Article by Rabbi Fine

A Message for Rosh Hashonah 2003

Computer Viruses and Spiritual Growth – A Rosh Hashanah Message

We have all experienced it – we all dread it. Is there any greater feeling of impotence than staring at a screen of incomprehensible computer jargon when that virus strikes?

Yes, we have the best protection, anti virus systems, firewalls and the rest but somebody out there could find nothing better to do with his time but to be the progenitor of that destructive invisible bacterium, which simply terminates computer life.

It happened to me a few weeks ago and my computer still needs a Refuah Shlemah.

All this has got me thinking about computers and how they work. The language of the computer, its code, is absurdly simple. Computer code is written in ones and zeros – that’s it. Long strands of numbers composed of these two digits represent every command inside that miraculous little box that sits on nearly every desk in homes and offices across the world. All the graphics, documents, spreadsheets, databases, e-mails – all of it is distilled inside the hard drive into ones and zeros.

The simplicity of computer code presents a philosophical bombshell: Ones and Zeros. Something and nothing. An accurate representation of life itself – a huge computer programme that boils down to a collection of something and nothing. Practically this synthesis provides us with a useful framework to better understand our nature – our own code – and how we can reprogramme it to better ourselves for the coming year.

On Rosh Hashanah all of us want to be better Jews, to increase our observance and to minimise our sins. We are in the mood to change. But for many of us even the changes we do manage to implement come undone by November or December. What is a responsible Jew to do?

One certain pathway to failure is to use Rosh Hashanah as a day of mere resolutions. A person should not mislead himself that “yesterday and the day before I was not in order, but from now on I will be in order” – for he has failed many times. And why suddenly will he not fail again.

Teshuvah – repentance cannot be simply intellectualised or emotionalised. Otherwise it remains this vague ephemeral notion – it isn’t real. We must make it real. And we can do so only with tangible, structural changes. We too quickly comfort ourselves with grand thoughts but no immediate, tangible action.

This is the lesson of the ones and the zeros. This is our computer virus problem. We must reprogramme the hard drive; otherwise the system will fail again and again. It will continue to crash as it always has.

How does one reprogramme the system? By changing the zeros to ones. By taking real steps to add value where it was previously missing. It is not enough to say, “I would like to learn more about Judaism.” Instead pick up the phone and make an arrangement with me to join one of our study classes or the SEED programme. Not an idea. A reality.

It is not enough to say, “I must learn to pray better”. Go out and buy an Art Scroll Siddur and open your eyes to the English while you read the Hebrew, so that you understand the words you are saying during prayer.

Instead of wishing that a longstanding personal dispute would come to an end – do something about it by making the first move.

The level at which we make these changes is not as important as ensuring that some changes are made. The goal is not to go from zero to sixty – just from zero to one. We must take the empty pieces of our lives and fill them with something.

With Rosh Hashanah upon us, we are getting an opportunity to have a jump start on the computer virus problem. Let us not simply rededicate ourselves but reprogramme ourselves to take seriously our mission, to do the necessary small things that elevate the zeros to ones, and to become the Holy Nation that G-d expects us to become and that we are assuredly capable of becoming.

Rabbi Yisroel Fine.

ON ROSH HASHANAH WE DARE NOT SELL OURSELVES SHORT

A Rosh Hashanah message from Rabbi Yisroel Fine

Psalm 27 (L’David Hasham Ori) has a particular association with this period in the Jewish calendar. From the beginning of Elul until the end Succot our morning and evening services conclude with it. A cursory examination of its contents immediately indicate why it has been chosen. It is the ultimate expression of the sensitive and devout Jew. One passage in particular is of great beauty – “Achat Sha’alti – One thing I request from Hashem, that is what I seek, that I may sit in the House of G-d all the days of my life. That is my one request.”

It is on this phrase – “Achat Sha’alti – One thing I request from Hasham, it is that that I seek, that I may sit in the House of G-d all the days of my life” that Rabbi Abba Bar Kahana has commented – “Malkhut Sha’al – He requested kingship”. This surely cannot be translated as “he requested kingship” since it would be unfair and untrue to suggest that all King David wanted in life was the throne and power. This contradicts both the letter and spirit of the text. But what then can it mean?

Pursued by enemies, hungry, cold and tired, David prays. Under the circumstances we might have expected him to plead “send me victory”, “sustain me”, “give me revenge over my enemies”. But not so. Despite the difficulties of the moment, David’s vision remained large, his ambition lofty – “May I dwell in the House of G-d all the days of my life”.

A beggar who hungers grovels for crumbs. A hungry king, however, remains proud, never forgetting his origins or his destiny. This is what the Rabbi meant “Malkhut Sha’al”, he prayed like a king, ignoring the trivial, rejecting the temporal but aiming “Leylah leylah” – higher and higher.

In a major essay Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik asks if both the mystic and the believing Jew reject this world as the only world, both believing in the existence of heaven which transcends earth, what difference is there between their two outlooks. He replied, the mystic has as his ultimate aim to break away from this world and ascend to heaven. The believing Jew, on the other hand, believes that by observance of our Torah he can experience heaven on this earth.

When we appear before G-d on Rosh Hashanah how do we pray? If we seek earth and not heaven we pray as beggars happy with the crumbs of material well-being but totally oblivious to what we might have obtained had our vision been lofty, had we prayed as kings.

And yet most of us come from families where we recall the majesty and sanctity of life, where a special warmth permeated the home, where people owned less and possessed more. How do we live with ourselves? How can we sell ourselves and our children short?

Maimonides in expounding on the laws of repentance, tells us that the basic Hebrew formula for confessing our sins is “Aval Anachnu Chatanu – But surely we have sinned”. Every word in Maimonides is counted. Why did he not state just “Chatanu – we have sinned” as the basic formula? Because Maimonides is making a major statement here. We are able to live with ourselves by acknowledging what we know to be correct but we follow it immediately with a “but”. It is with that word “Aval – but” that “Anachnu Chatanu – we have sinned”.

The message of Rosh Hashanah is “Malkhut Sha’al – pray as a member of a kingdom of priests.