TEMPLE HIGHLIGHTS | RABBI'S MONTHLY COLUMN

Assembling a good beginning hinges upon arrangement of a good ending

From the study of Rabbi Hayon

Editor’s note: From time to time throughout the year, in addition to Rabbi David Stern’s columns, other members of our clergy will be contributing columns in this space.

And so it begins.
The month of September has arrived, as it always does, and with it a full complement of Jewish beginnings. Our Jewish calendar starts anew this month; as we celebrate the turning of a new page with our High Holy Day observances, we recommit ourselves to internal beginnings of our own. We resolve to make positive changes in our families, our workplaces, our commitments to tzedakah and community.

And so it is strange that, at this time of new beginnings, our annual cycle of Torah readings will not restart until October. Of course, this is the case every year: the beginning of the Jewish year does not coincide precisely with the beginning of our Torah reading cycle. Simchat Torah – our joyous return to the opening words of Genesis – doesn’t occur for a full three weeks after Rosh HaShanah.

Sometimes this odd gap makes it feel as if the calendar is an imperfect garment which fits the contours of the year awkwardly. After all, we would assume that it would have been much more effective for the calendar to have been arranged so that we would read about God’s creation of the cosmos in Genesis 1 at the same time that we commit to create ourselves anew on the High Holy Days. But things don’t work that way. Instead, the Torah portion assigned to the week of Rosh HaShanah is “Ha’azinu,” the recounting of Moses’ final oration at the end of the book of Deuteronomy. It is an odd quirk of the Jewish calendar that things should be arranged this way, but it works out this way every single year.

And so perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the peculiar fact that the Torah reading designated for the very beginning of the Jewish year comes from the very end of the Torah. Perhaps we are meant to learn that assembling a good beginning is vitally important – but that it cannot be done adequately until we arrange a good ending. We are, above all else, a covenant people. If we take that role seriously, we must recognize that it entails fulfillment and follow-through. It obliges us to make good on our commitments: to ourselves, to our families, and to God. Beginning a new year with the Torah’s ending can remind us that a well-lived religious life cannot merely entail “starting over” again and again. It must also include the satisfaction that emerges from doing what we have promised, carrying out our obligations faithfully, and continuing to serve as steadfast covenantal partners to all who depend on us.

But it is likely that there is another message in this peculiarity of the calendar as well. Ha’azinu is not actually the last portion in the Torah. There is another one which follows it – Parashat V’zot HaBracha – with whose words the Torah scroll closes. But that portion is only read on Simchat Torah, after which we proceed immediately to the opening words of Genesis. So maybe we are meant to learn that there is, in fact, no ending to Torah. Ours is a story which never really ends, whose beginning never really emerges from nowhere. Maybe we are meant to learn that a preoccupation with endings and beginnings is ultimately needless.

The Torah carries us on a cyclical journey; it begins and ends and begins again as it curves a winding path through the guidance of mitzvot, the blessed reassurance of community and the inspiring nearness of God. As we take our first brave steps as a Jewish community into the year 5768, let us be reminded of our tradition’s rich resources and the way they can guide us; may we attain wisdom from this new year’s promise and all of the myriad endings and beginnings embedded within it.
And so it begins.