Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5784
September 15, 2023
Our High Holiday season generally coincides with the start of the public school year. And I bet you’ve all heard of that old expression that school should at the very least teach kids what we somewhat slangily (Is slangily a word?) refer to as the three R’s.
[You all know what the three R’s are, right?]
READING, ‘RITING, ‘RITHMETIC
And, nowadays, we also have a newer version of the three R’s to motivate us to be more environmentally conscientious:
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
Well, in Judaism we have yet another version of the three R’s ---
REPENT, RETURN, RESPOND
Those three R’s collectively boil down to a single idea. A single idea which is relevant all-year long, but which we specifically focus on at this time of year.
Of course, I am speaking now of “TESHUVAH”
Repentance, Return, Response – those are three different ways of translating that evocative Hebrew concept:
TESHUVAH.
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The first of these three ideas --- REPENTANCE --- is probably how most of us instinctively translate the word TESHUVAH. At least my impression is that that’s the most common translation – and it’s certainly the first translation I ever learned.
The 10 Day period that begins tonight and ends with the end of Yom Kippur are called Aseret Ymei Teshuvah/ The Ten Days of Repentance.
But, as I said a moment ago, Repenting is not just something we’re supposed to do during the 10 Days of Repentance. If you don’t believe me, here’s a blessing that we find in the weekday Amidah recited throughout the year on ordinary days that are neither Shabbat nor Festival:
הֲשִׁיבֵֽנוּ אָבִֽינוּ לְתוֹרָתֶֽךָ וְקָרְ֒בֵֽנוּ מַלְכֵּֽנוּ לַעֲבוֹדָתֶֽךָ וְהַחֲזִירֵֽנוּ בִּתְשׁוּבָה שְׁלֵמָה לְפָנֶֽיךָ: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' הָרוֹצֶה בִּתְשׁוּבָה
Return us, our Parent, to your Torah. Draw us near, our Sovereign, to your service. Bring us back to you in true repentance. Praised are you, Adonai, who desires repentance.
To repeat: That’s not a special High Holiday blessing that we find in the High Holiday machzor. Rather that’s a blessing for everyday that we find in the daily siddur.
And that all-year-long traditional blessing on the subject of TESHUVAH reflects a teaching that we find in the Talmud in Masechet Shabbat 153a:
[...] רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: שׁוּב יוֹם אֶחָד לִפְנֵי מִיתָתֶךָ. שָׁאֲלוּ תַּלְמִידָיו אֶת רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר: וְכִי אָדָם יוֹדֵעַ אֵיזֶהוּ יוֹם יָמוּת? אָמַר לָהֶן: וְכׇל שֶׁכֵּן, יָשׁוּב הַיּוֹם, שֶׁמָּא יָמוּת לְמָחָר, וְנִמְצָא כׇּל יָמָיו בִּתְשׁוּבָה [...]
[…] Rabbi Eliezer says: Repent one day before your death. Rabbi Eliezer’s students asked him: But does a person know the day they will die? He said to them: All the more so, a person should repent today lest they die tomorrow; […] and all one’s days a person ought to be in a state of repentance.
What does it mean to repent? To do TESHUVAH?
The classic test we find in the classic Jewish texts is that after acknowledging we’ve done something wrong, and making amends for having done so, we find ourselves in a similar situation at a later date and – this time around – we don’t act the way we did previously. Like the classic example of how when Joseph’s brothers had the opportunity to betray their youngest brother Benjamin as they had betrayed Joseph years earlier, this time around they didn’t do it.
We find ourselves in the midst of moral choices every day of our lives. And we never know how much time we have in this life. So, as Rabbi Eliezer advises – we ought to try to work on doing Teshuvah every day.
That doesn’t mean we need to be moping around morosely all the time – just that we should recognize that there are always ways we can be more sensitive, more caring, more just, more compassionate, more understanding.
That’s a lifelong process that doesn’t just take place during these Aseret Ymei Teshuvah/ These Ten Days of Repentance.
