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Jewish World Review Sept. 19, 2006 /26 Elul, 5766 Dynamic beginnings, Dynamic Lives By Rabbi Akiva Tatz
Let us delve into the idea of Rosh Hashanah to discover the energies
which are manifest in order to be able to best use this
opportunity. Strengthening the inspiration of the first phase
of experience is the key to building the strength and stamina
needed for the second, the phase of diminished inspiration.
Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year. The spiritual
forces operating at moments of beginning are unique. "Hakol
holech achar harosh — Everything goes after the beginning."
The entire course of any process is determined by its
beginning. This is because a beginning is a conception, and
conception represents the laying down of the genes which
are the blueprint for everything which is built later. The
spiritual rule is that the closer to the moment of conception,
the more potent and critical the forces. A small injury
to the human body may not be of major significance in an
adult; a fetus during its development is much more sensitive
to such an event; and a minute change to the genes
may have the most far-reaching results imaginable.
At the moment of conception all details are being coded
most potently; it is therefore the most critical moment. No
subsequent moment can ever have the intensity and significance of that first moment. The flash of conception contains everything; all later development is simply a revelation of
what was created during that first flash.
Rosh Hashanah is the conception of the year and the next
ten days are its gestation. That is why these days are so critical
to the whole year. That is why a person is judged for the
entire year as he appears on Rosh Hashanah — the personality
as it exists then is the core; it will take supreme effort
later to change. Change on Rosh Hashanah is much easier
— one can manipulate the "genes" of one's character then.
People of spiritual knowledge take extreme care to live perfectly
on Rosh Hashanah — the year is being conceived.
Many have a custom not to sleep at least during the morning
hours; they wish to lay down the genes of the year in
consciousness, not oblivion.
What is the source of this special energy? The first Rosh
Hashanah ever, which of course must represent its true nature
most powerfully, was the day of the Creation of man.
That day of Creation was the world's first Rosh Hashanah
and its climactic event was the Creation of the human. That
is why the day always retains its power to re-create man!
When we genuinely and intensely decide to elevate our
personalities on Rosh Hashanah, become inspired to live
the coming year as higher beings, we are using the day's
deeply rooted energy as the day of human creation. The
day has the power to energize real change and help a person
become unrecognizably different.
There is an idea that Adam was created at the very place
which would later be the mizbei'ach (altar) in the Holy Temple.
"Adam mi'makom kaparaso nivra — Adam was created
from the place of his atonement." His very first moment
of life was generated from earth which was gathered from
all parts of the world, but which was concentrated on the
one spot which would later become the site of sacrifices
— that activity which most powerfully atones and brings
man close to the Divine. His moment of creation is at once
the most intense newness possible and also contains the
element of the most intense change possible — from sin to
atonement, which is really new creation itself. Hence the
unfathomable power of Rosh Hashanah to help us become
new. Little wonder that the mystical custom is to minimize
sleep.
The service of the day reflects this idea of reaching for the
root. The order of prayer is based on Malchuyos (kingship),
Zichronos (memory), and Shofros (shofar-blowing).
Malchuyos (kingship) represents the effort of renewing
the root of all Creation and all service — establishing that
the Divine's rule is absolute and primary. Before accepting the
yoke of specific mitzvos (religious duties), we must accept the Divine's kingship
in general, as expressed in the famous allegory of a
great king who was asked to decree laws for a country. The
king agreed only on condition that the people first accept
his sovereignty over them; only then would his laws be
binding and meaningful.
The root of Creation is the Divine's
kingship, and so too is the root of all spiritual growth. This
realization is the most primary of all on Rosh Hashanah
and it requires a delving into the deepest level of desire during the prayer service to reach the consciousness of and desire for the Divine's complete rule.
Zichronos (memory) represents the idea of remembering,
in true spiritual depth, the points of origin of the world
and of the Jewish people and its destiny. This deep form
of memory is a reentering of the male phase of new conception
— to go back to the initial flash or spark and relive
it vividly and literally. The root of zachor, "remember," is
identical with zachar, "male." The connection should be
obvious. Maleness is exactly that — a carrying over of
the distilled essence of all previous generations in a seed,
which will form the next generation. The seed is a "memory"
of the past. In fact the word "memory" and "seed"
are numerically equivalent. The work of memory, reliving
the flash of creation, is perfectly fitting and necessary for
Rosh Hashanah.
