TESHUVAH, TEFILLAH AND TZEDAKAH
Yom Kippur - Part 2 (afternoon drash)
Teshuvah, Tefillah and Tzedakah - spiritual return, self-reflection and righteous acts can’t prevent us from dying; but they can change our lives. We are not the center of the universe; we are not even in control of what happens to us. There is only thing that we can control, how we respond. And that makes all of the difference. Teshuvah, Tefillah and Tzedakah don’t change the decree; they change us. And with that change, the evil, the “otherness”, of the decree can be transformed. When we respond with awe, acceptance, appreciation and kindness we find our inner strength which is the true power of humanity.
Spiritual return, and self-reflection, and righteous acts are a reminder of what the world stands on according to Simon the Just: Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasidim: Torah, divine words from heaven to humanity, Avodah, the labor of worship, the grateful response of humanity to heaven, and Gemilut Chasidim, acts of love between people. Of course the world does not stand at all, it hovers over the endless emptiness, but it rests firmly on a foundation of these three relationships: how holiness and meaning interact with us (Torah), how we respond with our own holiness and meaning (worship), and how we respond to each other (acts of loving kindness). And there is one element that is the core of each of these relationships and connections: love.
Love is is the key. At this time of year when the seasons change and a new Jewish year has just begun, love is at the center of our personal goals, desires for forgiveness, and our hopes and dreams for our lives. How do we find meaning, and connection and God in our lives? With love. What do we sing before the Shema? That God gave us the gift of wisdom, Torah, in love. What do we chant right after we declare the Oneness of God? That we are to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all that we have.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” How do we drive out the darkness from our world and from our own hearts? With love. Elie Wiesel spent his life documenting hate and oppression. What was his conclusion? “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” When we look at our world, our lives, the people who share this journey, when we look at our own short-comings, do we respond with indifference, or do we respond with love? There are many paths to God and connection and meaning, and at the core of our Jewish journey up the mountain is love. When the great rabbi Hillel summarized all of Jewish wisdom in one sentence, he said: “What would hurt you, don’t do to others. The rest is commentary; go now and study!”. His inspiration for this teaching was Leviticus 19:18 “Love your fellow as yourself.”
We can encounter God through love. The spiritual world is adjacent to our own at all times. There is only one more detail left to explore: how do we find forgiveness? According to Maimonides, teshuvah involves understanding where we have missed the mark, learning from these mistakes, asking for forgiveness from those that we have hurt, and committing to a new course of action. We are to pray that we will be placed in the same situation again and this time make a different, better choice. That is how forgiveness is achieved between people. But what about between us and God and what about forgiving ourself? We have to believe that we are capable of a new beginning; we don’t need to be who we were yesterday or the day before. We can always bust out a new move. When we do, we are no longer the people we were; we become new and improved. The emotional baggage that we have been shlepping around can be left behind.
There are sometimes moments in our lives that lend themselves to truly turning a new leaf. Even the atheist might pray if their airplane lost an engine or a truck was about to crash into our car. When we are in the place that life and death meet, it is easy to chart a new course, to deeply regret our missed opportunities and poor decisions when our life is passing before our eyes. That is the power of Yom Kippur. We are to see this day, every year, as a life and death moment. We are to rehearse our own deaths. We are to deny ourselves food and drink and throw ourselves on the ground. When we are to imagine what it would be like if we couldn’t get back up. And then we are to rise, and stand before the universe, stand before God, face ourselves and ask for forgiveness. By spending this day in holy and spiritual pursuits, we unmask the reality of life. We get a quick peek. We are always living in the midst of a life and death moment. We never know when we will lie down and not get up. We never know which breath will be our last. Usually we push these thoughts as far out of mind as we can. On Yom Kippur we face them, and we embrace them. We realize that behind all of the nonsense, arguments, politics, finances, and how well we can waste our times, that life is finite. And our ultimate choice is very simple and very profound: how will we respond? How will we live? When we ask these questions we quickly realize that it’s not about focussing on death, it’s about focussing on life. It’s about living a good life, a life of love, a life of loving and forgiving ourselves, a life of making peace and connecting with those around us. Atzilut teaches us that every moment is a face of God, when we turn to face the moment with clarity.
