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Rabbis Pen & Parsha for October
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Torah Portion of the week can also be found at
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Parsha Index can be found at
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From the Pen of Rabbi Fine October 2008
Rosh Hashanah – the Birthday of the World
I don’t know about you, but the first thing
I do when I receive my new desk diary is to fill in the dates of the
birthdays of my children and grandchildren. The joy on a child’s face on
his birthday is something to behold and it takes us back to memories of
our own childhood.
So why is it that as we get older, we begin to dread birthdays? Why do
we feel such a heavy weight with each passing year? But as a great man
once said, “Birthdays are only significant when your life isn’t.”
Birthdays remind us that another year has passed. If, during that year,
we have grown spiritually, if we have lived meaningful lives, if we have
a clear picture of where we are going and are continuing on our journey
of spiritual awakening, the our birthdays are not going to shake us up.
They will either pass uneventfully, or be felt as a happy day to reflect
on how good the year has been.
However, if we really feel are lives are not on track and our job is
basically going nowhere, then our birthday reminds us that during the
past year nothing has changed and maybe nothing ever will. Then we
surely don’t want to be reminded of our birthday .
When we were children, birthdays made us feel special because of
external factors – ice cream, part hats and presents. But as we grow
older, birthdays only make us feel special if our lives truly are.
What is Rosh Hashanah?
Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world
and the spiritual birthday of every single human being.
The depth and spirituality of life presents us with profound challenges
and expectations. If we have lived up to our expectations during the
past year, then Rosh Hashanah is a happy day. However, if we have not
met the challenges presented to us, then Rosh Hashanah can be a
terrifying experience.
That is why Rosh Hashanah can be perceived as a day of judgement,
although in truth, it is a day of spiritual awakening. If I have worked
on awakening spiritually, if I have done my spiritual homework, the Rosh
Hashanah will be easy. It is my birthday and I want to make an
accounting of what I have achieved. This is the judgement of Rosh
Hashanah.
But most of us don’t want to be judged. We also don’t want to judge
ourselves. But we need to know that the judgement is being done with
love. G-d is saying “I love you so much. I have such high expectations
of you. And I know you can grow more, expand your horizons more.”
On Rosh Hashanah there are two films being played in the heavenly
cinema. On e film shows what we have done in the past year. And the
second film shows what we could have done. The closer they match each
other, the better. When they match, they are heaven. So our hope is that
our films match each other – and that we give each other the strength to
live up to the grand hopes that life holds out to us.
And by the way – Happy Birthday!
Rabbi Yisroel Fine
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