Shofros (shofar-blowing) indicates, along the lines we
have been discussing, reaching for the heart, reaching for
the root of the neshoma (soul) and the personality. The essence of
the shofar is that it has a voice but no words. The mystics
explain that the voice is the root of speech and contains far
more than the individual finite words. Words may convey
information, but the voice conveys the person. This is why
prophecy is referred to as "voice," not words. When the Divine
tells Abraham to listen to Sarah's prophetic advice the
verse says "Shma b'kola — Listen to her voice," not "Listen
to her words."
the Divine tells the prophet, "Kra b'garon, al tachsoch — Cry
out in your throat, do not hold back." Prophecy is not from
the mouth, the origin of words, but from the throat, the origin
of raw sound. The blessing we pronounce on hearing
the shofar is "lishmo'a kol shofar," to "hear the voice of the
shofar." The shofar is raw sound, a raw cry, and that is why
it has the power to open the soul. All the words in the
world cannot convey the emotion of a scream of a child in
the night. The shofar is that scream.
Rosh Hashanah correctly lived should leave one supercharged.
The energy achieved should be so great that the rest of the year can be lived accordingly — not as a continuation
but as a constant experience of newness! Spark must
become flame and that flame must spark a new blaze; always.
That is Jewish living. There is a mystical idea that
being alive today because one was alive yesterday is called
dying. Being really alive means that one's life is generated
today, not as a passive result of the past but as an explosion
of newness now and always.
This is but one of more than a dozen uplifting and philosophical essays from "Inspiring Days: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Beyond --- Visions and Pathways for Spiritual Growth & Personal Potential". Click HERE
to purchase it at a discount.
When one asks, "Where have you come
from?" one says me'ayin ba'ta? When one says, "Where are
you going?" one says ana telech (or le'an)? But if one stops
to consider the literal meaning of these expressions, a most
inspiring depth becomes apparent: me'ayin ba'ta — "From
where have you come?" literally means "You come from
nothingness." And ana telech — "Where are you going?"
literally means "You are going to an inexpressibly great
dimension."
Hebrew, the language of holiness, is pregnant with spiritual
depth. The simple, mundane idea of a person arriving
from some previous place is expressed in common Hebrew
as the transition from nothingness to his present state (yesh
me'ayin — something from nothing!). In other words, the
spiritual grasp of this moment is that it is relative to the previous
moment as existence compared to nothingness. That is newness. And from this moment to the next, the explosion is so great that it cannot be translated. That is the striving
of a spiritually sensitive person, to generate new inner
life continually.
The patriarch Abraham says of himself, "Va'anochi afar va'efer
— And I am dust and ashes." Torah is never mere poetry;
every nuance has infinite meaning. What is the meaning of
"dust and ashes"?
The idea is this. Ashes are the bare elements left when a
substance has been completely burned. "Dust" of the earth
is the rich soil in which growth takes place. Abraham, who
most profoundly represents the idea of newness, of being
the father, the founder of the Jewish people, who forged a
whole new way of living, sees himself as constantly incinerating
what he has become in order to use those elements
as soil for new growth. No element of his development is
allowed to continue passively, here today because it was
here yesterday. All of his being is distilled into a memory
which is the nucleus for a new birth — constantly. That is
the power of chiddush, self-generating newness, the source
of spiritual life and growth.
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Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz is a former medical officer in the South African Defense force. He is a senior lecturer at the Jewish Learning Exchange in London, England and founder of the Jerusalem Medical Ethics Forum. He is the author of Worldmask, The Thinking Jewish Teenager’s Guide to Life,
and Letters To A Buddhist Jew. His essay in this collection, appears in Living Inspired, published by Targum Press.
© 2006, by K'hal Publishing. excerpted from "Inspiring Days: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Beyond --- Visions and Pathways for Spiritual Growth & Personal Potential" | ||||||||||||||||
