Parshas Va'eira (5779)
This week on January 1st many Jews around the world (and non-Jews, of course) celebrated the non-Jewish New Year’s…which got me thinking about our very own exclusively Jewish New Year’s – you remember Rosh Hashanah? – and the ways in which it differs from the non-Jewish one:
1) HOLIDAY WISHES
On the non-Jewish New Year, people wish those around them a “Happy†New Year, while on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Jews traditionally wish each other a Shanah Tovah, a “Good†New Year. Happy and good are not the same. The Online Etymology Dictionary writes that the word ‘happy’ derives from the Old English word hap, which meant chance, fortune, or a turn of luck. The word ‘good’, on the other hand, comes from the Old English word god (with a long “oâ€), which meant having the right or desirable quality. So we see that being happy and being good are quite different from each other. Happiness is by chance, a turn of luck, whereas goodness is the result of fulfilling one’s purpose and destiny. Some people may claim to have ‘found’ happiness, but nobody ever found goodness. Goodness is hard work and doesn’t happen by itself. Rabbi Uziel Milevsky ZTâ€L once said that since the rest of the world is looking for happiness, they all wish each other on New Year’s Eve a “Happy†New Year. Of course, since happiness is a chance occurrence, it remains quite elusive, and they may or may not find the happiness they so crave and desire in the coming year. Jews don’t wish each other happiness on Rosh Hashanah, since happiness is hard to get and not in our control. Instead, they wish each other a Shanah Tovah, a year of goodness, i.e. that we should have the right qualities to fulfill our destiny and purpose in life. And if we do that, happiness is sure to come.
2) NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
Many people make resolutions on the non-Jewish New Year…but they just don’t seem to last. Memberships at health clubs and diet programs soar in the weeks following January 1st. Sales of chocolate and alcohol decline, replaced by healthier food and drink. "Time for a new beginning" is the message promoted by news media. Yet most people will fail at their resolutions. The resolutions on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year – when made carefully - are a whole different story. In the Jewish system, we spend the entire month of Elul preceding Rosh Hashanah in deep reflection and introspection until we come up with the most appropriate and sensible resolutions for us to work on during the coming year. Then we spend the next ten days starting from Rosh Hashanah and culminating with Yom Kippur working on our chosen resolutions and fine-tuning them – so that by the time the final shofar blast is sounded at the end of Yom Kippur there is a good chance that some of our resolutions will stick (at least for a good while).
3) BEGINNING OF THE CALENDAR
Christians know that the Christian (Gregorian) calendar starts from the birth (actually, the circumcision and naming) of Jesus 2019 years ago. Muslims know that the Muslim calendar begins with the migration of Mohammed and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. By analogy to the Christian and Muslim calendars, it might be expected that the Jewish calendar would start either from the birth of Abraham (the first Jew) or from the Exodus out of Egypt (the birth of the Jewish people). But that’s not the case. The Jewish calendar begins with the “birth†of the first two (non-Jewish) humans, Adam and Eve, on the Sixth Day of Creation, exactly 5779 years ago. This talks to the “universalism†of Judaism, a religion which has the lofty goal of being “a light unto the nations†built into its mission statement. The Jewish calendar teaches us that Judaism is not only about Jews like Abraham or Moses, it’s about Adam and Eve and all of humanity too.
4) IMBIBING OF ALCOHOL
Many people like to drink (a lot) on the non-Jewish New Year and some even get drunk. I guess that’s one way of celebrating the beginning of a new year…but it is definitely not the Jewish way. True, there is a mitzvah to drink wine on the Jewish New Year at the holiday meals, as the Torah commands us “You shall rejoice on your festival…†(see Deuteronomy 16:14). But that’s where the comparison ends. Drinking wine on the Jewish holidays including Rosh Hashanah is more than merely imbibing alcohol for the sake of imbibing alcohol. The Rabbis explain that we drink on the Jewish festivals in order to “pacify†the body and to keep it happy, so to speak, so as to allow the soul to connect deeply with G-d without being distracted by the body and its needs. A parable I once heard explains this idea beautifully: A man was wrongly accused and thrown into jail. He missed his wife greatly. She would write him love letters, but he could never read them because the ruffians who shared the cell with him would always beat him up. One day he came up with a great idea. He wrote to his wife that she should bake him a cake and place a bottle of whiskey inside the cake. When he got the cake, he took out the bottle of whiskey and offered his cellmates a drink. When they finally became drunk and were lying on the floor all content and happy, he pulled out all his wife’s love letters, and was able to reconnect with her without being distracted. We too have this ruffian – our stomach and all its needs – that doesn’t allow us to bond and to reconnect with G-d and His love-letter to us, the Torah, during these important festivals. So we drink wine and the body gets what it wants, leaving our soul to get what it wants – to bond with G-d and to feel spirituality.
5) PARTY HORNS AND NOISEMAKERS
On the non-Jewish New Year when the clock strikes twelve everyone celebrates by making lots of noise – whether it’s with a fireworks display or party horns or other types of noisemakers. The noisemaking at the beginning of the non-Jewish New Year doesn’t “symbolize†anything deeper…it’s just a way of expressing joy that we made it to another new year and a hope that the coming year will be a good one. On Rosh Hashanah we also have a “party hornâ€, the shofar, that we sound many times throughout the holiday during the prayer service. But this “Jewish version of the New Year noisemaker†carries with it great symbolism. Indeed, Rav Saadiah Gaon (who lived from 882-942 CE) enumerates ten symbolic allusions in the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah: 1. Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the universe on which a new Ruler became sovereign over the world. The sound of the shofar is comparable to the horns that blast when a ruler is coronated. On Rosh Hashanah, the shofar is blown to acknowledge that G-d is the Ruler of the universe. 2. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Ten Days of Repentance. The shofar is blown to wake people up to do Teshuvah. 3. According to tradition, when the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, blasts of the shofar filled the air. Blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah reminds us of our acceptance of the Torah and its mitzvos. 4. The sound of a shofar is like the voice of the prophets that rang like a siren warning the Jewish people to change their ways, to rectify their wrongdoings, and to return to G-d. 5. The sound of the shofar reminds us of the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. 6. The shofar, made of a ram’s horn, is symbolic of the ram that Abraham sacrificed at the time of Akeidas Yitzhak, the binding of Isaac. The shofar is a reminder, then, of Abraham’s faithfulness and devotion to G-d. 7. The sound of the shofar causes people to tremble in fear. 8. The shofar is a reminder of the final Day of Judgment. 9. According to tradition, the shofar will be blown when all Jewish exiles return to the land of Israel. The shofar reminds us of this eventual time of redemption. 10. According to tradition, the shofar will be sounded when G-d revives the dead.
[Sources: www.behrmanhouse.com ]
SHANAH TOVAH!
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