Posted on 10/02/24
After an enormously difficult year, Rosh Hashana is upon us. We turn the page to a new year and new possibilities, keenly aware that on this day Hashem determines both our fate and our mission for the future. We end the year encouraged by His almost-visible hand bringing success to the heroic efforts of our beloved chayalei Tzahal protecting our people and destroying those who seek to destroy us.
We approach Rosh Hashana with hope. For the past seven weeks, beginning with Shabbos Nachamu, we have read the comforting words of Yeshayahu. As discouraging as our world appears, we believe with a complete belief that God has not given up on it and that it will be healed and filled with peace, goodness, and knowledge of Hashem. The promise of a better future is what grants us the optimism and strength to spend Rosh Hashana praying for the day when the Jewish people are honored rather than vilified, the tension in Israel is replaced by simcha l’artzecha v’sasson l’irecha, and the righteous rejoice in what they see happening in the world around them.
We approach Rosh Hashana with determination, knowing that the road to redemption is very bumpy and that to arrive at that better world we must navigate and even embrace the challenges we confront along the way. Before we turn the page with hope for a new year, we consider shana u’kileloteha, the suffering and the alienation of the past year, the latest iteration of the haunting warnings we read from the Torah in anticipation of Rosh Hashana. We know that until we reach the happy ending of Hakadosh Baruch Hu matzileinu mi’yadam, there is work to be done to meet these challenges with the dignity, determination, and compassion that make us worthy of His promise.
And we approach the mishpat l’Elokei Yaakov of Rosh Hashana as one nation, one people, one family bound together by unbreakable bonds.
Our original father Avraham had experienced a crushing disappointment and loss in his life when his son Yishmael had to be sent away and could not remain part of the eternal Jewish people. The same was true for Yitzchak who had two sons, twins, but his favored Eisav could not remain part of his family. Only Yaakov had the distinction that all his children would remain forever part of the Jewish people. In the words of the Sages, beginning with the children of Yaakov a new rule applied: Yisrael af al pi she-chata Yisrael hu, even a Jew who sins remains forever part of our people. It is as the children of Yaakov that we stand as one people, as a family bound together by unbreakable bonds.
That is why we stand on Rosh Hashana before Elokei Yaakov, the Yaakov who never let go of any of his children despite their failings, and the God Who considers all of us His children despite our failings. The One Who sees in us and in every member of Klal Yisrael the inherent goodness that makes our bond to each other and to Him unbreakable. We stand before the God of the truly eternal Jewish people, the children of Yaakov, the nation that despite its internal divisions will always remain one family.
We approach Rosh Hashana with hope and determination, as a unified family strengthened by our love for each other and our complete belief in a better future, in a world where the forces of evil will wither and all will join together to do Hashem’s will b’leivav shalem.
May we all be blessed with a ktiva vachatima tova.
Tacheil shana ubirchoteha.