And we’re never going to get it all completely right. But, as a midrash declares:
אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּנַי, פִּתְחוּ לִי פֶּתַח אֶחָד שֶׁל תְּשׁוּבָה כְּחֻדָּהּ שֶׁל מַחַט, וַאֲנִי פּוֹתֵחַ לָכֶם פְּתָחִים שֶׁיִּהְיוּ עֲגָלוֹת וּקְרוֹנִיּוֹת נִכְנָסוֹת בּוֹ
“The Holy One said to Israel: My children, open for Me an opening of teshuvah/ of repentance as small as the eye of a needle, and I shall make for you openings so wide that wagons and coaches could enter through it.”[1]
The eminent scholar Dr. Louis E. Newman, in a 2018 essay on the Reconstructionist website “Evolve”, describes it all this way. Newman writes:
[T]he rabbis […] make a remarkable point. God so wants us to engage in repentance that if we make only the most minimal effort, God’s gracious response will be many orders of magnitude greater. We need not do this work comprehensively or perfectly; we need only to make a start. Every move in the direction of teshuvah is meaningful. Restated in a less anthropomorphic framework, we might say that the universe is structured in a way that supports and magnifies our efforts to repent. We are not alone in this work. We should not despair that the work of teshuvah is too onerous or that it is pointless. Every effort we make will open up for us further opportunities for reconciliation.[2]
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THREE R’s --- REPENTING, RETURNING, RESPONDING
So far we’ve been talking about “Repentance”.
What about that second R: “RETURN”?
You probably are familiar with that poignant verse in the Book of Lamentations with which we end every Torah service:
הֲשִׁיבֵ֨נוּ ה' אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ וְֽנָשׁ֔וּבָה חַדֵּ֥שׁ יָמֵ֖ינוּ כְּקֶֽדֶם׃
Return us, Adonai, to you and we will return – renew our days as in days of old.[3]
Both of the verbs in that verse --- HASHIVENU (Return us [or cause us to return]) and NASHUVA (we will return) are related to the noun “TESHUVAH” and the verbal root shin-vav-vet.
So, here we have that second possible translation of TESHUVAH --- The idea of “RETURNING”
I think that this idea of mutuality --- Cause us to return and we will return --- can apply to interpersonal relationships as well -- in our families, in our congregation, and among our neighbors near and far.
Let’s help and encourage one another to be kinder to and more supportive of one another. Hashivenu ve-Nashuvah --- let this be our way of relating not just to God but also to one another. Let us help one another, in all our interactions throughout the year, to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be.
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The idea of “TESHUVAH” as “RETURNING” also makes me think of another context, which I’ll admit is probably not what the writers of our Biblical and Rabbinic texts were thinking.
Does anyone here play tennis?
The last time I tried to play tennis was some, gasp, 50 years ago when I was in seventh grade gym class – Nope – I just could not get the hang of it. Badminton, or volleyball I had a little more success with.
But, in any event, one thing that those sports have in common is that one of the things you need to do is to RETURN a serve.
Sometimes the serves that are directed at us in life are fast, are forceful, are tricky. It’s not always easy to return a serve.
What challenges do you find being “served” up at you these days?
How have you been doing in your efforts to “return” those serves?
When we’re able to do so, and when the other side is in sync with us, it can be beautiful and energizing to get a good volley going. Then the tennis or badminton or volleyball match becomes a metaphor not of fending off a threat to our existence, but rather of being part of a joyful burst of energy whether we end up winning or losing on any given occasion.
I pray that in the coming year all of us may find joy, exhilaration and camaraderie when we return the serves that come at us each day.
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Well, thanks for sticking with me with that possibly obscure metaphor I just tried out on you….
Okay, back to the three R’s: REPENTANCE, RETURN, RESPONSE.
I’m probably on more solid ground when I talk about the third “R” --- translating Teshuvah as Response. And, by RESPONSE, I actually mean “ANSWER” (but the word “Answer” doesn’t start with an “R” so I fudged my sermon outline a bit there…)
[Anyway neither writing nor arithmetic start with R’s either….]
