Rosh Hashanah 1
3 October 2024
Chag Sameach, Shana tovah and welcome…
This morning, my son asked me, “What’s déjà vu?” I said, “I’m sure you’ve asked me that before!”
I’m experiencing déjà vu. Last year, I stood in this same spot, heralding a new beginning, and declared what a pleasure it is, to address for you all the first time as your rabbi, as the Rabbi of Northwood.
This year, I stand here again, by the grace of G-d and your kindness, to say what an incredible privilege it is to serve as the Rabbi of a merged community, Northwood & Ruislip. Another new beginning.
Our mission statement remains unchanged, ensuring we offer a welcoming, inclusive and comfortable space for people to learn about and grow in their Judaism.
However, this is not just a shul where we hold prayer services, but a community centre, where we aim to offer something that appeals to everyone and where everyone is welcome to contribute, to personalise their experience.
This Yomim Noraim season, I believe the challenge is how to relate to the events of the year gone by. How can we integrate our feelings towards what’s happened, and is still ongoing, into our divine service? How do we make sense of it all?
But this is not the time or place to speak of atrocities. Rather, we’ll utilise the hallowed days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur:
- To learn in the merit of all those who perished in the most awful of circumstances
- For those who remain hostage, may they return home now,
- And for the safe return of the soldiers on the front lines.
Our goal, will be to take ideas we may have always understood in one way and to view them from an entirely new perspective, to reframe ideas from our youth in ways that are relevant and meaningful, providing us with a fresh, invigorated outlook for the year to come.
If we were to sum up the Yomim Noraim – the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with one word; It would be…?
Teshuvah – Confession, repentance, atonement.
Teshuvah – the mere utterance of the word alone provides the fuel for the Rabbi’s fire and brimstone drosho! Words of rebuke and admonishment reign down over his poor flock as they contemplate the get out clause in the Rabbi’s contract! Yet, this has nothing to do with Rosh Hashana. At least, not in the traditional sense.
Today, we’ll redefine teshuva not as repentance for having done bad things, but rather as alignment, becoming present. We often imagine that the idea of teshuva is an overhaul of who we are. That once it’s been accomplished, we will be a completely transformed and enlightened being.
Rather, the idea of teshuva is being present with who we are, with our struggles, with our relationship with G-d, with our relationship with ourselves and others. Being present allows us to take stock, reflect on our capabilities and maximise our potential.
No one wants to be bad. No one wants to harm themselves or others. No one wants to cause a fracture in goodness and G-dliness.
It is often a result of being lost, confused, suffering from anxiety or in pain. We become detached from who we really are and who we could become and we dwell on our intrusive thoughts instead. This message is conveyed in the classical Jewish text Pirkei Avot – Ethics of the Fathers – where it teaches (Avos 4:1):
“Who is strong? One who conquers themselves.”
It doesn’t say, the one who possesses physical strength, or the one who conquers continents or exerts social or political power. But one who has harnessed their potential. The one who is at peace with their humanity and identity.
As conscious human beings, we are always looking to grow and evolve, in everything we do. Whether it’s in the gym, on the golf course, in our businesses, with our families, in our philanthropy, in our community we are constantly striving to push ourselves to be the best we can be.
Our approach to personal, inner growth should be no different. This idea, as conveyed in Torah and Jewish terminology, is teshuva. Not transforming ourselves into someone else, but being the best version of ourselves.
Ludwig Guttman was a German Jew, born in 1899. He was a neuro-surgeon by profession. But when Hitler came to power, he decided it was time to leave and left for Poland. However, this was short lived after the Nazis invaded and he eventually moved to England, settling in Oxford in 1939. His talent for treating people with spinal injuries was immediately recognised and he was asked by the government to establish the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.
Ludwig Guttmann grappled with the conventional thinking of the time that people with spinal injuries should just be given painkillers but any hope of rehabilitation was futile. He believed that sport would provide them with some much-needed relief, build up their strength and self-respect. He realised that each person who had these injuries had a story, unrealised dreams, shattered hopes, a soul wanting to express itself, notwithstanding the excruciating pain and paralysis. Ludwig Guttmann stood strong against the status quo, which dictated that these people had to just be left alone to suffer with their wounds, but because he had witnessed the twinkle in their eyes. He was inspired and motivated to do all he could to improve their quality of life.
In 1948 Guttmann organised the first Stoke Mandeville Games for disabled war veterans. All participants had spinal cord injuries and competed in wheelchairs. His determination to help others had given his patients a new lease of life. And his vision resulted in the establishment of the Paralympic games. Guttmann passed away in 1979 and is buried in Bushey cemetery.
In our lives we set goals:
- Learn a new language
- Learn an instrument
- Run a marathon
- See an eclipse
- Learn to make pizza
- Ride in a Ferrari
Whatever it may be, we set goals. It is equally appropriate to set goals in our personal, emotional growth as well.
The teshuva of Yom Kippur is banging our chest – Ashamnu, Bagadnu – admitting and confronting where we’ve made mistakes and gone wrong. This is a defensive teshuva – caught up in the “I did this,” “I did that”. The teshuva of Rosh Hashana is setting realistic and attainable goals for our own personal growth. This is an offensive teshuva – “Let’s grow, let’s evolve.” The teshuva of Yom Kippur is necessary but does not always motivate us towards improvement.
The teshuva of Rosh Hashana spurs on our evolution. We’re not reflecting on what’s gone wrong, but on the potential we have for greatness. There is nothing we can’t achieve when we put our minds to it.
The inner greatness and vision that motivated Guttman to transform the lives of thousands came about because he was on the offensive. Always looking for ways to improve and grow, which naturally resulted in improving the lives of others and transforming a small part of the world.
Dror, Eliran, and Kobi Trabelsi have become known as the “Shuva brothers” from Moshav Shuva, located near Gaza, a place 650 people call home. On the morning of October 7th, Moshav Shuva became a crucial junction where soldiers and others gathered as a staging area. A few days after the attack on Israel began, these three brothers from Shuva – Dror, Eliran, and Kobi – recognised the soldiers’ need for food, medicine and other necessities, they left their jobs and established a rest station for the fighting forces.
Ever since, they have provided free drinks, food, toiletries, laundry services, coffee, clothing, and every basic need to people passing through. Today, they are making over 3,000 meals a day and the Shuva intersection has become a place of pilgrimage, not only for the IDF forces who come daily to refresh and eat, but also for citizens and tourists who come to meet the soldiers, cook, volunteer, and donate money to keep it operational. I don’t believe it is a coincidence that these three brothers come from a place called “Shuva” a word which shares the same letters as the word Teshuva.
Ludwig Guttmann achieved great things.
The Trabelsi brothers, Dror, Eliran and Kobi, do great things.
We all do great things – YOU all do great things.
Rosh Hashana comes along to realign our thinking. We are not the person who makes mistakes and has set backs. Who we truly are, is the hero that accomplishes greatness and can change the world. The ultimate teshuva is to believe it.
May G-d bless you all, along with your families with a happy, healthy, prosperous, sweet and peaceful New Year. May this year be one of hope, strength and unity.
Gut yom tov!