Community Blog

Tzaharayim Tov! We arc toward the final hours of our holy day and our season of Teshuva, and we remind ourselves once more to choose hope, and as the Torah tells us, to choose life. This afternoon’s Torah portion comes from Parashat Kedoshim, known as the Holiness Code, which details many of the most important laws of Torah. The rabbis taught that this was the most essential section of Torah. Within it, the 10 commandments are more-or-less recounted (not as exactly as they are in Deuteronomy, but the gist of them), and it contains the verse, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which Rabbi Akiva called the cardinal principle of the whole of Torah, and Hillel rephrased in his famous summation of Torah: “That which is hateful to you, do not do unto others. That is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary. Go and Learn.” 

When this morning's Torah portion tells us, ““This day I call heaven and earth to witness regarding you: life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. Choose life—so that you and your children may live—by loving, obeying, and staying close to THE ETERNAL your God,” the commandments of this afternoon are what lead us toward life and blessing. We are called upon to know when and how to intercede on behalf of others, to not stand idly by the blood of our neighbors and neither to refrain from rebuking our loved ones who contribute to the harm of others. To give tzedakah with respect, to know when to hold our tongues, to remove barriers from the paths toward success not only for ourselves but for those around us. 

On erev Rosh HaShana, I spoke about hope as a choice, one that we must nurture and cultivate into the work ethic that sustains us for the difficult labor of repairing the world. Now, once again we return to that concept. It is a normal human reaction to shut down and feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the world’s problems. But we must not turn away and say, “Not my problem.” First, because it is your problem, and my problem, and everyone’s problem, because we are all connected within society and by the shared reliance on the Earth’s limited resources. Second, because even though some are more directly impacted than others by institutional racism, systemic impoverishment, the stripping away of bodily autonomy and freedoms of expression, or the impending climate crises, those less affected still have a responsibility to act. That is what the Holiness Code calls us to do, and that is what Parashat Nitzavim means to “Choose Life”. Choose to create a world in which more people are able to live with dignity and freedom. As Rabbi Tarfon used to say, “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”

On both Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, we recite the words of Unetaneh Tokef, an early medieval poem recounting the ways in which we may be blessed or cursed in this coming year: Who shall live and who shall day, etc. The poem concludes with the statement that whatever we may think we are being sentenced to for the coming year, there is still time up until Neilah to repent and hope for a lighter sentence: Teshuvah/repentance, tefillah/prayer, and tzedakah/righteous giving transcend the harshness of the decree. If we choose to act together by engaging in teshuvah (engaging in a fresh start), with acts of tefillah (to replenish our souls), and with tzedakah (giving our time and resources), we can, together, choose life. Maybe this is the Jewish version of that Hope + Work + Grace = Miracles equation I spoke about on Rosh HaShana. In any case, may 5783 be a year of life, hope, holiness, and peace. Amen and Shana Tova.