[sung to opening of Janowski Avinu Malkeinu]
I have some bad news if For loved though this tune is --
You love this ‘big Janowski’ God's just not in the office
As shared by our Choir because today is Shabbat --
on most Rosh Hashanas so She can’t write
stuff down....
Ma nishtana, why is this Rosh Hashanah
different from all others? Why no Avinu Malkeinu this morning? Whenever
the Yamim Noraim fall on Shabbat we debate this, with different outcomes(!),
but this year, there’s no Avinu Malkenu because tradition says
‘no petitionary prayers on Shabbat.’ Avinu Malkenu is nuthin’
but a bunch of petitions: Our Parent Our Sovereign, remember us, be
nice to us, write us in the Book, take pity, won’t you buy me a night
on the town (I’m counting on You Lord, please don’t let me down!)…
Now, there are lots of other things
we as a do community that violate tradition—all
the time!!! The law says ‘no musical instruments,’
but like today, we sing on Shabbos with lute and timbrel, bongos and
guitar. The law says ‘no writing,’ but look at Torah School
-- or at upstanding members who take notes during the dvar torah discussion,
in the sanctuary! (It happens, and for good reason, though others
are aghast…). And there’s the small matter of driving to shul…
who doesn’t?! (well, besides cyclists, and even then tradition cautions
shema yitaken, don’t, lest it break and you’re tempted to fix
it in violation of Sabbath law!).
So no Avinu Malkeinu, because of good
old [sing] “Ve-sham-ru, v’nai Yisrae-el, e-e-et ha-Sha-a-a-bat”
--the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath -- la'asot et ha-a-sha-a-bat
ledorotam b’rit olam -- making Shabbat throughout their generations,
an eternal covenant… Why? ki sheshset yamim asah Adonai et hashamayim
v'et haaretz -- because in 6 days, God made heaven and earth;
uvayom hashvi’i shavat -- on the seventh day God Shabbated, God
rested -- vayinafash, and refreshed Godself.1
God rested, so should we. And we’d
best not intrude on God's rest, on God's ‘Shabbos menucha,’ with
our petitions: "Uh, excuse me, our King, could you please expedite
that paperwork on those 863 folks praying Avinu Malkienu down
at Wheaton High? Yeah, Maryland, U.S…. Wait, not Greenbaum,
she left the room… um, good new year, check; sustenance, check;
love health safety yada yada, check... inscribe in the Book of life
– whoa, halacha says, no writing on Shabbat!" So much for
that…
[sung to dramatic high part of Janowski:]
"Now I hope you're not totally, completely bummed out -- especially
considering, there's also no shofar…"
Instead, come tomorrow, second
day, back on Persimmon Tree Lane: Sunday, smaller service, well-lit,
shofar, the whole shmear. Just saying….
Our point today, though, is that
Shabbat trumps Rosh Hashana. The one holiday that made it onto
Moshe’s tablets was not a ‘High’ Holiday, it was our humble,
weekly Shabbos. Why? Why Shabbat, why for us
Shabbat? Of many reasons, here are three:
One, it’s good for us.
You know how you do better on tests after a good sleep? Same in
life: you do better, well-rested. Shabbat, the day of rest,
helps us slow down, stay healthy, and return to the six work-days rested
and rejuvenated. It’s our day not to do or make or stress out;
just to be -- to appreciate all we have, all that’s been created.
Two, it’s good for our people.
Zionist thinker Ahad Ha’am, a century ago, observed, “more than
Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews” – it’s
a marker, a point of pride and uniqueness. A Shabbat-observant
colleague volunteered in East Asia; local friends would say “Ira,
let’s go out,” and he’d say “tonight is Shabbat” – “again”
they’d say, baffled; “didn’t you just have one of those a few
days ago?!” Learning and serving six days in a non-Jewish land,
the seventh day affirmed his identity.
Three, it’s good for the world.
As travelling eco-teacher, I always cite Shabbat for its Jewish green
consciousness – that the most meaningful holy time is not when you
produce and consume, but when you step out of the rat race –
when you step back, live lightly, and let live. The Torah is clear:
Shabbat is not just for ‘us’ but for our workers and servants, our
animals, even our land. Rabbi Julie Schoenfeld, who notes with
sadness that many folks “are too poor and too oppressed to survive
if they take a day off from work,” concludes that “Shabbat is an
obligation [and a vision], which in order to be fulfilled, requires
an entirely different social structure.”2 I’ll
add, Shabbat is a little taste of the world redeemed – it calls us,
after sundown, to bring Shabbos into the rest of the week, the rest
of the world.