It would be hard to live every day as Yom Kippur. By feeding our souls for one day of the year and letting our body wait to get its desires fulfilled, we can take stock in what is really important. We can ask ourselves the question that shouldn’t wait until it’s too late on our death bed: did I love enough? Did I truly live, and make this world a better place for being in it? Today our lives hang in the balance. May the decisions that we make today help fill out entire year with meaning, connection and love. Shana Tovah - may be it a good year, and may we all be fully sealed for goodness.
Rabbi Shalom Bochner
Spiritual return, and self-reflection, and righteous acts are a reminder of what the world stands on according to Simon the Just: Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasidim: Torah, divine words from heaven to humanity, Avodah, the labor of worship, the grateful response of humanity to heaven, and Gemilut Chasidim, acts of love between people. Of course the world does not stand at all, it hovers over the endless emptiness, but it rests firmly on a foundation of these three relationships: how holiness and meaning interact with us (Torah), how we respond with our own holiness and meaning (worship), and how we respond to each other (acts of loving kindness). And there is one element that is the core of each of these relationships and connections: love.
Love is is the key. At this time of year when the seasons change and a new Jewish year has just begun, love is at the center of our personal goals, desires for forgiveness, and our hopes and dreams for our lives. How do we find meaning, and connection and God in our lives? With love. What do we sing before the Shema? That God gave us the gift of wisdom, Torah, in love. What do we chant right after we declare the Oneness of God? That we are to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all that we have.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” How do we drive out the darkness from our world and from our own hearts? With love. Elie Wiesel spent his life documenting hate and oppression. What was his conclusion? “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” When we look at our world, our lives, the people who share this journey, when we look at our own short-comings, do we respond with indifference, or do we respond with love? There are many paths to God and connection and meaning, and at the core of our Jewish journey up the mountain is love. When the great rabbi Hillel summarized all of Jewish wisdom in one sentence, he said: “What would hurt you, don’t do to others. The rest is commentary; go now and study!”. His inspiration for this teaching was Leviticus 19:18 “Love your fellow as yourself.”
We can encounter God through love. The spiritual world is adjacent to our own at all times. There is only one more detail left to explore: how do we find forgiveness? According to Maimonides, teshuvah involves understanding where we have missed the mark, learning from these mistakes, asking for forgiveness from those that we have hurt, and committing to a new course of action. We are to pray that we will be placed in the same situation again and this time make a different, better choice. That is how forgiveness is achieved between people. But what about between us and God and what about forgiving ourself? We have to believe that we are capable of a new beginning; we don’t need to be who we were yesterday or the day before. We can always bust out a new move. When we do, we are no longer the people we were; we become new and improved. The emotional baggage that we have been shlepping around can be left behind.
There are sometimes moments in our lives that lend themselves to truly turning a new leaf. Even the atheist might pray if their airplane lost an engine or a truck was about to crash into our car. When we are in the place that life and death meet, it is easy to chart a new course, to deeply regret our missed opportunities and poor decisions when our life is passing before our eyes. That is the power of Yom Kippur. We are to see this day, every year, as a life and death moment. We are to rehearse our own deaths. We are to deny ourselves food and drink and throw ourselves on the ground. When we are to imagine what it would be like if we couldn’t get back up. And then we are to rise, and stand before the universe, stand before God, face ourselves and ask for forgiveness. By spending this day in holy and spiritual pursuits, we unmask the reality of life. We get a quick peek. We are always living in the midst of a life and death moment. We never know when we will lie down and not get up. We never know which breath will be our last. Usually we push these thoughts as far out of mind as we can. On Yom Kippur we face them, and we embrace them. We realize that behind all of the nonsense, arguments, politics, finances, and how well we can waste our times, that life is finite. And our ultimate choice is very simple and very profound: how will we respond? How will we live? When we ask these questions we quickly realize that it’s not about focussing on death, it’s about focussing on life. It’s about living a good life, a life of love, a life of loving and forgiving ourselves, a life of making peace and connecting with those around us. Atzilut teaches us that every moment is a face of God, when we turn to face the moment with clarity.
It would be hard to live every day as Yom Kippur. By feeding our souls for one day of the year and letting our body wait to get its desires fulfilled, we can take stock in what is really important. We can ask ourselves the question that shouldn’t wait until it’s too late on our death bed: did I love enough? Did I truly live, and make this world a better place for being in it? Today our lives hang in the balance. May the decisions that we make today help fill out entire year with meaning, connection and love. Shana Tovah - may be it a good year, and may we all be fully sealed for goodness.
Rabbi Shalom Bochner