TEMPLE HIGHLIGHTS | RABBI'S MONTHLY COLUMN

Don't let external logistics of High Holy Days distract from internal focus

From the study of Rabbi Stern

They are called the Days of Awe, but too often, all the logistical necessities of the High Holidays suffocate their potential power. By necessity, we worry about tickets and parking and service schedules and meal schedules, prayer books and page numbers, who will be in town and who will not, all driven by the calendar which tells us when the High Holidays will fall, and all the helpful information which tells us when and where we have the opportunity to pray.

How ironic that all of these externals become so prominent on the days that are supposed to focus us on internal reflection above all else. We do not lack, in our society, for the opportunity to worry about parking, or having the right seats for something. (Though I have yet to hear the sanctuary described as “courtside.”) We do not lack for the opportunity to feel overscheduled, squeezing potentially meaningful activities into the narrow cubbyholes of our calendars. What we do lack is the opportunity to sit in one place for a while, reflect on our lives, ask ourselves daring questions about our own potential for goodness, turn our gaze into the soul’s mirror to see where we have strayed, and to see there how we might return to right a relationship with those we love, and with the God who has endowed us with the gift of our own humanity.

The High Holidays give us those opportunities, but sometimes their sacred potential becomes obscured by the external demands of the day. The good news is that our tradition gives us a wise counterbalance to our focus on the externals, as in this Chasidic tale:

A disciple sat in study before the great Rabbi Mordechai of Nadvorna. Before Rosh Hashanah, the disciple came to Rabbi Mordechai and asked to be dismissed. The rabbi replied, “Why are you hurrying?” The student replied, “I am a leader of the service, and I must look in the prayer book, and make sure I have the prayers in order.” The rabbi replied: “The prayer book is the same as it was last year. But it would be better for you to look into your deeds, and put yourself in order.”

And for all those moments when we are asking about what day the holidays fall, and what time the services are, and what the calendar and the schedule say, we have this wonderful midrash, in which God’s ministering angels inquire when Rosh Hashanah will take place:

All the ministering angels assembled before the Holy One and say, “Master of the Universe, when is the New Year’s Day?” God replied, “Is it Me you are asking? Let us both ask the [human] Court below!”

The message of God’s response is whimsical and wise: “Don’t ask me about the calendar. Only the people can answer you. The days of repentance will come when people are ready to repent. The days of renewal will come when people are ready to renew their lives. The days of return will come when people point themselves towards return. This is not about the calendar or the moon. This is about the readiness of the human heart.”

So for all our focus on the externals, our own tradition comes to redirect us, even to liberate us. If we lose track of the page in the prayer book, do not worry, because the prayer book is the same as it was last year. Better to look into ourselves. And if we sometimes get confused about where to be when, and whether the holidays are early or late, do not worry – the holidays will truly come when we make our hearts ready. As the month of Elul begins, we are reminded that what happens within us and between us defines a season of renewal far more than even the sacred squares of our calendars. With that reminder, may our sacred season of blessing begin.