So—not asking God for favors, carrying
an instrument, riding a bike, writing, spending money…. traditional
Jewish laws and customs are simply tools – ways to nurture that Sabbath
spirit of rest, renewal, appreciation. Some are do’s, and some
are don’ts. It’s good to follow the do’s, like Friday candlelight
dinners, Saturday in warm community with singing and learning and oneg.
It’s also good to try some don’ts – maybe don’t check work email.
Don’t spend money (or at least try not to). Don’t wear the
business uniform of your workweek. Don’t do homework [pause!]
(but do it on Sunday then! Sometimes ‘rules’ sharpen that
boundary between Shabbat and not-shabbat, and help keep this day special.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously
drew on both dos and don’ts, in his activist description:
“To set apart one day a week for freedom ...a
day on which we stop worshipping
the idols of
technical civilization, a day on
which we use no money, a day of armistice in the economic struggle with our [fellows] and the forces of nature - is
there any institution that holds
out a greater hope for [our] progress than the Sabbath?”3
This year, our community reviews communal
Shabbat practice, perhaps leading to new guidelines. Where we’ll
end up requires careful thought and wide input. Look for lots
of opportunities to join that dialogue, and put a big circle around
Sunday November 22nd, our intergenerational “Shabbat University.”
As rabbi, what I care about most is not any particular
outcome, but the dialogue itself – that we take these issues seriously,
and keep looking for tools (new or traditional) that collectively help
us experience Shabbat, be open to Shabbat, LIVE the Shabbat
spirit.
As for this Rosh Hashana which
is also Shabbat, our time to rest, take stock, celebrate what is –
the New Year liturgy says hayom harat olam, it’s the world’s
birthday – so today is both our weekly and our annual celebration
of Creation. Plus, here’s one reason Rosh Hashanah comes
before Yom Kippur: It’s a heavy burden this time of year, all
the breast-beating to come, all the tshuvah, asking for forgiveness.
We need to strengthen ourselves first, remember all that’s good and
holy – and there’s so much…
So let’s enjoy THIS moment, this celebratory
birthday, this mythical anniversary of Creation. Let’s appreciate
what we have, even as we enter this heavy time of committing
to make it better.
For the record, God – whether as metaphor,
or magical-mensch-of-the-mountain – God is always up for praise and
adulation. Today, we don’t petition God, but we still ‘sing
a new song’ to Him/Her/It – we find as many ways to say "Go
God" (or ‘Go God’s Creation’) as we can. And ‘yes we can,’
even amid great pain.
Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl recalled:
"....we were already resting on
the floor of our hut, dead tired, soup bowls in hand, [when] a fellow
prisoner rushed in and asked us to run out…and see the wonderful sunset.
…we saw sinister clouds glowing in the west and the whole sky alive
with clouds of ever-changing shapes and colors, from steel blue to blood
red... after minutes of moving silence, one prisoner said to another,
"How beautiful the world [can] be!"4
Yes, the world can be wondrous, if we just open our eyes to it – so in that spirit of hope, beauty, affirmation -- inspired by colleague Larry Pinsker’s innovation – on your handouts is a ‘liturgical’ alternative to Avinu Malkeinu that you likely already know. Please join me in celebrating both Shabbat and the New Year – and in celebrating the kids in our midst, too -- celebrating Creation, as Satchmo sang it: “What a Wonderful World.” Please join:
WHAT A WONDERFUL
WORLD
I see trees of green -- red roses too;
I see them bloom, for me and you
And I think to myself: what a wonderful world
I
see skies of blue, and clouds of white
The bright blessed day; the dark sacred night
And I think to myself: what a wonderful world
The
colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' ‘How do you do?’
They're really saying, "I love you"
I
hear babies cryin' -- I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself: what a wonderful world –
Yes, I think to myself: what
a wonderful world ...
-- Bob Thiele & George
Weiss, 1968; first recorded and made famous by Louis Armstrong
What else to say?... Shabbat shalom; shanah tovah.