All right then, “TESHUVAH” as “ANSWER”.
That’s a very basic, and well-attested translation.
We have a whole tradition in medieval Judaism of she’eylot u’teshvuot --- questions posed to learned rabbinical authorities and responsa delivered back to those who have posed the questions.
QUESTION AND ANSWER/ SHE’EYLA U’TESHUVA.
So, if that’s the case, then now, tonight, as Rosh Hashanah begins – we are beginning
“The 10 Days of Answer.”
And that, of course, leads us to ask --- if we’re here all these hours in synagogue to do “TESHUVAH” to do “ANSWER”,
then
what
is
the
question?
I smile as I think of the late British author Douglas Adams in the “Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy” imagining a cast of characters trying to figure out the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything.
They ultimately find that the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything is [WAIT FOR IT….] “42”
and, better yet,
the “QUESTION” turns out to be “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?”.
To which the hero of the tale, Arthur Dent, who is really a stand-in for “Everyman” responds
“I always said there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.”[4]
In Jewish tradition, I think we take a less cynical view of life, the universe and everything.
For as it says at Genesis 1:31 -- “And God saw all that God had made and behold – it was very good.”
We don’t need to figure out the answer (or answers) to the question of life the universe and everything.
It’s certainly not as simple as “42” (or “54” for that matter).
But if TESHUVAH means ANSWER, RESPONSE – to what life is serving up against us on that tennis court of existence --
Then what IS the question?
Not long after God, in Genesis 1:31, reviews all of creation and pronounces it “TOV ME’OD”/ “VERY GOOD” ---- God poses the first QUESTION.
And maybe that first question --- served up by God to Adam in Genesis 3:9 --- is the very question that brings us here all these centuries later:
As it says in that very first question in the Torah, Genesis 3:9,
וַיִּקְרָ֛א יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ אַיֶּֽכָּה׃
Adonai Elohim called out to the man and said to him: “Where are you?”
AYEKA --- WHERE ARE YOU?
As 5784 begins,
It’s not “One Size fits All”.
In beginning to answer that question, in beginning to embark (or better yet, in continuing to embark) on the journey of TESHUVAH, I, for one, really resonate with that beautiful reading composed decades ago for the old Reform siddur “Gates of Prayer”: It’s a reading that I think helps us respond to that question
AYEKA? WHERE ARE YOU?
Here's that reading:
Each of us enters this sanctuary with a different need.
Some hearts are full of gratitude and joy:
They are overflowing with the happiness of love and the joy of life; they are eager to confront the day, to make the world more fair; they are recovering from illness or have escaped misfortune. And we rejoice with them.
Some hearts ache with sorrow:
Disappointments weigh heavily upon them, and they have tasted despair; families have been broken; loved ones lie on a bed of pain; death has taken those whom they cherished. May our presence and sympathy bring them comfort.
Some hearts are embittered:
They have sought answers in vain; ideals are mocked and betrayed; life has lost its meaning and value. May the knowledge that we too are searching, restore their hope and give them courage to believe that not all is emptiness.
Some spirits hunger:
They long for friendship; they crave understanding; they yearn for warmth. May we in our common need and striving, gain strength from one another, as we share our joys, lighten each other’s burdens and pray for the welfare of our community.
[Amen]
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And I’ll conclude with my own prayer and hope: May all of us be inscribed in the book of life and may it be a shanah tovah umetukah, a new year of goodness and sweetness, for all of us, for all Israel, and for all the world.
Lshanah tovah tikatevu
(and also I might add)
Shabbat shalom.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (September 2023/ Tishri 5784)
[1] Shir Ha-Shirim Rabba 5:2:2
[2] https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/teshuvah/
[3] Lamentations 5:21
[4] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/243402/did-douglas-adams-say-i-always-thought-something-was-fundamentally-wrong-with-t
