Erev Rosh Hashanah, 2017

Tonight we bring in the New Year – Shana Tova U’metuka – may it be a happy and sweet New Year for us all.
The themes of Rosh Hashana prayer service, however, are not sweetness and light.  Rosh Hashanah is Yom Hadin – the Day of Judgment.  How are we meant to respond to this?  How can a day of judgment be a day of celebration as well?  When we call out to G-d in our prayers, what exactly are calling for?
The notion of their being ultimate Judgment – a balancing of the scales – reminds us of the awesome implication of consequences: No action in our lives is inconsequential, no moment is trivial.  There is unavoidable meaning to our actions, inescapable significance to our moments. 
We pray and believe that Judgment is not arbitrary.  Consequences are given their existence by our own actions and choices. 
During the Musaf service of Rosh Hashana morning, we have 3 sections of prayer known as Malkhuyot, Zikhronot and Shofarot.  They allude to the mentality we assume during our Tefilah, and our connection to Hashem at this time of Year.
Malkhuyot refers to Kingship – the Lord’s sovereignty over the world.  Why is this so crucial as to be emphasized on Rosh Hashana?  It serves to remind us that, for the purposes of transformation and Teshuva, we depend upon something greater than our mere selves.  Hashem’s governance over this world may be difficult for us to comprehend, yet we discern the incredible forces that underlie our daily living… the miracle of our very neshamot, the breath and spirit that infuses our life; the miracle of there being a world around us which sustains us and provides a source for our life.  As we recall the Creation of the world being renewed every year upon Rosh Hashana, we are reminded of a Universe which encompasses our lives and those of the generations before and after us. 
(Elokeinu melekh ha-olam – G-d, ruler of time and space)
G-d is the Ineffable, in Herschel’s terms, and on Rosh Hashana at the start of the New Year we  approach that ineffability, that which transcends us… and marvel at it.  Our gaze skyward is meant to inspire us to our utmost potential.
Zichronot refers to Remembrances.  We cannot move forward unless we understand our past.  Zichronot entails the great Remembrances uttered in Torah – and Hashem’s remembering of his People.  Our lives as Jews are connected across millennia of generations, from time immemorial to now, and even on into our future.  The New Year is a time to appreciate time itself – its passing, its transformations, and our transformations through it.  As we remember the great occurrences of our people, so too do we remember the occurrences of our own lives as individuals.  We look back with keen eyes in honest judgment of our very selves, what has brought us to this very day, how we too intend to transform and change.  By remembering and understanding that which we have experienced, we open our minds and hearts to the possibility of different and new ways of being.
And Shofarot refers to the very sound of the Shofar itself.  The blast of the Shofar calls us to pay heed with our very senses to the awakening of our souls, to the wonderment of our lives, to the potentiality of our experience.  As we sound the Shofar blasts on Rosh Hashana and at the end of Yom Kippur, we reenact once again the gatherings of our people across the ages to hear its blasts, and to celebrate New Years and coming together.  The Shofar reminds us of so much:  creation, the Torah at Mount Sinai, the admonitions of our prophets to repent, the anticipated and foretold ingathering of the exiles to our Holy Land… and in particular, it signals the solemnity and significance of this Day of Judgment.  We believe that the cries of the Shofar also arouse G-d’s mercy to recall the good deeds that we have done, and to enable us to live to our full potential.
The process of Atonement which we undergo this time of year is a necessary process.  Each year, we are given the opportunity to back away from the Busy-ness of our lives in oreder to consider what it’s all about.  We are given free rein to recognize our eminent humanity, vulnerability, mortality – and we do so amid the comfort of friends and community.  As Rashi says on Talmud Sanhedrin, “Hashem desires the heart”.  This is our time of year to be open-hearted.
And if we are together, let us be there for one another.  Chazal say that “Anyone who seeks Divine mercy for his friends, and is in need of the same thing, will be answered even before their friend.”  And Rabbi Eli Spitz points out that we can forgive others on our own.  But we turn to Hashem because we cannot easily forgive ourselves.  G-d is the ultimate source of forgiveness.  Our work is to find compasssion for ourselves, for others, for Israel.
 
If Rosh Hashana is Yom Hadin - a day of Judgment - it is one where we anticipate G-d’s favour and compassion in our judgment.  And this is why we celebrate – we celebrate our own humanity, our potential for change.  May we all us this coming Year to become, more and more, the people we are meant to be.