L'Shana tova - Good year blessings
Living and Growing
At sundown Wednesday night Sept. 15, the Jewish people will celebrate the beginning of the Hebrew year 5765. This year signifies the number of years "since Creation." While most Jews take the number symbolically, it does serve to remind us that Judaism is an ancient faith.
Jews are called People of the Book, meaning the "Folk of the Bible." The Tanach (our Hebrew word for what most Christians call the Old Testament) certainly contains the stories and laws of the beginning, but the Jews of 5756/ 2004 don't look or act like the ancient Hebrews. We're not tribesmen, we don't offer grain or animal sacrifices on altars and we don't have a priestly family officiating for us in our places of worship. Instead we have prayer books, a rabbi officiating, and schools, Bar and Bat Mitzvah observations, music, community service projects and more. Though the Bible knows nothing of some of these institutions and practices, we do remain Bible-linked in ways we recognize today. The worship and holy-day calendar we use is based on the agricultural seasons of ancient Israel, quite different from those in Juneau or Chicago or Buenos Aires. When we blow the shofar (ram's horn) at our New Year we are doing just what the Bible commanded our ancestors.
It is said by our ancestors that Judaism stands on three pillars - G-d, Torah (Jewish laws, teachings, values) and Israel.
Judaism came to believe that G-d was One very early in history. Most of the world's religions adopted monotheism. However, Jews don't have a "standard" way of thinking about G-d. Jews don't have creeds. Modern Jews are proud our religion affords us such latitude in thinking about G-d. Some Jews believe in a very personal G-d who hears them and can communicate with them. Some see G-d as a power in the universe having no personality at all. All seem to agree with the tradition that G-d is intangible, eternal and never completely knowable.
Torah in a narrow sense means the first five books of the Tanach, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They are written on a parchment scroll found in all synagogues. But "Torah," which could be translated "The Jewish Path," has come to mean all the laws and traditions that scholars interpreted from, or created in the spirit of, the original Torah, to meet a changing world. Ordaining women as rabbis is a good contemporary example of Torah's expanding to meet what we think is surely G-d's will for our day. Liberal Judaism calls this progressive revelation. Judaism actually made provisions for changes like these. The Talmud says, "And law the scholars make in the future was already given to Moses on Sinai." What an amazing principal, which approved an evolving Judaism ahead of time, while linking it to its ancient source.
Israel is the third pillar. Israel the people, living in many lands and many generations and now having built the state of Israel. Jews need one another and they value community. The full worship service can't go on unless 10 Jews are present. We are commanded to help other Jews celebrate holy days and lifecycle observances. In this spirit our morning worship says: "These are duties whose worth is immeasurable: honoring ones father and mother, pursuing wisdom, hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, celebrating with bride and groom, consoling the bereaved, making peace where there is strife." Notice how many of those are done in community with others. The land and state of Israel have a unique place in Jewish affections. Israel became home to many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Visiting Israel brings us in physical contact with the beginning of our faith, and that nation offers the promise of a society that will be a light to the nations.
As 5765 dawns, the people of the Book remain in covenant with G-d, doing their best to be true to G-d, Torah and their fellow Jews. We are praying, as our prayer book says, that the Maker of peace will send peace to us, all Israel and all humanity.
• Rabbi Shapiro is a retired congregational rabbi who will be in Juneau conducting Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services for the Juneau Jewish Community. Rabbi Shapiro and his wife Hannah are from Chicago. This is the second year they have traveled to Juneau during the High Holy Days - Judaism's most sacred holidays.