Rosh Hashanah 2012

Today we will read in the Torah about the birth of Isaac to Abraham at 100 years old and Sarah at 90: a joyous and miraculous event. Then tomorrow we read the test of Abraham, the Akeda or Binding of Isaac, God’s asking of Abraham to bring his beloved Isaac up as a sacrifice, which Abraham does. An angel of God saves Isaac; and Abraham is blessed through his willingness to follow God whole-heartedly. There are many ways to understand this, and I’ve spoken previously about how much prior reassurance God had given to Abraham, the deep personal bond of trust between them, and the promise that Isaac would have many descendants. But this year I’ve come to also see another aspect of this story.

One way to understand it might be to see it through the prism of our life’s goals. As we gaze ahead into a busy fall and beyond we may have immediate to do lists for the week or month. We may also have things we’d really like to do: travel to a country we’ve never seen, study a new subject, or even just get through the next year without any major health crises for us and our families, being as decent a human being as we can be. You’ve all heard the line, Man plans and God laughs. Why is that? Why should it be that life is so shockingly unpredictable? I would like to suggest that it is because our goals, wants, and needs are so different from God’s goals for us. Speaking about wants is easy. We need food and shelter; and we need money to buy those things, so we need to work or to have worked so that the Divine Presence can help us provide and so that we can contribute to providing for others. We also need love, human interaction and connections, intellectual stimulation, and spiritual nourishment. My teacher of blessed memory, Rabbi Gelberman, once gave a talk about wants and needs. In it he quoted Martin Buber who said, “The difference between the Holy and the Unholy is that the Holy are waiting to be sanctified.” Buber wrote; “We are called to the world in order to hallow it, to redeem it. The world needs us for its hallowing. It is waiting to be hallowed by us// and in hallowed contact with the world, with the things and people we meet on the way, we find our way to God.” So it is not that we should not have material wants, as long as we make the distinction between what we need and what we would like. And we can sanctify what we receive and what we achieve.

Goals are more elusive to speak about. It’s easy to identify short term goals. But how many of us can articulate long term goals? You all know the famous joke: A man goes into the hospital for surgery. The operation is successful. The nurse comes in and says, Mr. Shapiro, "Are you comfortable?" he says, "I make a good living." That’s the middle or upper middle class ideal: a comfortable, peaceful life, earning enough to enjoy our existence here on earth and not having to worry. This is probably the opposite of what God wants for us. Being what I call a spiritual naturalist, someone like Charles Darwin who observes events and draws conclusions from observations, it appears to me that God is interested in our spiritual growth. We are not allowed to stay on one level or in one place for very long. It is obvious that the world is in need of great improvement. How is this going to happen? It can only happen if we are forced to grow, through a series of tests, challenges, opportunities, and acts of Divine Grace: both the carrot and the stick. Every day of our lives we are in Life University: a school from which we will never graduate until we leave this plane of existence. And what are we tested on in this school of life? Compassion, Kindness, generosity, selflessness, caring, humility, and love. This is our life’s course work. This is why life has so many tests and challenges. There is a clash between what we want and what God wants. The world can only improve if we improve. We want a peaceful, easy life. God wants growth. God wants action.

The S’fat Emet, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger, has written “We have already been on a very high rung [of spiritual attainment] on Mt. Sinai. Because of that we can raise ourselves back up to Heaven….From now on [there will be] a way to find everything by means of struggle, as it is said, your deeds will draw you near.” A life of spiritual struggle is therefore our lot, in order to be raised up, in order for the world to keep improving. This is why each person is precious to God: each human being has been given challenges in their personalities and life circumstances to struggle with. We are all one soul, there is only one life between us. Each person is precious because they are purifying their small bit of the soul matter for all of us. Our sages taught, angels can’t rise in holiness. Only human beings can become greater than they are. Similarly, in the Talmud, R. Abbahu, said: The place occupied by repentant sinners cannot be attained even by the completely righteous (Sanhedrin 99a). It is improvement that God notices and requires. That’s why we must not ever be completely satisfied with our level of goodness. Life will not allow us to stand still. Norman Mailer famously wrote: “There was that law of life so cruel and so just which demanded that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.”

In the book, Duties of the Heart, by Rabbi Bachya ben Paquda it says that Abraham understood the Torah before it was given. He was already a kind, gracious, generous, compassionate, loving person. Yet God still gave him a further test: the ultimate test: was his faith and trust in God’s goodness so great that he would offer up his own will, his own son, in love, knowing that there must be an explanation and a blessing beyond his comprehension? He did, and he was greatly blessed. There were no other tests for him that we know of. There could not possibly be any other major tests Abraham could be given. He had passed them all. Luckily, none of us are or ever will be at his spiritual level. Our tests are such that we can pass them. Our sages taught, no one is given a test he cannot pass.

In this New Year, we will have many tests, challenges, and opportunities for growth. How will we respond? Most probably, this is what will be asked of us: We will be asked to care about each other more; to be of help and service to each other; to be generous: to keep our hearts open and loving, to let go of any anger, hurt, or hatred and to teach by example. By being willing to grow in goodness and by participating in the goals God has for us, we can not only deepen our understanding of the events in our lives, but also experience all the goodness and joy of God’s great gifts to us. By doing good, we increase goodness in the world and experience that goodness. Buber teaches: “… rejoicing in the world, if we hallow it with our whole being, leads to rejoicing in God.” We are on a magnificent journey on the road that leads to holiness. Angels can only stand still but humankind can rise to unimagined heights, and God is leading us there. May all of us grow in goodness in this New Year, passing our tests, hallowing life, expressing our love and kindness, living joyously, and striving to be grateful and thankful for our continual unfolding.