May this be 'the' year
Parashat: Rosh Hashana
September 14, 2004
Last year, the first day of Rosh Hashana fell on Shabbat, and so the shofar remained silent.
But although it may have felt strange to enter the new year without the sound of the shofar, the "silent" Shabbat gave everyone an opportunity to concentrate more carefully on the actual words of the mussaf amida - the unique blessings of malchuyot (kingship), zichronot (remembrances), and shofarot.
This year, of course, the drama of both days of Rosh Hashana again revolves around the piercing cries of the ram's horn, and as a consequence, during the mussaf amida we may lose sight of the words because of our intense listening to the shofar. But we shouldn't forget that it's the content of these three special blessings that are the essence of Judaism - according to both the medieval theologian Rabbi Yosef Albo (in Essential Judaism) as well as the more contemporary Franz Rosenzweig (in his Star of Redemption) - and which likewise contain a critical message for humanity.
The first of these blessings, malchuyot, tells us of the basic theological message of our faith: our optimistic belief that eventually the wicked will return to the God of creation, that human society will be perfected so that peace will reign throughout the world (Alenu, Al ken nekaveh). This axiom of our religion, this prophecy of the ultimate endgame, is especially comforting in the face of the dangerous global village in which we live, a global village in which the specter of nuclear proliferation threatens every freedom-loving citizen; if God is not "sanctified by righteousness," then we are tragically left with a Satanic god who is sated only by the sword - a tainted totalitarian trinity of Nazi fascism, Stalinist communism, and Islamic fundamentalism.
The second sacred blessing, zichronot, opens, "You remember the activities from the beginning of the world, and you provide a function (the Hebrew poked is the root form of tafkid, function) for every creature from earliest times." There is here a ringing declaration of faith in the process of history, a clear sense that time is on the side of humanity, and that individuals and nations each have a unique role in the cumulative march of history toward redemption. Israel, alone of the nations, enjoys a special relationship with God, a covenant which ensures its eternity and defines its mission as the messenger of ethical monotheism.
And if Israel has been divinely chosen to be the medium of universal blessing ("through you shall all the families of the world be blessed," promises the Almighty to Abraham), it is difficult to imagine that America does not carry the torch of responsibility to ensure freedom and democracy throughout the world.
The third blessing, shofarot, reminds us of the revelation at Sinai, the 613 commandments God presented to Israel and the seven commandments of morality - including "Thou shalt not murder" - which God presented to the world. Maimonides, the great codifier of Jewish law, insists that just as God commanded Moses to bequeath 613 commandments to Israel, "similarly did He command Moses to coerce the nations of the world to accept the seven laws of morality" (Laws of Kings 8,10). This is an especially significant message in our postmodern, relativistic, "everything goes" society, which denies any absolute concept of morality.
"Situation ethics" dominate our conventional wisdom, and the most heinous crime can become transformed into a sacred act "when seen from the perpetrator's point of view." Hence, a suicide bomber who murders innocent children is called a "freedom fighter."
SOURCE: Jerusalem Post