Over רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah
Healing from the Torah
Rosh Hashanah
Genesis 22:1-18
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
My teacher, Rabbi Ed Feinstein,
tells the story of a young man who approached the bema after a particular service
and looked at the Aron, the Torah Ark, longingly. R’Feinstein escorted this young man to the
Aron, opened the Ark and handed him a Torah to hold. Upon holding the Torah the young man broke
down in tears, in the process of restoring his life, this one single event of
holding the Torah unleashed a power that touched him in the deepest of ways
regarding his innermost being. Rosh
Hashanah is an event, it happened once historically and is then celebrated yearly
on the same day, the first day of Tishrei, but the process of relating to it
that began with Elul will continue to Yom Kippur and beyond.
Rosh Hashanah, called in Torah זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה (zikron t’ruah) or יוֹם תְּרוּעָה (yom t’ruah), a memorial trumpet or the day of the trumpet, means the head of the year and is the first of the chagaim of the Jewish festival cycles, tradition teaching that Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of the world. On this day we pray, “Today, the world is born! Today shall stand before you all the beings of the cosmos, whether as your children or your servants. If as your children, show them your mercy, Like a mother toward her children. If as your servants, then our eyes are turned toward you in great anticipation that you may be gracious. Rendering judgment for the good, on our behalf, as clear as light of day.” We blow the shofar in solidarity with the day to hail our existence as part of the creation itself. But will also hail this day for the chance to recreate ourselves once again.
A Midrash (Gen. Rabbah 8:5) regarding the advent of humanity is worth noting. Here the angels of chesed (mercy) and tzedek (righteousness) differed in opinion from and the angels of shalom (peace) and emet (truth). The angels of chesed and tzedek lobbied to create humankind because they do “merciful and righteousness deeds,” whereas the angels of shalom and emet lobbied against human creation, because they are “full of falsehood and never ceases quarreling.” In making the choice, God chose to go ahead and create humankind believing that people can be, according to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “better and less destructive,” recalling that God called the creation of humankind “very good” (Gen. 1:31) The story of the young man shows that to be so, and here in Genesis 22, read on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah, Abraham becomes the image that reveals how humanity can recreate themselves if they choose. How so?
Abraham had a role, an especially important role indeed. Abraham got to play the role of that higher humanity that God gambled on. Abraham is under the impression that God wants him to sacrifice his own son, and as clarifying his reluctance in a Midrash, it is Isaac as opposed to Ishmael since he loved them both (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeira 22). Prior to this we read in the same Midrash, “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: I have tried you nine times, and you underwent those trials successfully; now endure this final trial so that men may not say the earlier trials were of little consequence.” How was this a trail? What was this lesson that Abraham had to learn? Rashi writes that God “did not say, ‘Slay him’, because the Holy One, blessed be He, did not desire that he should slay him, but he told him to bring him up to the mountain to prepare him as a burnt offering. So when he had taken him up, God said to him, “Bring him down” (Genesis Rabbah 56:8… a trial was) Never God’s intent!” Rabbi Sacks gives 4 reasons why this could have never been a trial to sacrifice Isaac by Abraham. First, it was a pagan practice (i.e. Moloch). Second, how could Abraham be a father of all nations if he acted this way? Third, how can a father be willing to sacrifice one child and let the other live? And finally, in Judaism God does not ask the unethical (think Pharaoh and midwives). But still, Abraham seems willing to do what he perceives God has asked of him.
In Genesis 22:15 we read, וַיִּקְרָא מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם, שֵׁנִית, מִן-הַשָּׁמָיִם, “and the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven” and tells him not to kill his son Isaac. Did God’s mind change, or was it some misguided test of a father’s loyalty, only to be stopped by God’s intervention to make a point? In response to this Abraham replied in a Midrash “Swear to me not to test me ever again, nor my son Yitzchak,” Rabbi Chama ben Rabbi Chanina saying, “this is the last test, which was as weighty as all the rest together, and if he had not accepted to [do] it, all would have been lost” (Genesis Rabbah 56:11). This had to happen in other words for the sake of the human race, although the test for Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is ultimately about Abraham relinquishing possession of his son, Isaac, not about killing him. The Akedah story (Gen. 22) for R’Sacks is set in a cultural back backdrop of whether or not Abraham would allow Isaac to be given over to God, meaning that Isaac would now stand as an equal with his father Abraham. As such, R’Sacks concludes that this potential sacrifice that Abraham almost committed certainly shows what he was capable of, but the purpose of this Torah narrative was to make a point about life and “not death.” Life is a reward, Rabbi David Kimchi wrote that the Angel of the Lord “called him (Abraham) a second time to inform him that as compensation for what he had just been prepared to do, God would compensate his children when the occasion would arise to do so,” in this case with Isaac’s life. Abraham's reward would be for the generations that followed, including ours. Regardless of the fact that we can destroy, our true strength is that we can choose life, and help create it anew.
Was Abraham in battle with his past, or in seeking his future, were the remnants of his past an ongoing nuisance, or maybe an old tape that needed to be erased? Upon Mt. Moriah the “Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven” because it has everything to with creation, the Angel of God wanted Abraham to be made new by finally breaking from his past, the recreated Abraham upon that mountain embraced the ram in the thicket, saying yes to life instead. Abraham became the image for renewed humanity that day, his deepest convictions about life tested in a most dramatic way. Rosh Hashanah is just not a holiday, but an opportunity, an opportunity to choose life, goodness, and the better way, calling upon our values of God as we seize the day to recreate ourselves in this new year. In Genesis 22:11 it says, וַיֹּאמֶר, אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם, “and God said, Abraham, Abraham,” but why twice? This is about the Abraham of old as opposed to the recreated Abraham, a reminder of the inner battle between the evil and good inclinations, the plight of the human struggle that we all carry. There are many things we can mention that are worth noting, such as the recent peace agreement made between Israel and their Arab neighbors or the need to usher in a year of a new kind of social equality, but Rosh Hashanah is ultimately about a newness that begins with us. Therefore, may we on this Rosh Hashanah be recreated for good, and may we do our part to make our world better.
