The 10 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are referred to as the Days of Awe. This holiday begins the Jewish spiritual and religious year and is one of intense introspection. It is a time for reflecting on how our choices (both positive and negative) have, and continue to have, an influence not only on ourselves, but on the people around us. And it is a holiday for determining how to make changes that will positively affect our world and ourselves. Therefore, during this holiday we come to know and are reminded that we have within us power; the power to make positive decisions that will enhance not only ourselves but the world around us.
Rabbi Lance Sussman PhD reflected last year that “it is critical to understand that the ancient, ongoing debate about human nature is ultimately a universal and not exclusively a Jewish concern. Yet, the High Holy Days are our Jewish opportunity to shape our responses to questions about who we are as humans as well as Jews.
Judaism (implicitly in the Torah, explicitly in rabbinic literature) talks about human nature in terms of two inclinations, good and evil. They are, so to speak, operationalized by our capacity to choose, or, more philosophically, our free will.
Ultimately it is our free will which makes us different than the rest of creation with our incredible, frightening, redeeming capacity to choose. Our free will or b’chira chof-sheet as it is called in Hebrew in Jewish philosophy, is also at the center of the process of teshuva or personal repentance and is determinative about our view of God, who is not so much a divine bully but, a wise, self-restraining parent.
Judaism teaches that we, by design, have to make choices. Sometimes we do this well, sometimes poorly. Either way, the choice is ours. During the High Holy Days we reflect back on the decisions we have made and the consequences of those decisions. If we chose well, that is good for everyone. If we chose poorly we must personally acknowledge those mistakes and work to rectify them so we do not repeat them. As humans we seem to have an incredible capacity to make decisions and choices that are not only unkind but are not beneficial to ourselves, our community, our country or our planet. But by the grace we are all given, we are also reminded that the opportunity for positive change lies within each of us.
Rosh HaShana is a beginning. And as with all beginnings there is the opportunity for real and positive transformation. Our objective as always is to work toward that goal.
The Jewish community wishes each of you L’ Shanah Tovah — a good year.
• Chava Lee is the Board President of the Congregation Sukkat Shalom.
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