I in my mind.
יַחֵ֣ל יִ֭שְׂרָאֵל אֶל־ ה'
Place hope, O Israel, in Adonai,
now and forever.
That message, like so many messages in our tradition, is not an excuse for inaction. But what it is, is a warm embrace ---- Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! ---
a call to refrain from despair, to stay committed, to stay focused, and to stay confident in our efforts to do good and to be good.
UVECHEN, THEREFORE, we will have the strength to continue.
Shanah tovah u’metukah.
(P.S. Check out this inspiring setting of Psalm 131 in the last movement of Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalmss.)
© Rabbi David Steinberg (September 2022/ Tishri 5783)