Rosh Hashanah, called in Torah זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה (zikron t’ruah) or יוֹם תְּרוּעָה (yom t’ruah), a memorial trumpet or the day of the trumpet, means the head of the year and is the first of the chagaim of the Jewish festival cycles, tradition teaching that Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of the world. On this day we pray, “Today, the world is born! Today shall stand before you all the beings of the cosmos, whether as your children or your servants. If as your children, show them your mercy, Like a mother toward her children. If as your servants, then our eyes are turned toward you in great anticipation that you may be gracious. Rendering judgment for the good, on our behalf, as clear as light of day.” We blow the shofar in solidarity with the day to hail our existence as part of the creation itself. But will also hail this day for the chance to recreate ourselves once again.
A Midrash (Gen. Rabbah 8:5) regarding the advent of humanity is worth noting. Here the angels of chesed (mercy) and tzedek (righteousness) differed in opinion from and the angels of shalom (peace) and emet (truth). The angels of chesed and tzedek lobbied to create humankind because they do “merciful and righteousness deeds,” whereas the angels of shalom and emet lobbied against human creation, because they are “full of falsehood and never ceases quarreling.” In making the choice, God chose to go ahead and create humankind believing that people can be, according to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “better and less destructive,” recalling that God called the creation of humankind “very good” (Gen. 1:31) The story of the young man shows that to be so, and here in Genesis 22, read on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah, Abraham becomes the image that reveals how humanity can recreate themselves if they choose. How so?
Abraham had a role, an especially important role indeed. Abraham got to play the role of that higher humanity that God gambled on. Abraham is under the impression that God wants him to sacrifice his own son, and as clarifying his reluctance in a Midrash, it is Isaac as opposed to Ishmael since he loved them both (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeira 22). Prior to this we read in the same Midrash, “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: I have tried you nine times, and you underwent those trials successfully; now endure this final trial so that men may not say the earlier trials were of little consequence.” How was this a trail? What was this lesson that Abraham had to learn? Rashi writes that God “did not say, ‘Slay him’, because the Holy One, blessed be He, did not desire that he should slay him, but he told him to bring him up to the mountain to prepare him as a burnt offering. So when he had taken him up, God said to him, “Bring him down” (Genesis Rabbah 56:8… a trial was) Never God’s intent!” Rabbi Sacks gives 4 reasons why this could have never been a trial to sacrifice Isaac by Abraham. First, it was a pagan practice (i.e. Moloch). Second, how could Abraham be a father of all nations if he acted this way? Third, how can a father be willing to sacrifice one child and let the other live? And finally, in Judaism God does not ask the unethical (think Pharaoh and midwives). But still, Abraham seems willing to do what he perceives God has asked of him.
In Genesis 22:15 we read, וַיִּקְרָא מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם, שֵׁנִית, מִן-הַשָּׁמָיִם, “and the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven” and tells him not to kill his son Isaac. Did God’s mind change, or was it some misguided test of a father’s loyalty, only to be stopped by God’s intervention to make a point? In response to this Abraham replied in a Midrash “Swear to me not to test me ever again, nor my son Yitzchak,” Rabbi Chama ben Rabbi Chanina saying, “this is the last test, which was as weighty as all the rest together, and if he had not accepted to [do] it, all would have been lost” (Genesis Rabbah 56:11). This had to happen in other words for the sake of the human race, although the test for Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is ultimately about Abraham relinquishing possession of his son, Isaac, not about killing him. The Akedah story (Gen. 22) for R’Sacks is set in a cultural back backdrop of whether or not Abraham would allow Isaac to be given over to God, meaning that Isaac would now stand as an equal with his father Abraham. As such, R’Sacks concludes that this potential sacrifice that Abraham almost committed certainly shows what he was capable of, but the purpose of this Torah narrative was to make a point about life and “not death.” Life is a reward, Rabbi David Kimchi wrote that the Angel of the Lord “called him (Abraham) a second time to inform him that as compensation for what he had just been prepared to do, God would compensate his children when the occasion would arise to do so,” in this case with Isaac’s life. Abraham's reward would be for the generations that followed, including ours. Regardless of the fact that we can destroy, our true strength is that we can choose life, and help create it anew.
Was Abraham in battle with his past, or in seeking his future, were the remnants of his past an ongoing nuisance, or maybe an old tape that needed to be erased? Upon Mt. Moriah the “Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven” because it has everything to with creation, the Angel of God wanted Abraham to be made new by finally breaking from his past, the recreated Abraham upon that mountain embraced the ram in the thicket, saying yes to life instead. Abraham became the image for renewed humanity that day, his deepest convictions about life tested in a most dramatic way. Rosh Hashanah is just not a holiday, but an opportunity, an opportunity to choose life, goodness, and the better way, calling upon our values of God as we seize the day to recreate ourselves in this new year. In Genesis 22:11 it says, וַיֹּאמֶר, אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם, “and God said, Abraham, Abraham,” but why twice? This is about the Abraham of old as opposed to the recreated Abraham, a reminder of the inner battle between the evil and good inclinations, the plight of the human struggle that we all carry. There are many things we can mention that are worth noting, such as the recent peace agreement made between Israel and their Arab neighbors or the need to usher in a year of a new kind of social equality, but Rosh Hashanah is ultimately about a newness that begins with us. Therefore, may we on this Rosh Hashanah be recreated for good, and may we do our part to make our world better.
L’shana Tovah u’Metukah, a sweet
new year!
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