New Year Musing by Peter Beyfus
The Torah reading for second day Rosh Hashanah is Bereshit 21 1-19 and contains the famous
account of the “binding of Isaac” or in Hebrew akidah. Many Christian Bibles head this section of
Genesis as the “sacrifice of Isaac” which is, of course, a distortion of what happened.
Rosh Hashanah is a mixture of sweetness, celebrating a new year, and a degree of apprehension as to what that might bring.
White, the traditional colour of purity and death, is very much in evidence
during the High Holy Days. It represents the starkness of a neutral state; that which is to receive the
“breath of life”, and that is what we hope will be granted us this year .The opportunity to become
worthier Jews becomes the main focus during these penitential days, and what better example do we
have than our ancestor, the Patriarch Abraham.
There are two seminal events in the life of Abraham. One is the divine command in Haran: Go
forth….to the land I will show you. From that point G-d became an integral part of the history of the
Jewish people. The other incident occurred at the akidah. G-d uses similar language to the words
spoken at Haran: Go forth…to the land of Moriah…..on one of the heights which I will point out to
you. In both cases the exact destination was not revealed; so Abraham did not know the terminal
point of his journeys, and that is true for us too. As we begin our individual journeys into this New
Year, not knowing where we will end up and what might befall us en route, let us, like Abraham,
cleave to what gives meaning to our lives. Strong faith, like Abraham’s, might be enough to sustain
us, or love of family and friends, or being endowed with an optimistic personality. These qualities
are not mutually exclusive; we may be blessed with owning all of them. At Moriah G-d spoke his
last words to Abraham – no further verbal communication was necessary for the Patriarch had
fulfilled his destiny, to become the father of a Great Nation. Perhaps we can take inspiration from
this episode and strive toward a time when words are superfluous because our behaviour and
actions speak for themselves.
Linked to this vision of a brighter future is the belief, that has
sustained Jews for centuries, particularly during times of persecution, of the imminent arrival of the
Moshiach. Jewish tradition states the Messiah will come at Pesach, heralded by the prophet Elijah,
but is it conceivable he will arrive on Rosh Hashanah? It is during the Mussaf service when the the
words of Isaiah ring out: “On that day a great shofar will be sounded, and those who are lost in the
land of Assyria and those who are cast away in the land of Egypt shall come and bow down to G-d
on the holy mountain in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).
In previous years the Chassid Rabbi Shalom Arush strongly urged his followers to journey to Uman in Ukraine for the Yomim Tovim. Why?
Uman is the burial place of Nachman of Breslov. It was his great-grandson, the Baal Shem Tov,
who had a vision on Rosh Hashanah in which he spoke to the Messiah, asking him when he would
redeem the world. Nachman believed Rosh Hashanah was a spiritually auspicious time, so much so
that Rav Arush thought the arrival of Moshiach was imminent. There is a logic in believing the
Messianic Age will start with the New Year, with the sounding of the shofar. No one knows when
Moshiach will come, but it doesn’t have to be at Pesach.